So in order to avoid being known as “Bleeding Knuckles O’Leary” for my carburetor airbox work I figured replacing those 30 year old air boots would be a good idea.  Now a set of 4 of those things runs about $40 on ebay, or more, and there’s no guarantee used ones won’t be just as hard as the ones I already have.  New ones tend to be a bit more expensive but could be servicible if they haven’t been sitting on a shelf for a long time.  I generally prefer to avoid NOS (new old stock) items that have been sitting on a shelf due to previous experience with rubber products that look good but have structurally deteriorated due to non-use.

So what to do?  Google.  Found a video on youtube where a mechanic used a radiator hose, cut to fit of course, to connect his single carburetor to his air box.  Autozone carries a radiator hose of the appropriate diameter and long enough to cut into 4 pieces for $10.  Just remove the inner support coil, measure twice, cut once, and then fight the install.

What did I just learn?  The airboots on my bike aren’t actually the same size.  They look like it in the pictures but the two outside ones are 47 mm diamter and the inside two are 39 mm in diamter.  Stupid engineer who designed this ….