Home made individual air filters

Hello all, I have rejetted my 2002 Bandit 1200 and had the usual tweaking issues. I decided to try something a bit unique. I really did not like the giant airbox and how difficult it was to get off the bike. I decided to replace it with individual filters. After researching K&N, I decided that their individual pods were just to expensive for my taste.

So, I decided to attempt to make my own, but with a twist. I have created individual air filters for each carb. I also added adjustable flappers to the backside of the filters (where the air enters). I can ajust them from almost completly closed to all the way open. I thought that this might make it easier to tweak possible air flow issues. I will be installing them tomorrow and taking a cruise to see how they work.

Does this sound logical? Does anyone think it will work? My investment was about 35 bucks total.

Thanks in advance for any input......
Bill

BillIngram said:

After researching K&N, I decided that their individual pods were just to expensive for my taste.

So, I decided to attempt to make my own, but with a twist. I have created individual air filters for each carb. I also added adjustable flappers to the backside of the filters (where the air enters). I can ajust them from almost completly closed to all the way open. I thought that this might make it easier to tweak possible air flow issues. I will be installing them tomorrow and taking a cruise to see how they work.

Does this sound logical? Does anyone think it will work? My investment was about 35 bucks total.

Click to expand...

With K&N you're paying for their R&D as well as the cost of the filter itself. You don't say what you've made your filters out of but are you sure that they'll flow air better than the standard filter? Will you be able to clean them, and how will they perform when they get dirty?

Changing to use individual filters will affect the fuelling of the bike (one way or the other, depending upon how well your home made ones flow air) so you'll need to re-jet. Having adjustable flaps will mean the jetting won't be right except at a particular flap opening so while this may help with initial setup you won't want to move the flaps once you've got the jetting sorted. And the way you describe it makes it sound as if the flaps allow air to bypass the filters (or have I misunderstood?) in which case there's not a whole lot of point in having filters at all because the air will take the path of least resistance!

With a carburettor bike this kind of thing is a bit tricky without constant access to a dyno and lots of time changing jets. If you don't mind this then I'd say go for it, but it would be a lot quicker and easier to find commercially available filters that you know will flow as well as or better than the standard airbox and then get the bike jetted to suit.

I do appreciate, though, that half the fun is in experimenting