To those who live in the western part of the US it is a familiar sight: street signs (often stop signs) with bullet holes in them. The further out from the city one gets, the more they are to be seen. It makes me wonder. What attracts this?

In the vintage powersports world, there is a parallel. Carburetors. Making a living rebuilding them for folks means I see the evidence of angst and frustration in many of the carburetors I service. Like stepchildren, they are often the focus of unfortunate negative attention. I've often thought this is because motorcycle carburetors are so accessible and so visible that riders instinctively gravitate to them in attempts to solve their vehicles' performance issues. Instead of systematically working out the problem, they yank off the carbs. Gotta be it, right? Carburetors are most of the engine, aren't they? And everyone knows those things are fussy and unreliable, right? Always giving trouble?

As a 50-plus year formally trained and highly experienced veteran of the industry, I'm here to tell you that the carburetors on your vintage Honda, while it's true that just a few weeks sitting can gum them up, and equally true that the last five people to touch them unarguably left the evidence of their incompetence, nevertheless they are rarely the only thing your bike needs. Virtually never. Every time I get an old Honda into my shop, for whatever reason, the scope of the work inevitably expands into other areas, often things the machine needs more than the carburetor service. Ignition maintenance, for example, which is a biggie. Care for the ignition system is a lost art today. Ironic, considering that a Honda SOHC depends many times more on its ignition system than it does on its carburetors. And that ignition system is hundreds of times more nuanced and more demanding. Every performance symptom on these vehicles has at least a few different, simultaneous causes. And sometimes these things are needed instead of carburetor work.

And that's just considering running issues. In addition, it is rare that a 70s or 80s Honda doesn't also need brake work (not simply pads or shoes but comprehensive atttention to every aspect of the system) and electrical repair (wiring, connectors, poorly functioning aftermarket parts, and a lot more).

If I had a dollar for every time a customer or potential customer expected his bike's carburetors to solve his problem, as they say, I would be a rich man. Given the state of gasoline today that does not last more than a few weeks, and how often carbs are a magnet for every wannabe mechanic and every bad practice imaginable, carburetors are pretty much always on the list of needed service. That's a given. But they should be farther down the list than compression, wiring, ignition, valve adjustment and several other things that make vintage motorcycles so fundamental. Bullet holes indeed.