Carburetor vs Fuel Injection - Why Motorcycle Riders Should Think Again

Modern motorcycles are switching to fuel injection, but why? It's not the reasons we think, and that makes us reconsider a carburetor in our future.

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Directed and Edited by Luke McAdam

[akfernandez]

You forgot the most important bit. Carb makes me feel like a pro mechanic when I clean it and the bike starts lol.

[Mojokiss]

This guy could make learning anything fun, but he chose a topic that's already fun and made it more fun

[alexferguson]

After all these years of trying to grasp carb technology it turns out I didn’t need a smarter brain, I needed a better teacher. Thanks Fortnine, we love you dearly

[aayushbagul]

the subtleties in these productions are incredible. the traffic "honk" when cutting to the car scenes, acting as a perfect intro for the speaker. he even acknowledges them with his verbal cadence. what a privilege to watch.

[mikedee]

My Air Force carb training was a 2 hour class with test at the end....you condensed that carb course into a minute or two, without losing any content...53 years since I took that course.

[christianstorms]

Those kids deserve credit for either great acting or for dealing with your technical gibberish.

Don't get me wrong, I love that gibberish.

[mikef.]

I find carburettors amazing. If you take the time to tune the set up, they just do so well across a whole range of conditions. As for the fuel clogging up after a few weeks, I just drain the bowls if the bike is going to be parked up for any length of time. If longer, just add some fresh fuel to the tank and mix it in before turning the fuel tap back on. Give me carbs any day!

[fabiopunk]

Excellent as usual - and funny too. One point not mentioned though is reliability. A carb is essential a clever passive system. As long as all seals are OK, passages are clean, adjustments are made and stable, it will work. EFI will also work as long as all electronics / sensors do - which we know to be a potentially tricky business....

[rickybobby]

Tip: for carburetors, when done riding if bike is not going to be ridden for a few days just shut off the fuel and let the bike idle until the carb is dry/stalls. Then there is no ethanaol fuel in the jets to clog things up.

[seflyingfaultier]

Is anybody else interested in a video, where Ryan simply shows his bikes, their "stories" and what he changed about them?

[Gimpthulhu]

When I used to race two stroke minimoto, it gave me an appreciation for two-strokes and carbs, as I learned to work on both. The problem was when you spent Saturday learning the track and setting up your gears and and carb to be optimized for the track and current conditions, only to have a massive weather change over night making your carb setup sub-optimal on race day.

[dhruvdhiman]

Man that shot in the end of the kids walking away was

[kidlatazul]

One of my favorite lines from Click and Clack, the Magliozzi brothers, was that if you rebuild a carburator enough times, you will wind up with enough left-over parts you couldn't figure out where they went to build a complete new carburetor.

[stereowave_yt]

I've been watching Ryan F9 since I was in 8th grade. I graduated just last year and finally got my lisence and bought my first motorcycle. FortNine really helped me learn the ins and outs of riding before I even got on a bike. Thanks guys.

[brooklyngolden]

I absolutely LOVE your videos! That being said...


I've broken down with fuel injection, and I've broken down with carburetors. I'd much MUCH rather break down with a carburetor.

Also, carbs absolutely ARE simple when you understand them.

[sirwillemgaming]

A few days ago, rain poured heavily and I borrowed a flat screw to remove water in my carb. I feel like a pro mechanic that day.

[DoctorMotorcycle]

If you think Carbs are simple, try jetting them with a Turbo.

[cyclephiliac]

I am completely dumbfounded by the brilliance of this video! Finally a clear, concise, and enormously entertaining explanation of fuel systems for the layman with the bonus of learning the differences between car and motorcycle applications. Unraveling the mystery of fuel injection mapping was particularly interesting. And tailoring it all to the Halloween theme was nothing less than creative genius.

[HipaParts]

Really a good video explaining how both the carburetor and fuel injection work. Really easy to understand.

[Malestorm]

I absolutely love the thought of FN just explaining all this to two random elementary schoolers who knocked on his door.