gs1100 need help jetting for sidewinder pipe

[Guest]

Hey folks I'm new here and in need of expertise! I recently bought a pretty clean 1983 gs1100gl that is about 95% stock with the exception of aftermarket bars. The bike had not been started in 20 years. I had some time to get the bike running yesterday and after 5 hours of sweat she fired up for the first time. The bike came with a ton of extra parts in boxes. I still haven't had time to go through them all but so far I found a Vance and Hines 4 into 1 sidewinder pipe and a set of pod filters which I'm considering putting on the bike since the stock air filter box was already removed when I got it and I have yet to dig it out of one of the boxes and try to figure out how it goes back on, don't imagine it will be that complicated but still undecided if it will be necessary. I'm leaning towards at least throwing the pipe on it because I like the way they sound but I can't get a solid answer from anyone with the same exact bike and pipe/pod setup as to what Exactly it took to make the bike run right.

Im Hoping that someone on here can give me their tuning experience with a 4 into 1 pipe and pod filters on a stock displacement gs1100gl

From what I have read I should start by buying the dynojet kit and it would get me in the ball park and leave me to work out the kinks on my own through trial and error. Now some tinkering within reasonable amount is fine (I'm a automotive mechanic by trade) but I'd prefer not to buy the kit unless I knew of someone else who already did this on a relatively similar setup and could help me along. To put it plainly, What worked for you? And if you could make me a list it would be a great help! Thank for reading!

[JJ]

Personally, I wouldn't use a sidewinder pipe on the street. They don't work well for right-hand turns. I learned that 40 years ago...

[mmattockx]

I'm leaning towards at least throwing the pipe on it because I like the way they sound but I can't get a solid answer from anyone with the same exact bike and pipe/pod setup as to what Exactly it took to make the bike run right.

Im Hoping that someone on here can give me their tuning experience with a 4 into 1 pipe and pod filters on a stock displacement gs1100gl

The sidewinder pipe is a terrible choice for a street bike for several reasons:

1) It is deafeningly loud. I like loud vehicles, but this is over the top even for my taste and will certainly p!ss off every last one of your neighbours. Unless this is not the same Sidewinder Pro pipe I am familiar with and has a reasonable baffle in it to lower the volume some, then it might be reasonable for the street.
2) It is a straight megaphone pipe, without a reverse cone on the meg. It has a narrow tuning range all pushed up towards max RPM and will have a very large hole in the torque curve somewhere around 1/2 the tuning RPM. The 1100 might pull through it OK, but that huge dip in the torque curve makes for an unpleasant street ride. Again, this applies to the Pro pipe. If it is baffled like their regular 4-1 pipes then it won't have the peak power or the peakiness to the torque curve.
3) Cornering clearance is non-existent on the RHS and you will crash somewhere because of it.

As for the carb tuning, you pretty much need the DJ kit for your bike because you need the adjustable needle. It isn't that hard to sort carbs and your bike likely won't want exactly the same as the next guy's bike with the same set up. The DJ kit only has 3 main jet sizes so there aren't endless combinations to try. With the DJ kit you will probably be into the carbs 5-6 times to fine tune it, as long as you are methodical and keep good notes and only make one change at a time. I tuned my 1100E for pods and pipe and it took a few weekends of tinkering to get it right. If that is too much work for you, then put the airbox back on and leave it at that.


Mark