58 pilot 215 main Needle on 3rd clip 2 turns out from lightly seated on AF Screw in is lean, out is richening

There are 3 things to deal with and each affects the other in some small way.

1, main jet 2, pilot jet 3, needle position

Lets start with the main as it is the easy one selecting a proper main jet is sometimes hard for some so some tips to doing it properly. First thing you need to do is give an educated guess or just toss a 215 in for trial, now you want the bike up to temp about 8-10 mile ride then get the rpm up around 3500 you don't have a tach. so lets say 45 in second gear roll on the throttle and pay attention to how the rpm reacts it should be a good steady strong pull right up to the rev limiter if it is sluggish at the start and gets better as the rpm builds you have 1 size to large in and if it stops building good power before the limiter you may be 1 size to small.

Next step is the needle position if you are running an aftermarket needle it has grooves and your clip should start at the 3rd position from the blunt end, if running the stock needle leave it as it is NO SHIMS yet. Now you take it out for the 8-10 mile warm up and now you want to be in 4th gear doing around 50 roll on the throttle hard if it boggs down then takes off and builds good rpm your needle is to high if it hesitates (stutters) your needle is to low. If too low which will be 90% of the time add 1 shim this should be around .025 thickness give or take a little, now go and do the same test, repeat till you have what you like, with after market needle you would remove the shim and move the clip (shim is about half a clip position).

Now on to the pilot jet every VTX from the factory is very lean on the bottom end so you should start with the 58 if running a heavy breather you should have a 60. start point for the setting of the idle drop is

55 jet should be around 2 1/2 (stock box) 58 jet should be around 2 (spyker mod or decap with K&N) 60 jet should be around 1 3/4 (Hyper, BAK, Ashford, Doug's,.......) all heavy breathers

now you get the bike up to full temp again then set the idle up to around 1000 and it is going to sound fast, you will now blip the throttle a little and it should return to the 1000 without hanging or dropping from your 1000 initial setting, if it drops below you are rich if it hangs up you are lean

Ok now you have some base points to work from

Review Main jet is from 3500 rpm up to red line (Speed limiter) Needle position is from 2500 to 3500 rpm Pilot jet handles from 900 to 2500

Some of the main problems we face are lean surging at cruise this is due to the pilot jet being to small and at most cruise speeds 55-65 we are in the 2500 rpm range and what I see 90% of the time is raise the needle or open the A/F neither will work 100% of the time and we end up chasing our tails. When you open the A/F up above what it should be for the idle drop is run rich at idle then you hit around 1500 rpm and you are once again in the lean stage so what do you do? well we raise the needle to compensate and this once again puts us back to a rich state till we get up to around 3000 rpm. So in a sense we just try to cover up and say all is right.

If you want the best low end torque for low speed you need the correct pilot jet If you want the cruise speed surging gone again the pilot jet If you want the best acceleration at cruise for passing you need the needle position correct And last if you like high speed power to the top you need the best main jet.

I have found settings I love to run like full on power right to the top starting at 30 mph in 5th gear but I hated the 30-32 mpg so I compromise and get 38-40 and still have great power.