Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Newbie questions...first post!

All,

Congrats on a great website. I'm a recent purchaser of a 2005 TBA in stock condition with under 5k on the clock. Here's the questions:

1) First mod is removing the AI. no rejetting needed immediately, right?

2) Intake: I've seen the "Freak" that everyone's raving about but I'm living on a Soldiers salary...can't I just use the K&N cone filters with new jets? Why am I paying for a "kit" for an additional $200?

3) Is there anyone who lives in Europe from this website that's interested in swapping ideas or hittin' the road?

If anyone has some tips they want to share, feel free to send them...I've been riding cafe racers for the last umpteen years and I just started this "cruiser" life and lookin for your wisdom and guidance....

1) First mod is removing the AI. no rejetting needed immediately, right?
Correct

2) Intake: I've seen the "Freak" that everyone's raving about but I'm living on a Soldiers salary...can't I just use the K&N cone filters with new jets? Why am I paying for a "kit" for an additional $200?
You need a way to support the carbs when you remove their present, rear support:air box

3) Is there anyone who lives in Europe from this website that's interested in swapping ideas or hittin' the road?
n/a

Welcome to the site!

Thanks Moe!! The picture is becoming a little clearer...

Check out Hotdog (low budget custom thread) as he's also in Deutschland.

ok, I'll bite, what's a Freak?

John, you can make a huge almost no cost easy improvement in the intake just by removing the snorkel and dropping in a UNI filter.

Moe got it right ,
and yes you need to support the carbs, I used a ty-rap (cable tie).
if it breaks, I will use another one.
you can make your own style of freak, just be creative.
I moved the battery under the seat and made brackets to hold
everything in place, cover it in sheet metal and exposed
the pods.
most of the stuff was in the garage from other mods and trial custom stuff.

Bob,
I'm interested in this "snorkel removal" with the UNI filter. Would you happen to have an "after" picture? Also, it will be a few months before I can change out the pipes, should I wait or am I good on the mods beofore the pipes (with rejetting being done of course).

If you go with the UniFilter, you can open up (cut out) the bottom of it, and similiarly drill out/cut out the corresponding postion in the bottom of the stock airbox (under the cut out in the UniFilter). This gives a lot more airflow, and is free (after the cost of the UniFilter). No need to wait to buy pipes. You may also want to just drill out the last one or two baffle plates in the mufflers-also free. These mods make a significant difference in the bike's performance, for just the cost of the Unifilter and a couple of carb jets. As was mentioned, be sure to pull the snorkels (3), but some newer models only have the one main snorkel on top.

From the outside of the bike (with the seat installed), there is no visible difference from the stock bike.

John & Matt: Just for reference, the 05 and later bikes don't have the snorkels inside the box - no need to look.

Re: supporting carbs.
As Pete indicated, there are plenty of ways to do that.
Belacorse sells a brace for that purpose.
Other folks have fabbed their own brace.

Notice Pete didn't retain the factory faux air cleaners.
That's one of the reasons some use the freak kit - to facilitate retention of same.

Thanks a lot for all the new info. I'll be performing these mods shortly and I'll be asking for advice again soon I'm sure.