Performance Kit for T500

[LexPaul]

I have a couple of questions for all you T500 owners,

1 - did the 1968, 1969, and 1970 model T500's come with the same Mikuni 34mm carbs?

2 - have any of you purchased the performance kit, listed at link below, from Ivan's in New York? How did the kit perform, were you happy or disappointed? Was it worth the investment.

My T500 has most, and possibly all of the characteristics described in the kit intro,,

http://www.ivansperformanceproducts.com/t500.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Thank you for the feedback, LexPaul

[parksie]

As far as I know only the 68 Cobra had the 34mm Carbs. After that year they went with 32mm carbs.

cheers
Bob

[ConnerVT]

Three different carbs for the life of the T500/GT500:

1968 - 34mm carb

1969-1972 - 32mm Homo-pressure (internally vented)

1973-1977 - 32mm conventionally vented

[argo1974]

I installed Ivan's kit on my 68 Cobra last spring and made around 4000 km during riding season.
In my opinion, the biggest improvement is to eliminate bogging at rpms around 3000. While accelerating, my bike had a dead spot there. And, I couldn't really set up standard carbs properly as they followed rich-lean-rich-overrich mixture pattern throughout the rpm range. My bike has a modified gearbox with around 3300 rpm at 100 kph on fifth. Now it feels much stronger at these speeds and I can accelerate without a throttle lag while overtaking. In most cases, downshift is not needed as it was earlier. Also, my bike comes with Barton squish heads, so Ivan's kit may behave little different on a bike with standard heads. The only downside, fuel consumption went up by 1/2 liter on 100 km at road speeds (90-110 kph). I can live with it as engine overall smoothness improved vastly. Also, I believe in feeling less vibration from the engine.

P. S. I received another set of improved carb needles from Ivan recently free of charge but I've not tested them yet.
P. P. S. VM34 Mikunis on my bike are the later ones with brass floats.