Pods vs Stock Airboxes

[shinyribs]

Well,I've been talking about how good my bike runs with pods on it forever now. The funny part is I've never rode a bike with the stock airbox on it. I have now,and the difference is HUGE!

The whole time I've been running pods i was completely satisfied,so they're not all bad. But the cross wind issue and cold weather is hard on them. In any temp below 40 F my bike would not really want to cruise down the highway. I would run the choke about 3/4 closed and it did fine. Riding this winter and constantly fiddling with the choke finally got to me so I decided to just pop the airbox back til it got warm again.

The throttle response and low to midrange power increased dramatically after putting the airbox back on. I cant comment on fuel mileage yet,but top end has definitely suffered.BIG TIME!  Normally I would consider that bad. But the real world useable power you gain with an airbox over pods is definitely worth the top end trade off.I find myself downshifting less. Taking corners in town one gear higher and even just going down the highway I can feel an increase in useable power.

Before,with pods,when I would be cruising at 60-65 mph the bike felt like it was fine. But if I went to pass someone it didn't really jump up and just zing around them,but it did OK. If i really wanted to pull around someone real quick i would normally downshift to 4th to pass. Not with the airbox. Rolling on the throttle at 65 to pass has gone adequate to pretty durn peppy! Impressive actually.If I had to guess I would say the low to midrange power had improved and easy 50%. Possibly more.It's not just noticeable,it's huge.

So,for all the times I've talked about how great pods are...well,here's me sticking my foot in my mouth. I'm sooooo impressed with the power difference that I know I'll never run pods again. There's just too much to lose. What more,I haven't even re-tuned the carbs. I do have a real bad stumble at the top of 1st & 2nd gear (WOT ONLY) where I'm too rich from being tuned for pods,so there is even more performance there that I can get once I'm properly rejetted. Oh,and my airfilter? Absolutely nasty. I blew the big chunks of poo off with an air hose and banged it on the floor to dislodge the bigger clumps of grease before I ran it. But yeah,it's funky.

So,long story short. The bike i've logged close to 15k miles on running pods that I thought was fine has very much improved with using what Honda spent all their R&D money on...go figureEven with a funky air filter!

[jcarroll]

That's depressing! I am pretty happy with the tune on my pods...or was. I don't ever have to choke it more than a minute at initial start up and it seems to be pulling strong and smooth throughout throttle range. Due to my frame mods the stock air box isn't an option anymore. I was thinking I would take my brothers bone stock 81 for a spin for comparison, now I think many not. Ignorance is bliss!

[Lucky 1]

[MarkPBG]

I have had an idea but don't have the skills to make it. I was thinking of running pods, but having an airbox around them made of clear high temp plexi. The airbox could fill that triangular area of the frame with flat sides where the old sidecovers were. That way, you get the look of the pods, but also they act as the air filter inside an airbox. What do you think? Doable?

[sgtslag]

It may be do-able, but I doubt it will work as well as the OEM Air Box.  I agree with Shiny:  Honda engineers spent a very great deal of time designing the system; they made trade-off's, to be sure, but I firmly believe they made the best compromises, overall.

With regards to the air filter, I would recommend either a K&N permanent filter, or create your own with UNI foam, and K&N filter oil.  My laser-calibrated, uber-accurate, Butt-Dyno showed me that the K&N Permanent Air Filter improved torque, acceleration, and fuel mileage, by an amazing 3%!!!  It also re-grows hair, cures nail fungus, solves the world's problems, and will put a smile on the Grinch's face...  Every time.  (YMMV)  Cheers!

[shinyribs]

LOL @ Sarge

Mark,I've got the same sort of thoughts going on myself.With the Hackjob bike I know a stock airbox will never fit in that frame so I'm trying to figure the secret of it. I don't know if it's the common plenum that helps it runs so much better or the shapes of the inlets. Since they are basically velocity stacks they would,in theory, help to straighten the incoming air to the carbs for better power,but that's usually a top end type of power trick.Velocity stack,that is. I don't know what to do yet,but if you stumble upon a miracle cure be sure to share!

Speaking of butt dyno here's my pods vs airbox butt dyno results.

Pods-top speed- 135 mph   cold air w/no wind can tickle 140
Airbox-top speed-115 mph :(

Also with the airbox 1st gear wheel spin went from noticeable to severe(if pushed) and 2nd gear wheel spin went from rare to not impossible upon request. Wheelies come up easier and can be held longer. Burnouts require much less throttle and a less severe clutch dump.

And my personal favorite...when cornering hard at 60-ish mph when you go for the 2-3 shift dont jump on the throttle too awful hard or the back end may loosen up a bit. The bikes ,that is,not yours. Yours may actually tighten a fair amount

[Piute]

        I got some strange idea's that I wont to make(fiberglass)
                                   but I didn't say anything
        Have an oil and batt. idea also ,these will come out as I need them after my frame
                                   been hacked on

[Half-Caf]

Nice write-up. Does that mean you'll be changing your avatar pic now?
Also, when did you become an admin??

[shinyribs]

Haha, Nah the avatar will stay. As far as the admin thing...somebody just hit the wrong button. Shhhh....don't tell em though.

[MarkPBG]

Really? 115? I can get mine to 160, the trick is to print the numbers in a different position on the speedo! LOL

[LukeM]

To be fair, he did put the MPH at the end, and not Seestheday's KPH. :-)
FYI, 60mph ~= 100kph.

Luke M

[MarkPBG]

LOL, yes, but I meant when you put a new face on the gauge, where you would normally paint the number 100 (MPH) you would instead paint the number 140 (MPH). See, that's the easy way to go fast.....shoot a gopro video of your ride and speedo with a custom job like that! lol
(HINT- It's cheating.  )

[shinyribs]

Haha. This bike has a Vapor speedo. It's calibrated in against 3 different GPS's. I like having a speedo that's dead on the money.

[shultz_1978]

I am happy with my ppods. My bike will do 45-65 some times 70 all day. It will go faster then 70 but the bugs get stuck in teeth, seat gets warm and wet and I have to head home to change my jeans.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Excellent testimonial 'ribsy thanks for the honesty!
 On "that other forum" they just bash and flame you for typing the word "pods". So it's nice to hear from someone that I trust their mechanical ability who actually tried them. Helps to know you gave them a real honest effort.
 Since you said your air filter was really dirty and you think it's running rich on the big end.... I wonder if just replacing it with a clean one would help. After all these bikes were built in the original gas crunch era and the EPA was crackin down on emmisions so Mother Honda was tuning them rather lean from the factory.
It would be nice to find that cured it before going back into the carbs again.