u/Few-Ad-2930

Unbelievable tone. I'm just stunned. I've been LOVING SoundShed Guitar, NAM, VST, Backing tracks, NAM browsing... it's amazing. I also have liked "Air-Windows" free plugins but they are very confusing to use efficiently because of their lack of GUI, Well Air-G is a GUI for AirWindows and WOW!!!. I've been inspired to play out of my mind for hours because of the ridiculously great tone I am getting. Last night I was tone crafting and found that using AirWindows EQ peddle vis Air-G interface is fantastic. I was running it in front of the amp as an EQ for my input signal (guitar) and was working well. Then I decided to drag it to the end of the chain before the final reverb and WOW, i can shape my tone perfectly. I have tones better than I imagined, so perfect. Many good NAM captures with this setup are so dynamic. If I play soft it gets cleaner and smoother, dig in and it has bit, hammer it and it's full blown Marshall or whatever you have EQ'ed for for. I'm blown away and have been playing over my head for several hours sessions. Then add the Air-G Distrortion and OMG, pretty my any tone is avalible from slightly pushed to EVH. Works fantastic on both clean and driven amps. Is not over the top but for me near perfect. Using the Push, Drive and Mix knobs you can get about anything. Then use the EQ shown above to contour it to your liking / guitar. WOW.

Parked at the ACE hardware between to 80K rigs and was laughing to myself that my truck cost about as much as a brake job on those.

I stole the front fender off my DRZ ha ha ha. Wanted to see it with the eBay headlight. Got the chain and some other bits today. Waiting on the ECU and CS sprocket.

Saved from the dump and coming along quite nicely. This round it got a nice eBay rear wheel and finished up the hydro clutch install. Works like butter. Headlight (I'm making this an off road bike) should be here today. Front fender should arrive soon. Other stuff coming. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Under all that neglect is a nice motorcycle waiting to be ridden again. Lucky I'm retired, love this stuff and have a lot of hours to kill.

Lucky I'm retired ha ha ha I actually love this process. I will save her. Buddy gave it to me. Ignition parts on the way. New plastic and seat. Probably going to need lower end bearings but one thing at a time. Turns over, looks OK inside. Will get it fired then address the motor.

I upgraded my suspension, toss on a real knobby, WOW... way better. Tracks so much nicer in the rough and sand washes.

Bought this high end USA Ibanez Saber in the late 80's. Just got it back all from my luthier friend who did a neck off fret job and setup. WOW. Played it for three hours straight through my NAM plugin (SoundsShed Guitar) and just can't get enough of it. NAM 2 and a high end guitar is freaking amazing.

I love smashing out 20 some miles in the morning. Makes me feel alive.

WOW. The tones I'm getting are some of the best ever. Loving it. Very tubey spanky clean, pushed, roaring gain... it's all in there. So good and endless. for a toneshaper like me this is heaven.

Saber Pro-540s (USA TOTL model) Bought this in the 80's, played live with it. Recorded an album with it. Had to abandon it for travel but a friend held it for me. He just went through it and I got it back better than ever. USA made TOTL Mahogany body, USA stacked humbucker "single coils" Hipshot stop trem, micro switch pickup for any combo. Very cool axe. So happy it's home.

So fun. Blasted the Oregon BDR to Mt Hood then our own route home. Great times and already looking forward to the next one. Love me some ADV as I get older. We still haul like we are racing Dakar but it is a lot more mellow than the lifetime off semi extreme off road I've done all my life. Enjoying the process.

Atlanta Idaho is amazing.

Teams of us clearing hundreds of trees. Good times.

Such a useful tool.

...you get to rip out 25 miles of lovely single track before noon. So good.

Technical stuff, flowy stuff, big hills... FUN!!!

So let's give this a try... I'll try to keep this short. I worked in the moto industry for decades. I had a lot of experience with "Metering Rod" carburetors when I was working with Lectron several years ago (before the Pro models came out). I liked them a lot as they ran smooth, adjusted for temp and altitude and got better MPG on my 2 stroke dirtbikes. I worked with them, we made a lot of changes and I sold about 300 of them over a few years.

Flash forward to last year when I ran across XTNG carbs which seemed to take every good carb idea and make it externally adjustable. These are Chinese made carbs and I understand if this turns you off from a political standpoint. I'm not here to argue that. I'm typing this on my chinese keyboard, mouse, monitor, PC... so 50 year old carb tech does not bother me. Enough said on that.

So through some posts asking questions about the carb they reached out to me after realizing I had so much experience with metering rod carbs and asked me to test one. I had a 1985 RM250 I just restored and thought it would be fun to try it on that bike. Short story is it works great, does what's advertised and appears to be high quality. I have about 8 or so rides on that bike / carb now and am very impressed. What I really learned is most of us get the jetting "good enough" as it is a bitch to swap out brass endlessly looking for perfection. With this carb it is a thumb dial away. You can get that last 10-15% you left on the table. I can't imagine that RM running any better.

So after that positive outcome and after them finding out I own a DRZ400 they asked me to test one for that. Let me say I have had very mixed luck with metering rod carbs on 4 strokes. 4 strokes need very detailed tuning off the bottom to start and idle nice and this is hard to do with a single metering rod carb. In addition to that I have the DRZ400E, e-start dirt model that has the 39mm FCR with JD jetting and runs hard. I was very apprehensive to mess with that. They assured me better performance and MPG. I agreed to test it.

The carb showed up today. I have zero financial affiliation with XTNG, I make no money nor am I selling carbs. The only advantage here for me is a free carb I don't really need. I'm 100% free to evaluate it and say whatever I feel and that's my mission.

I hope to install it and test it in the next few days. I'm retired and have riding right from my house so I'm in a good position to test the crap out of it. I believe the additional bottom end and top end circuits will allow this carb to work way better than the single function Lectrons of the past. I also believe the new Lectrons Pros probably work great to as they have a lot of these added fuel circuits.

Looking at the picture...

Top knob sets the rod height and controls a majority of the just off idle to the top. These can be run entirely on the rod.

Middle knob is the idle / slide stop

Lower knob is the low speed fuel enrichment.

Silver knob is the powerjet. This many times is turned completely off as the rod supplies enough to do the whole thing. What this is good for is if your riding deep sand or under extended loads it adds fuel over half throttle underload.

The tube with the brass fitting sticking up is a simple bowl drain.

I'll report back after testing. Expecting good things after the RM250 tests but it has it's work cut out for it as the 39mm FCR is working pretty good. I do feel it is leaving some on the table and I do have a few minor issues. It will stall a little if you whack the throttle open to quick (typical FRC issue) and it seems to run out of steam on long uphill climbs under full load.

Let the fun begin.