Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods air box removal do I or dont I

Im considering some alterations to speedy over this coming winter when she is parked up & im considering removing the airbox & replacing with k & N cone filters or equivalent.
so here are some of my questions regarding
i have short tor,s & really like these pipes.

does it make a difference
if so how much & in what department bottom,mid or top end??

can I just remove the air box & replace with filters & an anchor point for the carbs.

Or go the freak kit & is there 1 available in the uk?

do I have to re jet?

Is it worth the time & hassle

what other mods instead do you recomend.

does anyone have a single seat off an america for sale in uk.

Sorry to be a pain but would like some advice.

Thanks Malc

In my opinion good exhaust and less restrictive exhaust can be felt all through the range from bottom end torque to top end pull.

Freak vs. just pods and brace is totally the owners choice,won't make any real difference except in looks. Freak you have mounting points for the side cover and cheese graters. Just pods you won't unless you make some or mod the air box to allow you use pods but keep the mounting points.

Re-jet...yes

I think it's worth it but again thats up to the rider and what he/she wants.

your not being a pain! Ask your questions and youll get answers...some direct, some with a smidge of sarcasm but youll get answers.

After I FREAKd, jetted and piped my bike I ran through my RPMs with ease. Stock she feels like shes struggling at times, usually between 4500 and up. After I opened her up and she was breathign much better she simply gets up and goes. To me it felt great through the entire RPM range and I hit the rev limited a few times before I got used to it.

My best example of how much better...
Passing on the freeway before mods I would have to downshift to get by someone.
After mods I twist the throttle and go!
Another example is that when getting on the freeway I have easily and unintentionally left a group of riders way back. It wasnt long before I realized they werent behind me (less than a minute). I slowed down and it still took a while for everyone to get caught up (maybe a couple minutes).

I did the FREAK so I could keep the cheese graters.
A set of K&N pods adn a carb brace will be fine if you dont mind losign the side panel and graters.

Is it worth it....YES! no delay in that reply...YES!

Just wanted to mention...You can cut the airbox away so the pods have room to protrude slightly into the unused airbox. This way you keep the mounting tabs needed for the side panel. Im just not sure how the cheesegraters mount because I bought my bike with a cut airbox and no freak kit.

I rode my bike this way for a while until I relocated my battery to sit underneath my seat and got rid of the entire airbox.

So if youre willing to part with cheesgraters you can save yourself some money. You just need to be willing to take a saw to your airbox. Which by the way you can always buy again from this site, theres alot of people with spare airboxes laying around. you can always post an ad in the classifieds if you wanna go back to the stock airbox.

If you want a totally opposite opinion, I think it's way too much work, modification of the bike, and it's appearance for the gain. I didn't want to do it and deferred to D&D Cycles (Pensacola, FL) testing results that showed it wasn't near the gain many people thought. It's only significant gain (their opinion) was at the highest rpms. They did a lot of dyno runs on my bike and I even sacrificed some max. hp to get the most we could below 6,000 rpm. My bike starts leaning a bit above 6K, but the fuel/air mixture is near perfect across the main power band I use the most.

You've got nothing to lose by not first removing the snorkel and putting in a UNI. To take advantage of any airbox improvement, you would obviously need after market less restrictive pipes and re-jetting. All that is totally reversible, easy, and may give you everything you want.

Any modifications that improve breathing will start to take effect at around 3200 RPM. If the photopost link starts working, you will find that, on the many dyno charts that have been posted, the torque curve is quite flat on a stock bike. With improved breathing, the torque curve starts angling upward at 3200 (the speed where the carb slides start to open) and the power curve follows it.

Unfortunately, this is mostly true of the older engine. The 865 needs better exhaust valve timing to get the full effect of intake and exhaust mods.

Anything that increases air flow through the engine will require rejetting to give a corresponding increase in fuel flow.

just do it

Frank

I was wondering about the freak with TORs as well Malc. I have desnorkeled and drilled the bottom of my airbox, installed a uni and rejetted. The bike runs much better than stock. The question is will a bike running TORs really benefit from the freak or is it a waste of money unless you also go with an aftermarket exhaust?

Since my bike came with the TORs, I am reluctant to spend the additional $ for the freak kit if I also have to go out and buy new pipes. Anyone running an 865 with TOR's and a freak kit?

Yes Patrick I have but I should add, I have just ordered bubs from Eddy.

So is it worth it? Well in my opinion yes cos I found a noticeable difference in my "sheilas pulling power" between having a drilled box with a Uni compared to having pods.

Like Frank said, just do it>

I have nothing to offer here except prejudice, but it runs like this:
Given the choice between fake air cleaners and an airbox under the seat or real air cleaners and extra room for other stuff under the seat, I prefer the latter.
Really no question about it (IMO).

yeah even keeping the airbox in there with the pods protruding thru makes for a really nice space to keep tools