Eating my own words, YUM !!!

Well I'm one of the guys that has always said "I've NEVER had a problem with my REAL K&N pods in the rain, spend the money and buy REAL ones and you won't have a problem".
So much for that:pinch:
Sunday my son and I took off on the Z-1. Twenty miles from home the heavens opened up. We got 2 1/2" of rain in a little over an hour. While the bike still ran, it bogged down so much I had some worries. I could rev it up with the clutch in and it sounded fine, under a load it was bogging and just plan running like crap. I got off the main road and found a corn crib to hide out in until most of it had passed.There was so much water on the roads, we stayed on back roads at about 10- 15 mph until we got home SAFELY.
I now officially will eat my words.
I'm sorry to ANYONE who over the years I have slammed for the very same problem.
Pat
P.S. I now remember several of the reasons I HATE to ride in the rain.
1) It HURTS!
2) It's wet.
3) It's cold.
4) The REAL K&N pods DO SUCK in the rain ( you can
read that either way. )
5) People in cars are just plan STUPID when it rains.
6) I have to clean the whole damn bike AGAIN!
7) It's cold,wet and it HURTS !!!

do bikes with the stock airboxes not have a problem then?

cottoncandyninja wrote:

do bikes with the stock air boxes not have a problem then?

Far less. The majority of cheap pods let the water soak into them. Mine, from what I could tell blocked the air flow. Or maybe they were letting the rain it.
K&N's are oiled so I would hope / think it was blocking the majority of the rain..

Stock air boxes- You should not have any rain coming into it unless you have major problems.
My stock air box has it's air opening UNDER the seat at the top. My K&N's.. they grab all the air ( or whatever is out there ) since they are out in the open.

cottoncandyninja,
I've been caught in some torrential storms (sometimes for hours) on my KZ650C1 with the stock airbox and it never had a problem running smoothly in the rain. Unfortunately, as patmann said, the rain still hurts, is cold, is wet, etc. and I really hate getting caught in it. Ed

I've been caught in some torrential storms (sometimes for hours) on my KZ650C1 with the stock airbox and it never had a problem running smoothly in the rain. Unfortunately, as patmann said, the rain still hurts, is cold, is wet, etc. and I really hate getting caught in it. Ed

I second that. My KZ will run longer and better in the rain than I will.
I have the stock air box.

Post edited by: cafekz750, at: 2007/08/20 13:32

thanks guys

I certainly believe you had a miserable experience in the rain.
Have you considered that your troubles were ignition related? All that mist, water, rain, splashing, etc can wreak havoc on an ignition system that is not in perfect condition.

I certainly believe you had a miserable experience in the rain.
Have you considered that your troubles were ignition related? All that mist, water, rain, splashing, etc can wreak havoc on an ignition system that is not in perfect condition.

FloridaBiker wrote:

I certainly believe you had a miserable experience in the rain.
Have you considered that your troubles were ignition related? All that mist, water, rain, splashing, etc can wreak havoc on an ignition system that is not in perfect condition.

It wasn't the ignition system, of that I'm 99.99% sure;) But thanks for the help!
I have a new(er) Dyna S with all new gaskets on the covers nicely tightened down, my new(er) Dyna coils and new(er) Dyna wires are sealed so that there won't be a problem there either. And I have a brand new complete wiring harness on the bike with dielectric grease on all connections.
It didn't act as thou it was electric. It was just bogging down under a load. It reved up fine with the clutch pulled in. And runs fine now too.
.
I strongly believe it was just the amount of rain and the type of filters ( pods ) K&N or not. The filters had water sitting in puddles for lack of a better word, in the folds when I was at the corn crib :S When exposed to that amount of water something is going to happen.
We've had almost 10 inch's of rain in the last 48 hours!
At least the bike is nice and clean and sitting in a dry shop next to the GTO

Living with pods in Seattle, I deal with a lot of rain. I do experience poorer performance when it is wet, and it seems electrical. If the pods were to suck in water, how much would be needed to bog the motor? Wouldn't the outside pods suck in more than the middle two, causing only half of the cylinders to go off?

The previous owner removed the back fender, I put in a splash guard. This solved my bogging in the rain problem and I assumed it was due to protecting the electrics from tire spray. But this would also have served to keep water away from the carbs as well.

I don't know which is more affected, but it is a good point.