question about pods

[Rijko]

Well...I question the "significant gains" part. A lot of the pipes that are tuned for reasonable sound don't make that much power. There is something to be gained, but 5% would be doing well and that's up top, not in the midrange.

semantics
Pods, rejetting and good pipes are considered worthwhile by most when looking for extra oemph.

[GS1150Pilot]

I dunno, Ed. On my FZ1, the addition of a full header/exhaust, an Ivan's jet kit and pods added over 15 horsepower and a good bit of torque. Sure, most of that was peak power, but it made a big difference.

[sam000lee]

Especially amongst the more experienced members who have awesome bikes that they know a ton about, and have gone through to make sure everything is up to speed, the `keeping the stock settings will get you optimal results' makes total sense and allows you to talk about things like the maximal horsepower you will get out of making such a change. Yeah, the bottom line is that stock works.

Lots of people, however, are in the boat where they bought an old motorcycle that has been mutilated by the PO (the general assumption on GSR is that the PO was a scumbag and did everything possible to sabotage your bike, so there will almost certainly be some monkey business, as Ed put it.) and are interested in tinkering and want to have a cool old bike because, well, motorcycles are cool.

That's the situation I was in when I bought my bike. It was pretty rough and I was interested in learning about how everything worked. Never having to take the carbs off again isn't necessarily an appealing argument to somebody like me (and I think at least some others) since I'm constantly messing with things on my bike. And by this I don't mean that I'm taking them off my carbs to clean them because I didn't do it right the first time.

After being annoyed with the airbox when I did have to deal with it, and realizing after I got my bike up and running well that I wanted to customize it to a certain extent, I made the call to get rid of it. I think it looks better, makes doing all kinds of things specific to my motorcycle easier, and I didn't any performance differences were negligible (good OR bad).

I say if you want to put pods on and are willing to put the time into doing it correctly than go for it. Like everybody said, don't get cheapo emgo pods.

[hannibal]

I echo Sam in that my bike came with good pods. My guess is the PO couldn't get it to run well with the old airbox so took a short cut and added pods and new main jets.

I like the look and ease of pulling the carbs so I'm sticking with the pods.

[Nessism]

I dunno, Ed. On my FZ1, the addition of a full header/exhaust, an Ivan's jet kit and pods added over 15 horsepower and a good bit of torque. Sure, most of that was peak power, but it made a big difference.

Some bikes respond more than others. I've got a header test from Joe Minton that was published in Motorcyclist magazine back in the day and the gains on the GS1100E were minimal and most of the pipes actually lost power. This test was run with a header and airbox lid off. Adding pods may change the situation to some extent but I don't think the gains will be anywhere near 15 hp. On the KZ Rider site they have a Cycle magazine article where they tested a bunch of different headers on a KZ and that test showed bigger gains. Most of the pipes made more power on that bike - up to 11% or something like that. Most likely the stock KZ pipes were poor performers (unlike stock GS exhaust systems). That article said most of the pipes were overly loud though. Loud pipes suck.

https://kzrider.com/filebase/category/2-general

[GS1150Pilot]

I'll check that PDF out. I haven't ever had the GS on a dyno, and it came with the big diameter Yoshimura pipe, so getting baselines would be out of the realm of possibility for my bike, but the change in carbs (Slingshot carbs), properly overhauled, with pods added, and then tuned with A/F in mind really made the bike snappier and definitely better in roll-ons.

[mmattockx]

Some bikes respond more than others. I've got a header test from Joe Minton that was published in Motorcyclist magazine back in the day and the gains on the GS1100E were minimal and most of the pipes actually lost power. This test was run with a header and airbox lid off.

And no rejetting for each pipe, which makes the test semi-worthless. As I said previously, I have an otherwise stock 1100E that made 102rwhp at 3400ft elevation with the back half of the airbox replaced by a large K&N filter and a Kerker 4-1. Since I added pods it is significantly stronger and I have jetted up a number of steps with the pods, indicating it is making more power than the 1/2 version solution ever did. I expect my Kerker pipe is much louder than you deem acceptable, though. If you want quiet (which I don't care about), then the stock airbox and exhaust is about as good as you can do on a GS. If you don't care about noise then pods and a good pipe will really wake your bike up. I know mine would eat a stock 1100E with no issues at all. Whether the extra performance is worth the extra exhaust volume and hours spent rejetting is something only an individual owner can decide.


Mark

[mharrington]

Yes Im replying to a 3 month old thread but here goes. Our bikes are all OLD. I always replace the throttle shaft seals on any bike I own. They are cheap but inconvienent to replace... BUT when bad will make tuning even HARDER wether stock or modded. My 83 GS1100E was low miles and very nice. The Throttle seals were rock hard shrunken and had corrosion where the rubber meets the aluminum carb surface. New OEM seals were soft. I ordered seals and butterfly screws. My 1100E has APE pods and a V&H 4 into 1. It runs FLAWLESSLY. Starts instantly cold or hot and humid. No flat spots no bogs. Just rips. My carbs were fitted with the Dyno Jet kit which I understand involves drilling a hole larger in the slide, new ADJUSTABLE needles with DIFFERENT taper and new main jet/jets. I have learned without the carb mods the DJ kit provides the performance will never be spot on. So if one wanted to do an inline 4 with known quality name brands it will require some skill and $$$. $500 for 4 into 1 (V&H) $110 for Dyno Jet kit and $80 to $200 for good pods (APE, Ram Air to K&N). This is already pricey at over $700 and if you pay a shop to do it all? Oh man!!!