When did fuel injection become common on motorcycles?

Downeaster

Downeaster

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Younger grandson is having major gas pains as his only transportation is a full size Dodge truck and his work is about a 60 mile round trip, minimum.

He's been borrowing his Mom's Ninja 400 on nice days, but needs his own bike. He's had bikes before but sold his last street bike (Honda Nighthawk 750) thinking he wanted a dirt bike.

So, I've offered to loan him the money for a used bike until he can sell his dirt bike (Kawasaki KX-250) and repay me.

We're looking at used bikes around $2500 and there are some nice looking (pending on site inspection) options out there, but I want to steer away from carbureted bikes and the associated maintenance. I initially put the cut-off year at 2000 and did find a couple of possibilities, but wondering if I could go back as far as 1990 and still expect to find injected bikes?
 
DE, the first fuel injected bike was Kaw Z1000G-1 in something like 1980, but injection never really caught on in big way until Harley came out with the Twin Cam in 1998. After that fuel injection started to become more common place on cruisers of all makes. While there were a hand full of bikes with EFI prior to 98 I doubt your gonna find much in the way bikes that are easy to get parts for in that time period. You best bet is gonna be in the 2005 and newer zone.
 
BMW K series had Bosch fuel injection from the start, maybe around 83 or 84. A K75 triple would be a great commuter.
Maybe not relevant, but for excellent fuel mileage combined with decent comfort and great practicality, a Honda NC 700 or 750 would be extremely hard to beat.
 
I'd rather work on carbs than a fuggled fuel injection system...................
900 class cruisers can be found EXTREMELY cheap.
Short version; all of the weight, none of the torque of the big CC cruisers.
:twocents:A goto for this job would be a Vstar 650, though getting carbs in and out of a V is a bit of a pain.
1100 Virago's are actually good bikes, see above about V motors n carbs.
 
Honda nighthawk 750 early 90's up are good bikes but the owner often knows it.
Avoid early nighthawk 750's
 
And generally speaking, singles and twins get better fuel mileage than triples and fours. BMW 650 singles and 800 F series twins are quite frugal
 
The NC700 is gutless...good gas mileage but cant get out of its own way...The CTX 700 or 1300 are FUGLY abominations...someone was on a bad acid trip when they designed them...:laugh2:
 
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After getting my DL650 i wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. I found it to be reliable, good fuel economy, (350-70klms for 15 liters cruising around 5,000revs at 115kph that's including good take offs and through the gears), around the 24.5 klm or more per liter, and powerful enough to get into trouble or out of it and if your grandson wants to go off road on the weekends they are more than capable. To what extent, that depends on experience.

Some models do have shortcomings like the stater but as long as your aware of the odd thing or 2 they are easily negated or can be used as a bargaining chip. And not expensive to fix or bypass...................They also have a great forum/technical support with good people as well
 
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So, we bought the V-cruiser. 2009 Yamaha V-Star 950, 18,000 miles, new tire last year on rear, new tire for front came with it. FUGLY fairing with even fuglier home made mounts (think sheet metal and hose clamps...) and ape hanger bars (stock bars included). Everything extended properly to fit the taller bars...except...the wiring for the front brake light switch. Seat will need to be recovered. Itty-bitty luggage rack will need to be stripped and painted. Obnoxiously loud, baffle-free Cobra pipes. May need a new battery, gonna put it on my smart charger/conditioner and see what's what. If you can get it to roll over more than twice, it cranks right up.

Other than the luggage rack and the fairing, all the cosmetics look good. Brake pads new, rotors look good, belt looks good. I test rode it, shifts smoothly, brakes are good, suspension is okay, all the lights and gauges work.

So, plans are to mount the new front tire, clean up the amateur hour wiring for the radio in the fairing, do something about the fairing mounts, strip and repaint the fairing, extend the wiring for the front brake switch and give it a good bath and rub-down (Happy Ending optional) Boy-san wants to ride it with the straight pipes. I'm thinking a couple of round trips to work will get that out of his system, but I could be wrong about that.

If anybody can ID that fairing it would be a big help. Hoping to find factory mounts for it.

Cautioned Boy-san that it is NOT a Ninja 400. It's big, it's heavy and it's cumbersome and just generally a completely different critter than he's ever ridden. Advised him to spend a few days riding it around home before committing to Bah Hahbah traffic.

For $2300, I think we did okay. Not a smoking deal, but reasonable IMO.
 
It’s nice that it has the inner fairing but unfortunately for most of the aftermarket mounts I haven’t seem much in the way of “pretty”. They are pretty generic so I’d just look at a few manufacturers and see what they offer I’m not really into the “baby apes” either. I think it takes away from the whole cruiser feel And it’s gonna be scary the first time he grabs a handful of front brake with the wheel not exactly straight unless he’s a big guy lol. Price wise you did alright. It’s a dependable bike and has plenty of power. Nice acquisition.
 
In 73 when I went to work in a service station the price of gas was $o.479 a gallon. OPEC did their thing and gas went up. Didn't take long and people were buying econo-boxes and motorcycles to "save" money. After a period of time price came down some and people went back to old habits. Could that be why there are a lot of mid 70s bikes with low miles on them for sale now?
 
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