The carb heater kits are bit like the red v yellow debate. Some feel that they offer little or no difference. Personally I have had no issues with them apart from the tap falling apart.
Can tell you that the problem they are there to solve is a real one. Try riding a carby in much less than 10C and it will start to ice up and run badly - mine did anyway...
Im sure the carb icing problem is real. enough people have mentioned it. its just that the majority of threads i have read have said that the heaters made little or no difference. My bike originally didn't have them and they were retro fitted by the dealer to fix the problem. I just leave them switched on all the time.
Have used them at around 0 to - 3 degrees celsius on various Monster/SS and made no difference on or off i.e. experienced random idle/low range stalling and mid-range cut-out with 'heaters' on or off (all with std airboxes apart from one M900). The later Elefant in 750 or 900 form experiences none of the above problems at similar temperatures which is largely down to the long convoluted inlet tracts imvho.
Got them on my 750, do get in the way and make the carb removal hard. You need warm air not petrol to stop the problem.
Mine do seem to work, which is why I didn't remove them.........not so worried about carb removal as access to the damn balance screw - I have the high mounted oil cooler.
If it's too cold for the carbs to work then my bike will be staying in the garage. I thought Italian bikes only came out on balmy summer evenings!
