01 The why
Good old-fashioned
fuel & choke.
Yes, you heard me, good old-fashioned “fuel and choke” is still very much alive. Maybe this was not on your bingo card in the age of artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. Despite the convenience of fuel injection, the fact remains many individuals and like-minded OEMs still utilize older tech in 2026, both in the shop and straight off the assembly line.
Who doesn’t love an aftermarket pipe, more airflow or even a performance motor built with big compression? For example, with carburetion there’s no need to be a computer whizz, have to rely on a download site for a pre-made tune, have your own dyno—and have you seen the price for an ECU?
This process is tried and true. We have been slapping carbs on motorbikes since Moses parted the Red Sea. As it turns out, it happens to be a pretty efficient way to burn up fossilized dinosaur guts.
Everything from that DIY Coleman garage build, a clean 300cc Sherco enduro, and your old man’s pre-2006 Harley-Davidson Sportster. All of which have fast metabolisms and require a diet that goes heavy on the carbs.
You’ll just need a set of jets, a needle, oh, and now you can become YouTube-certified and you’re good to go. What’s the saying, give a man a fish and he can eat for a day? But teach a man how to tune and he will mod for life, or something like that.
02 The feel
Feel analogue.
In a digital world.
“Joe Walsh said it best”
An analogue man in a digital world.
What vinyl is to avid music listeners, carburetion is in the motorcycling community. This is another reason some people opt for that venturi effect. And that’s because carburetors have a certain feel that is not found in EFI.
“Carburetors have a certain feel that is not found in EFI.”
Blake Wharton / Mech & Rider
03 Performance
Performance.A subjective truth.
Now, no one can deny the role EFI has played, especially in Supercross: a cat-like responsiveness, elimination of the notorious bog. But before you write off carbs as merely high maintenance, remember they still perform and, in certain applications, have the potential to outperform EFI despite a two-decade freeze in development. Just ask any of the high-end motor builders and horsepower chasers.
For me, this was made obvious back in 2009–2010 at the factory Honda test track as my fellow GEICO Honda compatriots and I were prepping for West Coast SX on the first-generation EFI four-strokes.
My thoughts: the new bikes felt “electric” and buttery smooth, but I think they lost a bit of that grunt off the bottom that a finely tuned FCR carburetor offered.
04 Necessity
The elephant
in the room.
Personal preference aside, there is still a massive community of active riders that can’t afford to let carbs ride off into the sunset.
The pre-TPS-sensor two-strokers—you know, the ones that are all the rage again and have set Facebook Marketplace ablaze—the modern-era Yamaha YZ125–250 racers, “the poster children of carburetion,” and the vintage heads, guys who know an airbox like the back of their hand, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
One last question
But do you
even carb,
bro?
So, at this rate, I don’t think it’s unfathomable to say we will likely still be tooling with PWKs for decades to come. How many years exactly? Well, that is yet to be told.
So next time you’re cracking open a cold one with the boys in the garage and one of them starts bragging about their “latest and greatest something-or-another bike that looks like it’s straight out of The Jetsons,” ask them this simple question.
Find your next carburetorOur commitment.
Quoted by Jordan LakeHere at NIBBI Racing, we continue to provide reliable, high-performance carburetors in an era where dependable mechanical technology is becoming harder to find. As we build on our past and push the limits of engineering, we are dedicated to creating a sustainable future so the youth of tomorrow can enjoy carbureted machines for generations to come.
