Update 4-23-01See at the bottom of the page Update (2-9-01) Check this out
With only about 1 hour of run time you can see there is something wrong with this picture, one of the reeds are missing.Carbon fiber closing on hard plastic what is with that, what ever happen to closing on rubber? Reeds open and close 133 times per second at 8000 RPM.
It is hard to see but if you look close you can see where the carbon fiber is starting to separate, the light colors are the normal appearance of the fiber it is the small dark spots that look like dirt I am talking about.
Another thing I was not very impressed with was how rough the edges of the reeds are as seen in the close up below, looks like the reeds were stamped in a dull die, all reeds will come with a small burr on them and that burr should be removed radius the edges of the new reeds using 600 grit wet/dry paper. The idea is to remove the sharp edges - just at the edge though - be careful not to sand the sealing surface. Do both sides of the reeds that way if you find yourself with reeds that are not sealing (mating with the sealing surface) you can flip the reeds over and keep using them until your new replacement reeds have arrived.
After seeing this reed setup up close I must say I am not impressed at all with the quality and don't really see how any material carbon fiber or not can withstand thousands of cycles per minute slamming against a hard surface like the material used to make this reed cage out of. ("133 times per second at 8000 RPM") If you own one of these it would pay to take it apart and take a close look at the material using a magnifying glass to see if it is coming apart and it also would be a good time to radius the edge of the reeds to extend their life. This has kind of been a disappointment to me I was thinking of buying one to get a little more throttle response out of my modified motor, I think I will wait and see if anybody else has any problems before I make the change.
Below is Redrider looking for Rocketman's lost broken reed, they took the top end off and never found the thing, my guess would be it either got chewed up and spit out in small pieces or is still stuck in the 90 degree bend right before the silencer "It was not in the spark arrester"
I never did figure out what the deals was, Redrider must either be a good friend or owe Rocketman a lot of favors because he seem to be doing all the wrenching :-)
Update 11-7-00
Prior to LBL I had a nightmare trying to get my Pilot jetted after adding the reeds and a PWK 39. Finally discovered that one of the reeds had broken while I was trying to get the Pilot jetted - less than hour use. Finally got it all worked out atLBL and was able to ride using a stock reed block. One of the petals broke off flush with the stop - Hoser posted some pictures earlier. returned the reeds to Moto Tassinari (manufacturer)to be evaluated for warranty purposes. I called numerous times over several weeks. Bottom line -terrible service. They had no record of receiving them. It seems all warranty claims go into a pile on a table - during each call they indicated they would find them and take care of it. Over several weeks they never seemed to be able to find them -I really don't think they ever looked for them. Anyway they finally agreed to send me a new reed block. So I never got a response as to why the reeds failed but I did get new reeds and a new T-shirt. This issue of poor service seems to resurface time and time again. I quess we just expect too much. Rocketman
Update 4-23-01 V-Force Delta 2 Bulletin According to Moto Tassinari, the petal failures that have occurred recently on the V-Force Delta 2 reeds have been due to insufficient warm up or too lean of jetting. Both of these contribute to backfiring through the intake. Moto Tassinari now recommends running the reed stops in "low" tension, which makes the engine run a bit richer. This will usually take care of any problem with leanness, while still providing performance gains. If you are still experiencing "popping" or hesitation they suggest dropping the clip on the needle one position. Always be sure to take time to thoroughly warm up your engine to eliminate the chance of backfiring through the intake. Such backfires can be devastating to all hi-performance reed petals.
Update (2-9-01) Check this out
