|———————————— Videos by Ferrous Head ————————————|

1974 XLH1000 Sportster. I have two of these and they are a candidate for best Sportsters ever built.

From this XLF thread: "Fake" S&S with pics and a video

I was curious about the cheap S&S Shorty E's being sold on Ebay for $59. I decided at that price to buy one to see if they were a usable item. From the outset I only wanted a carburetor to replace a worn out unit on an engine that I was giving to a mate. The engine is slated to go into a Historic racing sidecar and I hadn't really intended this carb to be used for racing but it may well end up on the track if it performs as well as a real S&S.

As I'm in Australia shipping to weeks. The seller was so embarrassed (it was not his fault) he refunded me $3 – so the carb was only $56 in the end. It arrived, well packed and included in the box was more than I expected. 8 main jets as well as 6 intermediates. There are two cable brackets, short and long style and a fuel filter. Doe whatever reason there was also a 10mm spark plug?

I forgot to specify which bike the carb was for so it wasn't necessarily jetted correctly for the engine I have. My fault. But I paid less for all of this than it would have cost me for the jets included if I bought S&S. You have to think about that. I did a side by side comparison and this is a direct copy minus the S&S logo.

I couldn't fault the materials or machining. The real S&S I was comparing it to had an Enduroshine finish, probably the biggest difference between the two. The installation was very straight forward. The whole swap only took about 30 minutes. I did have to replace the throttle cable as the carb that was on there was a Super B that uses a cable with no nipple on the carb end. So, I pushed the bike out into the yard and fired it up.

A couple of caveats on this. It is still winter for us here in The Great Land of Oz. It was very chilly (for me) last night dipping below 40 degrees. In addition, the engine hasn't been started in months. Battery is pretty near dead, I should have put it on the charger. So a cold engine, weak battery, straight drag pipes, no air cleaner and no tuning whatsoever. Typical Ironhead territory I would guess. Oh, in the video you can see me playing with the enrichner. Normally with these you have an air cleaner that contains a lever to do this. I just did it by hand.

I would hazard a guess and say the carb is a little lean on the bottom and mid range. But it's within a size or two at most. When fully warmed I'm pretty sure it would have sat there and just idled with a steady beat.

Conclusion.
This won me. This carb can replace every Linkert, Tillotson, Keihin, Bendix and Super B out there. I suspect it will replace a Shorty E just as well. I will buy another one just to go into my toolbox. What a great diagnostic tool. I will now be able to confirm my ignition problems really are ignition problems. No instructions came with it, but these are very simple carbs. They will respond to tuning just like a real S&S. Actually, like any carb ever made.

Videos from the track.

The Sporton bites the dust. Mac Park December 2013. A Period 3 Unlimited Sidecar powered by a Harley Sportster (Ironhead) engine.

Day 2 of the Queensland 2021 Historic Road Racing Championships. Here you can see the impromptu changes made to help our Passenger.
Padding on the seat, tape across the deck, removal of one hand hold.

The start of Race 1 at Morgan Park 2021 Queensland Historic Road Racing Championships.

Race 2 of the Queensland Historic Road Race Championships.

Gene Lopeman and Rod Dangerfield having fun in the sun at the 2019 Queensland Historic Road Racing Championships.
We ran 3rd overall. Happy with that.

Day 2, killing time before racing starts and footage from race 3.