Why is carb ice a problem?
Carb ice is a problem because it constricts the caburetor, choking off the engine in a very literal sense. As the ice builds up, it closes off the passage through the carburetor, reducing the fuel/air mixture the engine can get. Under appropriate conditions, carb ice can entirely kill the engine. Even before that, it reduces the engine’s performance enough to be dangerous in any real-world traffic situation. Carb ice is closely analagous to asthma in a living creature. Carb ice can stall your motor, and there’s nothing you can do to get it running again while riding along in traffic! The only cures for carb ice involve many minutes of waiting. Severe carb icing on the Ninja 250 will also cause the cause the spark plugs to foul badly — to the point where the motorcycle may not re-start even with a boost after several severe icing episodes. The fact that winter trips (and certainly carb-icing trips!) tend to be relatively short exacerbates this problem; the spark plugs will remain at le
