I just got my 2006 s40.  LOVE IT!  

I want it to go a little faster and I need suggestions.  Are there certain things you could change to get a little more performance without too much trouble?  

So far the baffle has been taken out and I'm trying to decide on a new carb jet kit to purchase.  I live in the rockies so it makes a difference how rich I need to make it cause it is backfiring a little now that the baffle is gone.

All I can think to do is try changing the exhaust, air filter, and carb jets.  But I'm not sure which one of those are best or if there is anythine else I can do.  Let me know guys.  Thanks!

By far the easiest is to trade it for a faster bike. The question begs itself, though - bearing in mind the S40 will exceed every legal speed limit in the States, how much faster do you want to go?

Your engine is not a big engine with gobs of untapped potential just waiting to be unleashed by a simple mod or two.  A great example of this was my brother's '79 Trans Am with the Oldsmobile Rocket 403 engine that was so choked up in order to meet emission requirements that it came out of the factory with only 195hp.  Without spending much money, relative to the cost of the car, you could just about double the hp.  A new carb and headers took care of that.  With that said, you can accomplish some pretty significant power gains on your bike quickly if spending money is no object.  But I figure you, like many of us on here, probably wouldn't have an LS650 as a primary bike if money were no object.  That leaves you where most of us are at- figuring out how to get the most power through low $$$ mods that we can do in our garages and workshops.  There are actually lots of little mods that can be done to your S40, each adding a little bit of power, responsiveness or both.  The collctive sum of all those little mods can really wake up the engine.   For instance, I'm currently working on a DIY intake project that when combined with good carb tuning has thus far shown pretty impressive gains for low $$$.  

You mentioned that the baffle was taken out of the muffler.  I'm fairly certain more sound than power was gained by that mod.  At least that would be the case at my elevation in Alabama.  A better designed exhaust would prove more effective.  The members on here that have had success with power mods appear to have a good grasp of engine fundamentals such as air flow, fuel mixture, friction, back pressure, etc., that either they already knew or learned by research on the net and shooting questions to other members.  So it looks like you are on the right track in that respect.  Like Al said, check out the Tech Section, especially Carbs 101 and the white spacer mod links.  Those will help you figure out which carb jets to get.

For every mod you have 4 options- the cheapest, the most effective, the easiest to do, and the costliest.  Anytime you can do a mod that includes the first three, you've hit a home run in my book.

I'd agree that you are only going to get so much out of this bike but..

Some things to look into are the white spacer mod, get some jets from Lancer, check out a different exhaust (Dyna, etc), find the mixture screw, think about a different air intake.

My last option is to loose some weight, but that would require drinking less beer, so its not really an option.

So from your post I'm getting...change air intake, exhaust, jets on carb, mess with mixture screw, something to do with "white spacer mod",  ride downhill, and lose some weight.  
Is that accurate?

Well it's acutally the uphill I was worried about, flat or downhill it has plenty of power for me.

I have no idea what a "white spacer mod" is...please enlighten me.

I am 5'3" 125lb woman so I'm willing to lose 5lbs but not too much more.

The rest are actually things I was thinking about changing.  So, I'll look at the technical page and see what the best suggestions are.

Oh, and I'll remember to pull back on the throttle, thanks for reminding me!

just do a search in tech documents for "white spacer mod" or carb tuning  you'll find way more than one things to look at.  And as far as going a whole lot faster you bought the wrong bike for that, like most of these guys have said a little faster is possible and i'm sure some people on here will disagree with that last statement but don't get me wrong for a little single cylinder 650 the savage gets up and moves plenty for me.  Had a SV650 before this and I guess i got all my stupid speed out of me, now i'm older and would rather have comfort.

also:
what is faster?
quicker off the line?
higher top speed?

Charon wrote on 03/21/09 at 07:34:35:


I was thinking the same thing.  When I hit the mountains (Sierra Nevada's) I climb 5000 feet or so.  The bike really starves for air.  I'm thinking you might want to look at getting it more air before fuel.  Maybe start with the de-snorkle, change to Oldfeller's nu-foam filter, or even a pod filter.