Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories The Freak Airbox removal kit

Has anyone purchased "The Freak Airbox removal kit" from the New Speedmaster site. It states that it allows you to retain the factory look of your motorcycle after removal of the air box. Would like to see some photos of bikes that have done this to see if it looks ok. Can anyone help?

After AI removal, the FREAK is probably the most common mod on this site. Have a look through the photopost section, you'll see heaps of freaked bikes there, or use the search funciton to find the word "freak".

Oh and Brent at newspeedmaster's probably our oldest and most reliable accessory vendor - nice bloke too.

Hey Adrian,

Yes, the Freak will allow you to remove the airbox, have K&N pod filters, and still retain the stock look.

After Freak left side:



After Freak right side:



These shots were taken at vastly different times (left side shot was after the Corbin upgrade).

Thanks for the photos Bonnyusa. Did you notice much change in performance on instalation of the freak? Nice touches to your bike too..

i noticed a gain in mine, also allows for much more room when working on the bike

Frank

Freak ...I noticed a gain in power. I did that and exhaust at the same time. Makes carb work much easier and room under the seat for what ever you want. After seeing Toms bike with no side covers and electrics relocated I might have saved the money and gone that route.

Please excuse my cutting in here but something Hans (Hasse) said in the NH dyno thread made me prick my ears up when he concluded:

"A god modified airbox can match the Freek (cos) Last year I dynoed 65.14 Bhp/65.16 Nm torque. With original carbs (145 main/45 low), TBS pipes and a modified airbox. Today I have done a new dyno run with my new CR2 + Freak = 66.43 Bhp and 67.03 Nm torque".

Now not that I'm disputing these figures (is this becoming a trend - hope not) but all the info I've read on this forum easily disputes this claim not the least members needing to go to bigger jets. Any comments

your talking peak power, what about the rest of the curve?

Frank

I did mine... make a big difference.
Also have some Triumph pipes, don't remember, picked them out of the dealer catalogue..
Dont' remember what the rejet was either, but my mech took it to work (he's an instructor at Cleveland-Hopkins, Ohio airport).
Said he had more guys out there admiring and drooling over that bike than any other he's ridden to work, including my Yamaha FJR 1300 sport touring bike.

Ummm.. it still looks stock, BTW...<BG>
(Doesnt' SOUND stock, tho!

Mary

Besides the Freak and the Ghetto freak, does anyone know of a different method of putting on pods

I like the freak but before putting down the cash I wanted to make sure it was still the best method developed so far

Aside from removing the airbox and fabricating your own brackets to hold everything in place, it's the best.

thanks for your replies. What I was interested in was like this arrangement from Wizard but he hasn't got a profile to email to find out about it. Does anyone else know anything about this one

Boogieman was selling a kit like that but I don't believe the pipes were chromed. You might want to check his site .

After looking myself, they aren't chrome and it looks like he's got the wrong pic for the 180 kit up. But contact him to make sure before buying.

You can make your own kit like Boogieman's using plumbing supplies from the local home improvement store. He posted that way back in the old days prior to starting up his business. I'm sure his kit takes the guess work out of it though.

I actually had those horseshoe things from boogie that turns the air filter around, and I'd advise against them totally. The right side sticks out a little too far and your leg hits them unless you turn them down a bit. And they add weight to the connection around the carbs. which eventually pull off and fall off down the road...ask me how i know...haha...I had the right side fall off 3 times within 20 minutes at around 60mph...I almost took out my friend riding behind me. The worse part is that it'd fall off and i wouldnt know, I had to keep looking down to make sure it was there. The first time if fell off i was driving maybe 5-10 minutes before my friend could get my attention that I lost the filter a couple miles back.

"oh?...thats why my bikes running really shtty right now?"

It got so bad that I had to attach a wire around it so if it did fall off it would be teathered to the carb...which also sucked cause now i was driving around with it partly off in the back and i didnt know it. Which probably wasnt a good thing cause air was getting into that broken seal without being filtered.

And to top it off, it turns out the horseshoe pieces are actually pvc pipe traps painted black. Which probably explains why the ones wizard has are chrome, he probably found the same size sink trap in metal, polished it, and made his own. Heres a picture from boogies gallery, where you can see that its pvc...notice the hose clamps trying to hold it on. Oh yeah, the $50-$60 k&n filter gets pretty messed up when it falls off at 60mph 3 times..thank god it didnt get run over.

If you look at Wizard's pic you'll notice that he has a different coupling to the carb before is goes to the chrome pipe with the filter on the end. Looks to me like he reduced the diameter. It also looks like he's cut into the side cover to make clearance for the setup. It's very nice looking.

Yeah it could be that, or it could be a piece of rubber tubing thats used as a coupling that clamps onto the carb and then around the diameter of the drain pipe. Thats whats boogie has. It sucks cause our carbs dont have a lot of space at the inlet collar..thats why theres alot of problems cause there only like a 1/4" inch lip to fit the coupling over and it seems like the more you tighten it the more it pushes/squeezes the tubing coupling off. Eventually I got it to fit on somewhat secure when i turned the horseshoe down a bit and made the filter sit lower next to the carb. This kept my leg from hitting it most of the time and it stayed on pretty good...but as soon as you'd grab it, it'd fall off a little too easy...i just didnt trust the whole set up, while i was driving down the road.

Would some hi temp RTV have helped?

what? to attach the coupling to the back of the carb? I guess it would have, but i'd be tearing that away when/if i'd ever have to take my carbs out to rejet...which actually turned out to be alot right after i fixed the air filter problem. I think those filters need to come off easy..just in case youre on the side of the road trying to fix a broken throttle cable or anything else under the sun.

Great comments fellas, particularly Tom. I figure considering your experiences Tom, I can put this one safely to bed now as I don't want or need any hassles at all. Again I have been helped by someone who has been there and done that and I appreciate the honesty

Of course there might be one out there somewhere that has sorted many of the probs Tom talks about but it was just a question so that I could ensure my going the direction of the freak was the best one. Now considering most endorse the Freak (other than the cost of course ) I'll now head that way and order one from Brent. Are you listening Brent? I'll be sending an order through mate, so get one ready for me will ya

Seriously though, I do like to look at various possibilities and it's just great when I find one of us who has tried something like this and found it to be more trouble than it's worth. Geez, it makes it so much easier to buy stuff that I'm happy with .

Thanks anyway all for your comments. It's helped a lot.

ps: I just got a private email from one of our esteemed members (he'll volunteer his name if he wants) who said he was going to try and engineer something which may be cheaper and more practical than the freak. He bought a cheap airbox for instance and was going to work on it in a month or so. I do think there is room for improvments in this area that's for sure.

I don't remember who posted it, but someone earlier this year was developing a Freak alternative that he was going to post plans of so anyone can fab one up themselves. I know he had family troubles around that time and never finished (or at least posted) it at that time.

Did he ever post the results?

Thanks for the words Staffo. Yeah anything can be done and fixed, but I guess the point is that you dont gain much from having the filters like that. If you like the look then thats cool, I did at first but I decided it wasnt the hassle. The alternative to the freak is in this link here

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dziakt/Ghetto.pdf

its basically cutting out the airbox to make way for the filters, and then making some brackets to hold all the cheesegraters etc. Its a really good narrative step by step..check it out before you go and make that order.

My wife loves the lowered/forward position but hated them pointing backwards. She said they felt weird so they now point up!

I liked them pointing back, looked better imo.

Tom, I gave a fair bit of consideration to the Ghetto Freak but to me, I just wasn't a fan of cutting up air boxes and more interested in keeping things tidy, so to speak. It's just a me thing that's all.

I sure do understand others going that route though and it is a really good alternative. Anyway, I've just now ordered the freak with the Water Repellent Pre-Filters from Brent. I've been wanting to buy one for ages and now feeling confident it is the way to go, it'll happen when I do my 20k Svc whilst waiting for the shims to arrive.

No I totally understand, Im not really the type to go cutting away stuff either. It was kinda hard for me to cut away most of the battery tray and all that when i moved it under my seat. I had a bit of confidence added to me when I realized that this site is a handy resource and if I screw something up, I could most likely find help here.

I couldn't agree more on your comment regarding this site being HANDY. I consider most here as good blokes helping each other achieve similar goals. Yep, it has made a huge difference to me as I've learnt heaps about my bike and given me the confidence even to do my own services. I'm not sure I would have attempted the 20k service for instance without the backup I have here.

Ditto!

How do the bikes equiped with the freak kit work in the rain? Can you cruise like normal or does it drown out do to too much water getting into the carbs? I know most engines run a little better in the rain,but too much water can be a bad thing also.

most have been fine in the rain, you can buy filter covers made for the rain and not worrie about anything

Frank

I have my pods out in the open with nothing covering them at all. (no cheesgraters or filter covers) I got caught in a downpour and left the bike sitting outside for about 30 minutes...got on the bike, started right up, and continued another 30 minute drive through the craziest thunderstorms ive ever seen without 1 problem. Then I had to put the bike on the trailer, and drive 2 hours in pouring down rain...started right up the next day with no problems. It was also a good test for how my exposed wiring would handle the water, since i relocated my battery under the seat.

I just made sure I re-oiled the filters when they dried out.

That wouldn't have been the last time we went out riding, would it?

yes sir..ahah