R100RS High Altitude Operation.
I'm planning a trip to Colorado next month. My bike is set up for the Land of Lincoln. Obviously if I were planning on spending the summer there I would re-jet. Will I be able to make it without changing anything or should I bring a set of smaller pilot jets? Some of the passes are 11000'.
The constant velocity Bing carbs on your bike will do their best to compensate for altitude changes, but the engine will be down on power starting at about 5000 feet and getting worse the higher you go. The bike will also not want to idle well, wanting to stall as the RPMs drop, the higher the elevation, the lower the RPMs. I've spent a fair amount of time in the mountains, and these things are pretty easy to compensate for. Just give the bike a little throttle at idle, and don't expect good performance, particularly in passing situations. The problem with changing jets is that when the bike returns to normal elevations, the mixture will be too lean, and you stand a chance of damaging the engine. It'll run OK, just not as well as you're used to. Have a great ride!
I just acquired an R100rt that was rebuilt in Chicago (sea level) and was jetted for it. It came with 160 mains. I'm at 4000' where I live, so I anticipated having a too rich issue when the bike got here, so the builder sent me some 150s. As expected, when I first got the bike and rode it, the 160s with the needles set to the second to last notch yielded sputtering at about 2400 rpm. The bike could barely handle 50mph. I switched to the 150s he sent and lowered the needles to the lowest setting (lean) and while it was an improvement, it was still sputtering anything above 3800 ish. The bike could do between 60-65 at this point, depending on the load on the engine. In the end, I'm running 135 main and the needles at their lowest setting. This has stopped the sputtering and I can go full throttle. I may still need to mess with the needles a bit if need be, but the bike is running about where it should be. Still have to take the plugs off to check how they're burning but after a 120-mile ride this past weekend, all went well as far as performance is concerned. Still working out some bugs, but that's a whole other story.
At any rate, in Colorado, I would carry a set of 130's and even 110's with me. At that altitude, you're going to be struggling with a bike jetted for 1100'. Springs and the surrounding areas are all above 6000' and as you start going through some of the outlying towns/cities you're in the 8-11k range. Mains are easy enough to swap out on the road so carry some spares.
Good luck with your trip
To follow up, the trip was great. All I did was turn the idle speed screws both in about 1/8 turn when I climbed above 4000 ft. I made it to Pike's Peak, 14115' without a problem.
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