I did a revamp on my spare set of carbs over the winter. As some of you may recall, I had a set of Factory Pro High Dispersal Jet (HDJ) needle jets installed in my carbs last fall. I also got my hands on a carbon copy

of the stock steel support plates and installed those (together with aluminum through bolts to further cut weight). I also removed all hardware used for the heated carb lines (never used that feature, so off it comes). I did some reading about folks "streamlining: and knife-edging butterflies and, after raising the issue with Roger D, decided to proceed (see pics). I knife-edged the leading edge of the butterflies (so as not to upset the idling) and ground down the excess thread from the small screws (installed them with red Loctite to make sure they don't move and fall into the engine). Finally, I put the dremmel to the rubber manifold that connects the carbs to the port and matched it up perfectly to the carb body. All the external screws have been replaced with Ti too.
You will also notice that there are fittings to hook up 2 Flo-Commanders. The pilot air circuit is standard stuff, but the main air jet circuit was modified by Factory Pro while installing the HDJ, they removed the stock brass fitting and tapped the hole to accept difference main air jet sizes. I had some custom fittings made (thanks to my buddy Jack Flash, he of fuel screw fame, who hooked me up with a machinist) which allow me to change the MAJ jet but still use my F-C (MAJs on now are 100s, so 1.0mm). This will allow me to keep using both Flo-Commanders, giving me a great deal more flexibility when it comes to tuning.
The goal, as always was to drop weight and optimize everything (in case air flow and hence power).
Anyhow, I will be mounting these up in the next two weeks and will then fire up the bike......

99 VTR1000F Firestorm, a.k.a. The Carbon Express