Gunsons Colortune
I've read a lot about the Colortune on the XS11.com site. There seem to be plenty of people there who swear by it.
I recently balanced the carbs and setting the pilot/air mix was the part of the carb setup that remained a bit of a mystery. Supposedly the Colortune gives you an insight into how things are running and lets you pick a sweet spot.
The kit consists of a spark plug replacement that has a glass top. This lets you see the colour of the flame on combustion. There is also a viewing scope and an HT lead extender.
My bike was pretty well set up and I had been very happy with the way it performs. The only place I could see room for improvement was below 3k rpm as I occasionally got a minor burp/stumble. I took my bike and the Gunson to Jeff's place where we intended to tune both bikes.
Once in place on pot 1 and with the bike running (idle around 1100rpm), I could see that I wasn't getting the expected blue flame colour. You simply wind out the mixture screw until it goes blue and then turns Orange, you then turn it back into the blue zone and fing the middle between it going Orange and the revs dropping slightly.
I did this on all 4 cylinders. As we set each pot you could hear the bike running smoother and the idle lifted about 100rpm.
Once done we re=balanced the carbs and I rode the bike home from Jeff's place. It took about an hour for each bike.
Verdict: The bike was ultra smooth on takeoff from very low revs and it raced effortlessly through the range.A massive improvement on what I had previously thought was near perfect.
Rolling starts from 2k rpm were smooth and easy and the occasional pop on deceleration was completely gone. Fanstastic.
Throttle response was much quicker than before. On deceleration the engine braking increased.
Altogether a huge benefit gained and would recommend doing this to anyone who feels that their bike could run a little better.
Video of Colortune in action.
