Recent batches of fake Keihin PWK Air Striker carbs

[Chuck78]

Somewhat convincing forgeries of PWK Air Striker carbs are all over eBay, in fake Keihin/Sudco-appearing packaging, for anywhere from $60 to $200 USD, even on both ends of that price range from the same seller, Bayside Performance. They literally have some listed for iitc $64.99, and another one listed for $200 stating it's a including a jetting kit, but both of them come with spare jets.

Know what you're buying.

New genuine Keihin PWK Air Striker carbs cost $425 - $450, US Dollars, FYI.

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The quality and consistency is simply not there in the fakes, although for $60, they could potentially run better than an original with a worn out elongated needle jet orifice, but that's all relative to the sizing accuracy of the needle jet orifice inside diameter of the budget clones.

Conventional jetting knowledge is not to be applied directly to these however, as the air jets, needle jet, as well as slide cutaway should be approached as an unknown sizing of tuning variable... BEWARE.

Some have had success running a Keihin slide, Keihin jet needle, and Keihin jets in these, but don't bet on the state of tune to be replicating previously known jetting knowledge from our bikes.

Measure the needle jet orifice inside diameter at minimum before buying needles.

You'll need a machinist's drill bit set or some custom made inside bore gauge pins to do so. The packaging is convincing, the casting quality and machining quality is not, nor is the price - unless you may think you got an actual Sudco carb from a liquidation sale after they went out of business.

[Chuck78]

eBay seller Bayside-Powersports is the current seller with the fake carbs with the Suncoast stickers and somewhat authentic looking packaging.

Looking at their negative feedback on their current eBay account, they have gotten roasted by several customers who have spotted out that the Moto Tassinari VForce3 etc reed blocks this account sells are fake copies as well.

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[SpruceItUp]

Very interesting and unfortunate. Thank you for pointing this out, Chuck. Hopefully eBay will ban their account soon, though that likely won't stop them from making a new account and selling the fakes under that.

[Chuck78]

Very interesting and unfortunate. Thank you for pointing this out, Chuck. Hopefully eBay will ban their account soon, though that likely won't stop them from making a new account and selling the fakes under that.

I tried flagging it as a fake, but an automated eBay AI bot declined my report.

In other venues of posting this information, several people have come out and said that they knew they were buying fake/cloned carbs, but versus their original with worn out needle jet orifice and worn out slide tower and slide, they have had great successes with these over the original worn out carbs after using proper Keihin needles and jets and spending the time to jet them properly.

One word of caution is that even though a lot of these are billed as Quad Vent Air Strikers, it's been reported that at least two of the "vents" were not actually even drilled, and the users who have been smart enough to use genuine Keihin needles and jets have also had to drill out the air vent passages manually in order to achieve proper functionality.



I worded my post with all of this in mind as well as keeping in mind that new genuine Keihin PWK 35 carbs cost $420-$450 nowadays, not far from the approximate $650 pricepoint of the upcoming KDX fitment SmartCarb SC3 34mm carbs, but still a ways off from the $799 $$$$ big money Lectron Billetron Pro Series carbs.
The new Dave Moore Racing billet quick jet change fuel bowls out for the PWK carbs on top of the price of the new genuine Keihins puts the retail buy-in at upwards of the same cost as the new SmartCarb offering and above the old Legacy era Lectron Power Jet carbs, so these clones are not necessarily a horrible thing for the market to have, it's just a shame that they are billed as genuine Keihins, which will undoubtedly lead to some very frustrated and disappointed buyers, especially the ones who paid $179.99 + taxes and shipping for the same carb that the exact same seller also has listed for $64.99 in a different auction under the same account...



@KDXDazz's replacement needle jets aka emulsion tubes plus a new JD Jetting jet block gasket are really the only good budget solution to these aging worn out carbs.

One guy I believe on here just this week had posted that his needle jet on his original carb had around 400 hours of riding time on it and had measurable wear on the orifice, and replacing it with one of Darryl's had improved the tuneability of his KDX noticeably. Only 400 hours was a shocker to me!

[billie_morini]

wow, thanks, Chuck!