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Hi All,
I installed a K&N filter on my '04 750 Katana and want to share my experience with everyone. Hopefully, it may help others in their decision to install the unit or not. Well, installation was fairly straight forward and it was simply a matter of removing the old air filter and replacing with the K&N unit. As an aside, be sure that the supplied gasket is facing into the filter unit as the supplied diagram a little misleading. I used the smaller donut supplied with the K&N kit.
Once installed I started the bike and didn't notice any hesitation but there was a slight idle speed drop. After adjusting the idle speed, I decided to take the bike for a spin. During the previous day's riding I made a mental note of several bike performance characteristics that I would want to compare with post K&N installation. It must be noted that I did not engage in any detailed analysis, hard number comparison or use any scientific methodology.
The test day was nice and the temperature was aound 19 degrees Celsius (that's about 67 degrees Fahrenheit). Now in the saddle I cruised around on the bike until I got to the desired operating condition. I decided I would hit the highway first since I was more concerned about higher-end performance. After finding a stretch of highway I decided I would open it up and see if the K&N allowed my system to aspirate better.
Top gear roll-on power was improved slightly and it seemed to hit the 130kph mark a little faster. The improvement was small but still noticable. I gained speed quickly and it seemed the bike was hitting the higher revs faster. However, I did notice on a couple of occassions the rev indicator seemed to hover momentarily around the 8k mark and then accelerate quickly. It didn't feel like my clutch was slipping so I was not sure what could be at issue. While at WOT I noted that I gained at least 5kph on top speed as I was at 240kph, with a small amount of juice left. On previous occassions I could not break the 235kph barrier.
Not wanting to risk a speeding ticket I headed back towards home. While in town I did a series of starts and stops. I didn't really sense a lost of capability in this regard although at times I felt some launches felt a little 'softer' than previous recollections. However, it wasn't enough that I felt any disatisfaction with the result. There didn't seem to be any significant low-end performance hit, which was also an important consideration.
Verdict: A worthy addition but not a must have for the motorcycle. As far as filtration capabilities I understand it may not work as well as a stock filter. Nonetheless, the K&N filter did appear to work as advertised.
I installed a K&N filter on my '04 750 Katana and want to share my experience with everyone. Hopefully, it may help others in their decision to install the unit or not. Well, installation was fairly straight forward and it was simply a matter of removing the old air filter and replacing with the K&N unit. As an aside, be sure that the supplied gasket is facing into the filter unit as the supplied diagram a little misleading. I used the smaller donut supplied with the K&N kit.
Once installed I started the bike and didn't notice any hesitation but there was a slight idle speed drop. After adjusting the idle speed, I decided to take the bike for a spin. During the previous day's riding I made a mental note of several bike performance characteristics that I would want to compare with post K&N installation. It must be noted that I did not engage in any detailed analysis, hard number comparison or use any scientific methodology.
The test day was nice and the temperature was aound 19 degrees Celsius (that's about 67 degrees Fahrenheit). Now in the saddle I cruised around on the bike until I got to the desired operating condition. I decided I would hit the highway first since I was more concerned about higher-end performance. After finding a stretch of highway I decided I would open it up and see if the K&N allowed my system to aspirate better.
Top gear roll-on power was improved slightly and it seemed to hit the 130kph mark a little faster. The improvement was small but still noticable. I gained speed quickly and it seemed the bike was hitting the higher revs faster. However, I did notice on a couple of occassions the rev indicator seemed to hover momentarily around the 8k mark and then accelerate quickly. It didn't feel like my clutch was slipping so I was not sure what could be at issue. While at WOT I noted that I gained at least 5kph on top speed as I was at 240kph, with a small amount of juice left. On previous occassions I could not break the 235kph barrier.
Not wanting to risk a speeding ticket I headed back towards home. While in town I did a series of starts and stops. I didn't really sense a lost of capability in this regard although at times I felt some launches felt a little 'softer' than previous recollections. However, it wasn't enough that I felt any disatisfaction with the result. There didn't seem to be any significant low-end performance hit, which was also an important consideration.
Verdict: A worthy addition but not a must have for the motorcycle. As far as filtration capabilities I understand it may not work as well as a stock filter. Nonetheless, the K&N filter did appear to work as advertised.
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