Leaning the richness

[Dak44312]

I know its a pretty common trait, but I haven't seen much about a cure. I've rebuilt 3 banks of carbs, and every time, they are rich @ 2.25 turns. I am about to do my 4th set. I have read that 2.25 works best for 35's, and 1.5-1.75 for 38's. I am staying with 35/100 on these.  So...my questions are as follows:

1. Each time I check the factory settings, any single bank of carbs can range from 1.75-2.75-ish across all 6 as they came off the bike. Why would this be, and if there is a valid reason behind it, why would I not reset them at the same place they were? Even at that, they always seem rich. I'm at ~700 ft.

2. If I experiment @ 2.0 across the board, how many miles/hours will it take to form a good plug reading? In other words, I guess, how safely rich is OE? Did Honda just overdue it to make sure they covered all altitudes? As I am not in much elevation, I can only assume this gets worse for you westerners.

3. Is there anything else I can do to cheat a bit? How about 2.25 with a K&N?

[John Schmidt]

When I installed the #38 slow jets, I set my pilots at 2 turns and never looked back. As you can see, I'm in Florida so the altitude isn't very high here either. I run a K&N w/o the prefilter, have an I/S ICM and carb springs, and running right at 72mph indicated I'll get in the mid to upper 30's for mpg. And that's with a lot hanging out in the wind; fairing, radiator pods, my size 12.5 feet on the highway pegs. In the past when I've traveled it never created a problem, including Ohio where I have family so have plenty of miles in/around the area.

[Blackduck]

Have no idea where mine are currently set.
Got sick of rich running at idle and just screwed them in a 1/4 turn.
Ran it for awhile then turned in another 1/4 of a turn.
Never needed the richener/choke, even now will never use it.
Guess I could most probally turn them in some more.
Certainly improved the mileage

[98valk]

http://www.4secondsflat.com/Spark_plug_reading.html

read FactoryPro carb tuning also.  Pilot Jet and mixture adjustment affect all circuits of a CV carb.  if u go too lean u will start using the needle circuit while going down the hwy and MPG will go down.

[Patrick]

I've found the pilots set at 1.75 when unmolested. I've found another anywhere from about 3 to barely out at all when the owner tried to adjust as Honda recommended.

I've just found they seem to respond best at 2.25. But, they do run rich at idle no matter where they are set.

[Steel cowboy]

When I did my carb rebuild and desmog, I found my pilot adjustments set from 3 turned out to almost closed on another carb.. I set them all at 2.25 and I have not had to adjust them from that setting. I did the static carb synch as described in the u tube video and again the bike is ideling and running as never before. I am very happy with my work.