I tried a K&N filter on one of my motorcycles once just because it was the same price as the OEM paper filter element. When I swapped out the OEM filter for the K&N, everything was clean as a whistle, and that is with about 14K street miles and several light off-pavement trips behind it (500lb bike, nothing too dirty going on.) I checked the K&N 3K miles later since I had just done some light off-roading for the first time since installing the K&N and was worried it might be gunked up. The filter itself looked pretty clean, but there was a film (albeit quite thin) of very fine grime along the throat of the throttle body and the airbox. Now, I am no filtration expert, so it is quite possible that this very small infiltration of fine particles isn't material enough to cause any premature wear to the engine over the life of the bike so long as basic maintenance is kept up. I don't know. I just know it was spotless when the paper filter was in place for almost 5 times the mileage. Back to OEM. You're experience may vary of course, and I know guys that swear by K&N. Just sharing my experience for reference.
I just finished the Pod Mod. I'm just shy of 9k miles, mostly K&N installed on those--owned the bike since new in Jan 2013. It's been about 2.5k miles or so since the last time I was inside the airbox, at which time it was pretty darn clean. Again, this time around it was very clean, with only a light dust on the throttle body and innards. The Pod seems to barely fit. I actually removed my air temp sensor and moved it outside the box, because I was cracking the little cage that surrounds it when trying to position the pod filter--and filter oil was getting on it. Anyway, it's done now and the bike sounds about the same under throttle. Did anyone else have to move that sensor? I was using direction from the other site, and while I saw pics with the sensor removed I didn't see an instructions stating to pull it. Maybe I just missed it? Tomorrow I will be truing the front wheel to remove some "up/down whopping" between 40-45 mph, and then throwing on a new tire just to be safe. Then I plan to ride the heck out of it for the rest of the season.
I removed the sensor to the righ thand front wing - the sensor pocket was blanked off whilst doing the 3D printed mod
Yep, that is where it is in the Aprilia and other similar bikes. I have moved mine and several others over to the right hand side just in the intake. It works well and does not suffer from the external effect of the exhaust fan and other excess heat any longer. Some will say this is wrong as it is 'technically' not reading the true temperature of the air in the airbox as it is entering the throttle body, but IMHO that is crap. I am convinced that, when in traffic, the overly 'hot' readings my sensor was giving to the ECU caused it to 'lean out' the fuel even more and contributed to the crap running and stalling issues. OK so the engine is still getting overly hot air until the bike is moving again, but the ECU doesnt know it :-)
Certainly my motor seems to prefer it's air "au naturale" not affected by engine or radiator heat - with the sensor pocket blanked-off the airbox plenum chamber is still pressurised by the bike's forward motion
Hmm. I guess it's fine being right up against the sensor--not like anything in there should be moving around. I'm a little worried mine might be too close to the radiator where I strapped it...
I ordered Errol's filter frame and getting ready to install it but I'm not entirely sure how to proceed. Maybe I missed it but is there a walk through tutorial someplace? I don't want to mess this up. Thanks.
PM me your email and I can send you a little write up that he had sent me. I took my airbox completely off to do it(thanks to Grumpy for stopping by to help). Don't think you need to remove the box to do so, but you have to tear it down to get to the top lid off, and there's not much more after that, to get the bottom half off. The 3M DP8010 epoxy he recommends isn't easiest to source or the cheapest. The only place that I found I could get a single unit of it was from RS Hughes, and they had to order from the East coast. Have you done the canisterectomy? If not, now's a good time to do so.
Better yet, email me >errolDOTkowaldATgmailDOTcom< I've installed &/or supplied 20 of these already all around the globe, going back to May 2014 with no reported failures. The added advantage of going this route is the ease of access to the filter. Much easier then the original. I usually take a spare filter - pre-oiled - on a long dusty trip and swap filters half way. It only takes a couple of minutes.
