breaking wind?!

I ride the back roads to work which the speed limit is 50. When I get my bike (77' kz650) up to 60-65 mph the engine would bog down. I had no clue to what it was. yesterday I was riding home and the wind was coming hard at my side, I had to lean the bike to go straight! when hard gusts would hit the bike I noticed that it would bog down. So I covered the intake pods with my legs and it was just fine. when I uncovered them and let the wind hit them it would bog down. Has anyone heard of this and what have you done to fix it. I would really like to be able to cruise at 65 mph without it bogging down.

When I first joined my question was about pods vs airbox. The feedback I got was that wind turbulance could cause exactly what you're describing if I went the pod route. So I'm sure you'll get varied opinions as I did. I'm sticking with the airbox.

I just bought the bike a few weeks ago and it came with pods. the pods are the foam ones. I was wondering if going with other pods might make a difference?

mr anderson wrote:

I just bought the bike a few weeks ago and it came with pods. the pods are the foam ones. I was wondering if going with other pods might make a difference?

IF you continue to use pods ( I have them and they have been on the bike since 1977) invest the money and buy K&N. And not some knock offs. Only REAL K&N's have K&N marked on them. There are a lot of sellers on ebay who claim they are K&N or "K&N style"
They aren't cheap, but again, IF you want to stay with pods, they are worth the money , IMHO.

As far as will K&N's stop your present problem?? I can't honestly ever remember having the same problem as you described :huh: . But then again, I'm old and forget things all the time.

I had a Honda CB500 with K&N's on it and I don't recall it ever bogging down in a crosswind.

I've heard of some riders fabricating side shields out of beer cans. Probably be a good material at least for a mock up.

KZCSI

The cross wind loss of power with pods has been reported in many threads I have seen.

For awhile, I thought maybe the twin wouldn't have that problem. We've recently had some heavy winds, and have noticed, not so much loss of power, but a surge. Been thinking of fabing a shield out of a wide mouth plastic bottle.

I think I may fab up two billet side covers.

Ahhh, the joy of pods! I used to run them and gotta say carb removal is a 5 minute job for sure but way too complicated with jetting, high/low pressure air, side covers popping off, etc. I know a lot of guys spend the time to get them dialed in and the bikes run great. Not enough patients here, I'll stick with my K&N in the stock air box.

But yes, I've seen some attractive half covers made for them, if you use a soda, beer can (good idea!) mount it with the "brushed aluminum" (inside) out, looks pretty cool.

Pods with CV -carbs have been mentioned to be problematic. I had that set-up and there were some problems. The cross winds and turbulence affect the vacuum slide and causes irratic run or bogging.

With flat- or round slide push-pull -carbs (Mikuni VM / RS / TM etc) I haven´t heard of big problems, but I´ve heard of big improvements in power. I now have 33 TM´s and it just pulls like a freight trainB) And the sound of that intake suction...oh-man:woohoo:

I like the sound of those! Maybe I'll try them and see if they fix the cross wind problem. where could I view the product and prices of those filters?