Are there any nice looking Air filters that dont need to rejet the bike? Cheers

Enviado desde mi MI 6 mediante Tapatalk

I doubt it, if by "nice looking" you mean a pod filter setup or lunchbox.

And rejetting is only the start of the journey. It may be nearly impossible to get it to run right in all conditions even with rejetting. Just a heads up.

The GS really likes its stock airbox and filter.

People have gotten the K&N "Lunchbox" style filter to work but you must also have a free flowing aftermarket exhaust and appropriate jetting. All other "no airbox" style filters, especially the EMGO pod filters, are known to not work well with the GS500.

Personally, I don't see how the stock airbox looks bad. Its black plastic and you can't really see it.

Agreed. The stock airbox is well hidden in the frame. Far and away easiest to get the bike to run right with the stock airbox and paper filter. CV carburetors are not exactly easy to get working right. Read this forum enough and you'll find plenty of people struggling to get a bone stock GS500 to run its best. Throwing something like the wrong air filter(s) on it just makes it orders of magnitude more difficult.

Unless you are literally trying to show off pod filters... much like the hot rod guys with an air filter sticking out of a hole in the hood... in which case, it's aesthetic, hard to expect it to work well.

the lunchbox K@N filter I got came with a little rubber bit that came with it, to use as a restrictor. if you want a model number its SU-5589

That is the stock replacement K&N, not the lunchbox. You use the rubber piece if you have the stock exhaust and jetting to compensate for the fact that the K&N flows more air than the stock filter. It won't do you any good aesthetically since its hidden by the airbox just like the stock filter.

The "lunchbox" K&N is RU-2970. I don't know the history of where the term came "lunchbox" came from but I think its specific to GStwins (like "Goats" syndrome). The name probably refers to the shape of the filter which is very boxy. It replaces the original airbox and filter completely and attaches directly to the carburetor. It flows a ton of air, hence the need for a matching exhaust and jets. It gives the bike a nice growl sound.



Lots of air filter info on the wiki:
http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Upgrades.AirFilter

I will point out it's not so much that it flows more air. Both the k&n and the stock filter flow far more air than the GS needs. It's that the air is a higher pressure and lower velocity. Since they are constant velocity carbs you have to get jets that put more volume of fuel per unit time since the air is moving slower. Same amount of air is consumed with either filter. Same amount of fuel as well if you get the jetting right.

BTW this affects idle as well as main so you probably have to get up both jets.

Thanks!!! Maybe stick with stock one...might have to see how It looks further on in the build.

Enviado desde mi MI 6 mediante Tapatalk

Wait a minute, isn't the reason why the lunchbox gives such an issue on the GS. [sorry wrong model number I gave.. wrong receipt, I assumed] it's not the air pressure per-say. It's the turbulence caused by letting more air in, hence the need for a down stack. Often times you see ridiculous claims lead by the port/direct injected newer engine guys about down stacks improving performance. but really it's a carburetor issue, not a FI/DI issue.

So in this case I strongly believe that a couple of inches of "extra" pipe between a lunchbox and the carbs themselves would prevent the weird tuning issues with the stock exhaust.

J_Walker that's an additional problem with the K&N (or pods).

Also there's a potential resonance of the column of air as well which would improve performance at certain rpms, which made impossible with the use of the lunchbox or pods.

So in addition to having to rejet both jets just because of the air pressure/volume/velocity change, and potentially worry about the vacuum difference by such a change in terms of how the slide operates, you would also have irregular air delivery due to turbulence that you have to deal with, and that's probably a lot of what causes erratic idle and starting issues with these kinds of filters.

One other thing to be aware of is the effect on vacuum may also lead to starting difficulty since the petcock is vacuum operated, so there may be instances where the bike has to be put on prime to start. I would guess you might wind up having to put it on prime to idle in these conditions as well, at least to keep from depleting the float bowl fuel during extended idling due to low vacuum/closed petcock and then resulting in lean running off-idle or stalling after long idling.

Just stick with the factory airbox. It's mostly hidden by the frame. What little of it is not, you can paint it or decorate it somehow, put stripes on it or do whatever cafe racer kitsch makes it look like the rest of the bike.

I like the stock filter box, gives me something to screw my R@R too and gets losts of airflow.

the frame on the GS covers up the carbs, and air filter, can't even get the cool "clean cafe" look with pods w/ it anyway.