I fitted some new pipes to add a pleasing sound track to the bike, but was quite surprised that they made a huge difference to the bike in terms of improving midrange and pick up etc. 

I was wondering if fitting a K&N air filter or similar would improve matters further, without resorting to a power commander.  Any views?

Dont do it without a powercommander. Since your bike is an M1000 you have the option to do this fairly easily.

I would suggest PODS if your are planning to go with this setup..TPO setup is very good for this.

QuoteDont do it without a powercommander.

+1.  I am surprised that you had an improvement even with just the exhaust without a power commander. Exhaust  by itself does not improve things without a change in fuel/air settings.

There's more difference in changing the filter than changing the exhausts.

There is some disagreement about pods versus open airbox.  The airbox can actually increase airflow over pods because of the shape and resonance characteristics.

Quote from: Manx on August 22, 2008, 09:44:51 AM
I fitted some new pipes to add a pleasing sound track to the bike, but was quite surprised that they made a huge difference to the bike in terms of improving midrange and pick up etc. 

I was wondering if fitting a K&N air filter or similar would improve matters further, without resorting to a power commander.  Any views?

Ducati stock filters actually flow pretty well for a paper filter.

You'll see more results from opening the airbox...

but will need a PC

If you have a smaller displacement wet clutch bike then the increase in power for opening the air-box (even with a PCIII remap) will be marginal.  I wouldn't do it unless I had a bigger bike.  Also try riding around the block once with your air box removed to see if you even like the loud intake noise.

mufflers alone can make a huge difference, even to part throttle running.  my 750 is much faster with the open mufflers on it, especially in the mid range.  and they impact response a lot too.

how much it varies the mixture depends on the model ime.  not so much on a 1000, 800 always seemed to lean out a lot, 620 not much at all.  air box lid doesn't make as much difference mixture wise as many think.  a high flow filter on its own won't really do anything - the std filters are more than big enough to not be an issue.

Quote from: brad black on August 25, 2008, 06:18:48 AM
<snip> air box lid doesn't make as much difference mixture wise as many think.  <snip>

Do you think that's true with carbed bikes too?

i think it makes a lot of difference to how the carbs work.  maybe not so much to the jetting per se, but they just don't want to run without the lid and std jetting.  more to do with signal strength and slide lift, that sort of stuff i think.  i don't really understand cv carbs in why they'd react the way they do to the open lid.

we run 900ss with open lids with the same 140 mains as they have std.  i think they're a bit too rich std, but not hugely.  whereas a monster wants 155.  dunno why.

my monster ended up with 165 (dynojet) with a swiss cheesed lid and a K&N.   

http://vmaxoutlaw.com/tech/dyno-mikuni.htm

much the same.

Quote from: brad black on August 26, 2008, 06:11:16 AM
http://vmaxoutlaw.com/tech/dyno-mikuni.htm

much the same.

Thanks for that....

Never saw that chart.   

added to bookmarks

What about running a K&N (or similar) filter with the air box lid still on?  Would that require a PC or might I get away with not?  My suspicion right now is that my bike is running a tad rich, but I still need to pull the plugs to verify...

thx,
b.

Quote from: b. on August 26, 2008, 11:09:24 AM
What about running a K&N (or similar) filter with the air box lid still on?  Would that require a PC or might I get away with not?  My suspicion right now is that my bike is running a tad rich, but I still need to pull the plugs to verify...

thx,
b.

What bike?