gas-resistant hose (Neoprene?)

I'm the ignorant newbie who has so much trouble deciding on pod air
filters for a street bike <'81 Honda CB650>, or staying with the stock
airbox, with the attendant rubber hoses going airbox>carbs>motor. There
are 8 of them, with 2 clamps on each, and mine are old, nasty, etc.
Honda wants $22 each for these, and I've been emailing a guy who will
sell 'em to me for $40. This still seems high to me for old "boots".
I asked 100 odd people (some VERY odd), and 80% say stay stock, forget
pods, and just grimace and fight with the boots 'til they don't leak
air, etc.
The 4 carbs have 26mm openings (I'm told)...
This is a street bike, mild work commutes, altitude Atlanta, Kerker
exhaust with a rotted baffle. I might put in steel wool, a metal
baffle, get a J.C.WhipME cheapo $20 muffler, or no muffler. It has a 4
into 1 exhaust from the motor.
I do not want to go messing with jets, Dynojet, etc.
I just don't want to spend 2 hours messing with rubber boots, clamps,
leaks, carbs feeling like they're gonna fall off!
Why not a length of "impervious to gas" hose, that I can hacksaw to
lengths, and radiator hose clamps...
Where do I get this, and what to ask for?
many again - thank you's!

 

Yes, we are getting a very clear picture of you now, Paul ;-)

Well, no matter how ignorant the newbie is, or how big a cheapskate,
the charter and bylaws of The Universal and Benevolent Brotherhood of
All Bikers requires that an attempt be made to help. It's just like
what we'd do if we saw you broken down along the highway with your
helmet sitting on the ground. And we probably will be seeing you broken
down along the road, so be polite when somebody offers real world
assistance.

Old motorbike parts are worth whatever the market will bear, especially
when the part fits some rare machine or one that hasn't been built in
30 years. The old lady wanted me to clear all that "old motorcycle
junk" out of the garage, so she could store cardboard boxes full of
household junk like old dishes and Christmas tree ornaments in that
space. Then when I started selling the stuff for $$$, she was really
surprised by what I was getting for it. I told her that I was just
doing what she wanted, that the hundreds of $$$ I was getting was still
a give-away price, that I could have held out for more money and
eventually gotten it from somebody who just couldn't find what he
needed anywhere else. And that was before eBay. I could have parted
those bikes out on eBay for more than I paid for them new!

So, somebody has the exact parts you think you need, and if you fork
over the cash they will be yours, but you're still looking sideways at
the problem. OK, like I said, the charter and bylaws of the UABBOAB
require me to assist you in understanding what you're dealing with
here...

You can soften old rubber boots by spraying them with aerosol carb
cleaner like Berryman's B-12 or STP. This will make them temporarily
softer if they aren't totally deteriorated. But they will be drier than
they were before after a while. There are probably all sorts of rubber
treatment products that would be better for the rubber than B-12...

That's INSIDE the carburetor. You need to accurately measure the spigot
that plugs into the rubber boot on the cylinder head and the inlet bell
on the other end will be a different larger diameter. The carburetor
spigot will have a rounded slot in it where a molded-in half round
o-ring shape inside that boot fits. If you try using radiator hose,
you'll probably wind up with air leaks and idle problems and you'll be
asking for information on troubleshooting your carbs and we'll have to
tell you how to find air leaks...

But you might get away with using radiator hose between the inlet bells
and the air box.

Well, jets are comparatively cheap, about $5.00 each, but you need to
have some idea of the maximum jet size you can use in a 650cc Honda,
and what to expect out of that jet, when you'll see the effect of the
bigger jet and when you won't even know you have bigger jets. Most
ignorant newbies don't know that the main jets affect the mixture at
3/4th to wide open throttle, and you might install bigger jets and
never use wide open throttle on your commute...

So far as Dynojet is concerned, that's a bunch of rip-off artists who
sell overpriced kits to ignorant newbies that have delusions of being a
racer. Dynojet has developed all this secret propietary information and
they've written all those instruction sheets in their kits in such a
way that a newbie troubleshooting his fucked up Dynojet kit
installation knows he needs to spend more money, but he remains
ignorant of how his carbs actually work. If newbies knew how their
carbs worked, Dynojet would be out of business PDQ...

If you attach your carbs to the engine with radiator hoses, you're
going to have leaks and they just might fall off, or get blown off with
the first backfire!

Go to an auto parts store and buy about 2 feet of radiator hose of the
right inside diameter. But you're going to have to buy a plastic
caliper to measure your carb spigots and inlet bells.

We'll be watching for you along the road!

 

krusty kritter wrote: Yes, we are getting a very clear picture of you
now, Paul

I actually found this just now, and don't understand why you have to
mix such flaming insults with logic...
just because someone is brand new to bikes doesn't mean they're stupid.
I think there ARE hose manufacturers out there who probably make the
product I was looking for.

Why not think/post "use vaseline" to get the boots on, or WD-40"?
"go to Dennis Kirk and buy a STOCK filter, or better yet, buy a few..."
"pods are a BAD idea, for many reasons" Period/end of help


I appreciate the help/input, but I BET you're divorced, 'cause you are
egotistical, a prig, a know it ALL, and pretty much a sarcastic jerk
who needs to get "pimp slapped"
You remind me of the kids I boarded with in prep school back in the
late 60's...I was there on scholarship, and I grew up in public
housing. These little pricks thought they could boss me around, 'til I
punched a couple of 'em in the face...
that said, gee thanks for the reply!

 

I guess I'll have to run it by you again.

Yes, we are getting a very clear picture of you now, Paul ;-)

No matter how ignorant the newbie is, or how big a cheapskate,
the charter and bylaws of The Universal and Benevolent Brotherhood of
All Bikers requires that an attempt be made to help. It's just like
what we'd do if we saw you broken down along the highway with your
helmet sitting on the ground. And we probably will be seeing you broken

down along the road, so be polite when somebody offers real world
assistance.

And, when you get your shit together and you're riding along and you
see a bro in need, stop and try to help him. If you read a request for
help on a newsgroup and you think you know a cost-effective solution to
his problem, tell him what it is.

If the bro you're trying to help continues to run on about foolish
solutions, it's sometimes a good thing to poke fun at him. Maybe it
will bring him to his senses before he finds himself stranded alongside
the road, begging for help from passing strangers because his
carburetors that he mounted with radiator hose fell off and he lost one
piece of radiator hose and a big truck ran over his radiator hose
clamps...

 

krusty kritter wrote:
I guess I'll have to run it by you again.
Yes, we are getting a very clear picture of you now, Paul ;-)

Pretty tired here (as always), but I do not recall EVER in any of my
posts asking about radiator hose. I asked about hose that is impervious
to gas, and either you or someone else suggested radiator hose. You go
on and on about my supposed desire for radiator hose...
I did mention radiator clamps, but not hose. The Honda clamps are
actually inferior to radiator clamps, obvious when you examine them.
I'm getting an airbox filter from Dennis Kirk, and have accepted that
pods are not for commutes @ 65 mph...
the Honda airbox was designed very well, and we could spend hours
discussing the physics involved, and re-jetting is NOT for newbies,
cheapskates, ignorant posters, etc.
end of discussion - the point is moot

 

Some of the long time residents of this group act as though they actually
believe they have seniority and are vested. Hence, they can be
nasty/downright rude to a new face.

I killfile assholes like that. I didn't know them and their vast amount of
knowledge before I came to the group, so I won't miss them in the least.

Ed Cregger

 

Does this mean you're going to stop wasting everybody's time with your
trolls on rec.moto too?

 

Swine.

 

I like people who use the word "Hence"!
I think you hurt his feelings...
I wonder if he gives old women part of the "take" when he sells bike
parts for as much as he can get...
I actually don't know how to killfile; flamers are usually ignored...
I don't spend lots of time online, what with a 12 hour a day blue
collar job, a 29 year old wife, and 2 daughters, 5 and 10...
and then there's skydiving, old cameras, backpacking, tennis, my old
truck, playing my strat (Albert King was THE blues), and now bikes (and
I'm 53)...
thanks for the reply :+)

 

Anyone that plays blues with a Strat is okay by me. I have a couple of MIM
Strats myself and I mangle the blues occasionally.

Ed Cregger

 

If you haven't seen the film "Crossroads", you MUST rent it or get the
vhs or dvd. It is pretty corny at first (the Karate Kid is in it and
Jamie Gertz), but as the kid travels through Mississippi, he gets a
Pignose, and there's an incredible guitar duel at the end with
fantastic playing.
I've played since 1964, starting with an old Danelectro that cost me
$12, and I've seen Jimmy Page play the exact guitar, but started
slowing down when I heard Eddie Van Halen...
music is CRAP nowadays, and I mostly listen to my old cd's - burned
EAST/WEST <Paul Butterfield> and geez Mike Bloomfield was good...matter
of fact I think I'll burn a cd of the Ventures tonight :+)
gotta sleep so I can think up more dumb bike ?'s...
thanks for the reply!