As to performance increase justifying effort, unto each his own. To me it makes sense to spend energy on exploring the potential. Mebbe to some others it might not.

Let me say that I am not professing here that free-flows are the way to go and that they are miracles waiting to be exploited. It is just another step in the quest for less restrictions. There are two modes of thought on bikes that i have seen. Some like it stock. Others think their requirements are different from the pack and try to align the setup to their ideas. This is a matter of choice and i feel i cannot judge what another person feels is right or wrong.

I am yet to see the extent of performance increase possible with a free-flow so that is a question i dont have an answer at this point. I am convinced that none of us have been able to do too much with free-flow filters. The point i am not clear on is whether they are restrictions in the engine which are limiting their usage or is there room for improvements with the free-flow.

How would you check whether your engine has untapped potential if you had the time and energy?
Disconnect carb from filter and adjust jets it till it makes good power. If you went way up on the jets, it stands to reason that the stock airbox does not flow well enough. If so, maybe you need a free-flow.
If after all experimentation you land up with the stock jets making the best power, the stock airbox setup was probably the best. The free-flow will not help unless you figure out what else is the restriction and work on that.

exploring potential on what? sub 17 bhp bikes?

anyways, my personal preferance is keeping things stock. even the day i get a bigger bike, it will be kept stock.

i don't like to race, do stunts, or ride fast. i like to call my self the 'slow rider'!

call me old!

Well, K&N filters r supposed to be just a part of performance enhancing mods but as Nik said, the bikes by their own dont have enuf power..killing the bikes meant for commuting and cruising at best is almost non sensical..only money loaded ppl who can buy new powerful bikes pretty fast can afford such luxuries...where do we have the streets?..where do u want to exercise that 'potential'?...unless u entering in some races where actually these things come into play.
Stock is the way to go. Try to push the limits and improve ur riding on stock bikes & I guess thats the bigger challenge. the amount of satisfaction that u get from ur own hardwork is incomparable.

Anyway, we spoke abt the K&N...anybody knows how the stormrider filter works?..apparently the same manufaturers make it...but r much cheaper & available with KRP...I want to know if they r as effective as stock filters or similar to K&N in cleaning properties?...I definitely want the engine to live its age...

this may be a silly request but please do answer " will the K&N filters (on bikes) increase the power(pickup or top end)of the bikes ??and it's drawbacks on the engine's life!! "" Please do answer this in a easy language . Me thinking seriously to put a K&N on my bike . I'm glad that this topic showed up to me!!

THNx in advance!!

i suppose it does, joel said he touched 132kmph on redrage's 180dtsi right ?

Hey Thnx niks bro! Its a gr8 find n a very inetresting one. Thnx again!

any guys in delhi with k&n's coming for the meet this sat, please let me know.

@KILLADUDE : I think redrage has a ZMA and not a P-180. Correct me if i'm Wrong.

ok right i forgot....yeah so it did 132 with K&N's right

i wonder if anyone could try this ... just after it's freshly rained (so that all the dust and the pollution settles). take out the filter. go on a long straight and max the bike. check top speed and report here.

the guy who does this will get, ummm, i dunno, a chocolate or something?

hey bunny how about you try this? since you have already put your bike through so much! plus she's still in warranty right? first check speed with the filter and then without!

thanks in advance!

p.s: btw, you still owe me 100 bucks, remember! so if you do this, you dont need to pay me back!

I want to know about the initial too!

LOL! Now u know why i didnt buy a 4-stroker

i have to frankly agree that the performance of my bike is not very impressive now but the deal is the filter changes its behaviour very frequently when i remove the air box or pou it bak the performance is good but aft a few kilometres it saturates........ i dint get an explanation for this. i understand one thing that the filter only works better on high power bikes and i think the jets should be cahnged. correct me if wrong.....

hey red, post the pics of your spark plug here. want to see colour.

good 1 nikhil