I'm an airbox believer

[hp1000s]

i wouldnt run v stacks if they gave'm to me, on vm carbs the backpressure from stock exhaust is needed, with stock springs as well
its all figured from the factory, thats why they run so good
take the air box off ,and theyll never run right with out a lot of work
plus you get caught in the rain, your motor is drownded out, i preferr the k&n stock style filters, or pods with the outside covers on them, my bike runs good, but power is like **** since i drilled out the pipes, (end of them)
they were rotting anyway
i would like a vance repackable kit , or stock ones again, its a sweet bike stock,and performs like crazy!!

Sorry to dis-agree, but I put almost 900 miles on my stack-equiped 1000S this weekend(my first real road trip since re-do) and it runs like a dream. Starts instantly, warms up/off the choke in 1 minute, and runs very well throughout the rpm range...also; got caught in the rain for about 15 minutes and no stumble at all. The most negative thing I can say about the set-up, is that in windy conditions, you can feel a momentary hesitation when a good cross-wind whips at you. I Also run a fully open Kerker race pipe (read zero back-pressure). I read the threads re: VM jetting here on the board(largely thanks to Keith Krause), and adapted for the pipe & stacks...I haven't even sinc'd (still on bench sinc) yet, but I've just gotten all the stuff to accomplish that, so we'll see if there's more improvement.

[earlfor]

I know a lot of people have changed to pipe/pods/rejett, but I have always found it to be far too much of a pain in the ass for something that produces no notable improvement in throttle response or midrange performance.

Earl

[blowerbike]

No way pods, pipe and jetting will take a full second off a GS bikes 1/4 mile time. You'd be luck to get 1/2 second.

this is within reason.
you have to figare in the weight savings from the stock exhaust being removed. .
tuned properly and with the weight savings...
a full second is within reason with the right conditions with a --> NON <-- ham fisted mechanic/tuner doing the work.
seven tenths to 1 second is realistic.
this would be for a 16v. 1100/1150.
this would also be under good conditions..this means a dead stock 1100/1150 will be very leannnn in good conditions.
a correctly jet kitted/piped 1100/1150 in good conditions can pick up one second over the same dead stock bike on the same day in the same good conditions.
all i am saying is...it is possible.

[earlfor]

this is within reason.
you have to figare in the weight savings from the stock exhaust being removed. .
tuned properly and with the weight savings...
a full second is within reason with the right conditions with a --> NON <-- ham fisted mechanic/tuner doing the work.
seven tenths to 1 second is realistic.

I'm not too sure about that one. With pods/pipe/jets, you will likely see about a 15 hp increase at top end. I dont think that is sufficient to reduce the quarter mile time by one second for a 550 lb bike plus rider. I'll have to give you a maybe on that.

Earl

[blowerbike]

I'm not too sure about that one. With pods/pipe/jets, you will likely see about a 15 hp increase at top end. I dont think that is sufficient to reduce the quarter mile time by one second for a 550 lb bike plus rider. I'll have to give you a maybe on that.

Earl

i added a little more to my origanal post

[tkent02]

I had two nearly identical GS1000s, one properly tuned for the pipe and pods, one with stock intake/exhaust.
One is very sedate, quiet, easy to ride, gentle, smooth, runs nice, very suitable for an old man. The other is seriously fun, lofts the front wheel easily, just as smooth, runs just as nicely, but scares me occasionally, feels way faster on top, and always gives me a big grin. Guess which one I sold?

[Sunburn]

WHy would you do that?? Honestly? Are you planning on racing it? Have you ever seen what happens to a street motor when Vstacks have been run on it for long periods of time? The airbox, and even pod filters do just that. They filter out the CRAP in the air and keep it out of your motor. I just dont know why anyone would run velocity stacks on an every day rider. If its something that you built to go ALL OUT on the track, or out in the middle of nowhere once in a while, fine, i guess, but not a regularly ridden bike. Just my opinion however.

LOL this guy i used to work with that ran in the street hot rod'n circles '80's used to laugh at velocity stacks and call them "dirt funnels"

[Road_Clam]

I know a lot of people have changed to pipe/pods/rejett, but I have always found it to be far too much of a pain in the ass for something that produces no notable improvement in throttle response or midrange performance.

Earl

Not to mention your fuel economy goes from very respectable, to "WTF, where's a gas station" !!

back in the late 80's I had one, and ONLY one bike with pods, and it was an '82 GS550, and granted I didn't know much at the time about street jetting at the time (only motocross bikes), but I tried, richer, leaner, and the bike just ran friggin horrible..... sold it 3 months later. After reading that awesome "Free Lunch" article, just comnfirms all my negitive thoughts on pods for the novice biker....

[hp1000s]

Not to mention your fuel economy goes from very respectable, to "WTF, where's a gas station" !!

back in the late 80's I had one, and ONLY one bike with pods, and it was an '82 GS550, and granted I didn't know much at the time about street jetting at the time (only motocross bikes), but I tried, richer, leaner, and the bike just ran friggin horrible..... sold it 3 months later. After reading that awesome "Free Lunch" article, just comnfirms all my negitive thoughts on pods for the novice biker....

I averaged a little over 37mpg on my trip...I'm running a 2.94 ratio sprokets, too.

[TheCafeKid]

Not to mention your fuel economy goes from very respectable, to "WTF, where's a gas station" !!

back in the late 80's I had one, and ONLY one bike with pods, and it was an '82 GS550, and granted I didn't know much at the time about street jetting at the time (only motocross bikes), but I tried, richer, leaner, and the bike just ran friggin horrible..... sold it 3 months later. After reading that awesome "Free Lunch" article, just comnfirms all my negitive thoughts on pods for the novice biker....

Jetted reasonably correctly, fuel economy doesnt suffer as much as one might think with the pods and pipe conversion. On a 2400 total mile trip i recently took, my WORST tank of gas was just over 37MPG, and my best was just over 50MPG. On a GS1100ES, pods, pipe, jet kit. Flogging the hell out of it part of the time in the mountains of WV.

This most recent WV trip, my WORST tank was 35mpg, two up, running well over the legal speed for most of the tank down WV33, with a bunk carb (one of my sync adjusters is stripped out, and, while i had it "fixed" for a bit, it became "unfixed" on the trip" AND, im actually a little bit rich on the pilot/needle transition.

Having said that, and having a bike that runs reasonably well with the pods/pipe/jet kit combo, if I HAD an airbox for this bike, it would be on it. There is a definate and noticeable difference in how the bike performs on any given day with the pods that is much less noticeable with an airbox. Me being the neurotic tuner that I am, I cant stand it. So, this winter, when the ES goes back to nearly stock, the box will go on it as well. OF course there will be other, slight modifications that will make it NOT as noticeable, but you'll have to wait and see for those...

[49er]

Having said that, and having a bike that runs reasonably well with the pods/pipe/jet kit combo, if I HAD an airbox for this bike, it would be on it. There is a definate and noticeable difference in how the bike performs on any given day with the pods that is much less noticeable with an airbox. Me being the neurotic tuner that I am, I cant stand it. So, this winter, when the ES goes back to nearly stock, the box will go on it as well. OF course there will be other, slight modifications that will make it NOT as noticeable, but you'll have to wait and see for those...

Good move.
In most instances, there's nothing stopping you from running the stock airbox and still getting the extra performance that most members seem to expect.
The trick is allowing more air into the box, at a controlled rate.

For those who must put larger carbs on, there are different sized airbox seals/v stacks to match the carbs up to the airbox. You'll need to enlarge the holes to match the larger seals though. Tuning is easier taking this route. However, using significantly larger carbs will result in biasing your torque and HP towards higher rpms, not ideal for street use.

[TheCafeKid]

Good move.
In most instances, there's nothing stopping you from running the stock airbox and still getting the extra performance that most members seem to expect.
The trick is allowing more air into the box, at a controlled rate.

For those who must put larger carbs on, there are different sized airbox seals/v stacks to match the carbs up to the airbox. You'll need to enlarge the holes to match the larger seals though. Tuning is easier taking this route. However, using significantly larger carbs will result in biasing your torque and HP towards higher rpms, not ideal for street use.

Aye...A "gentley" massaged head from Terry (headsbikesmopars) stock airbox with a KN drop in, and BS36SS carbies, 1150 cams degreed for a touch more punch in the mids, and on the pipe i havent decided...bone stock pipes (still flow rather well, albeit rather heavy as well) or a Yosh or my Supertrapp header... They all have their own unique sound, and for LOOKS sake, the stock system would make it a bit of a sleeper, if one could consider the GS11 a sleeper. But the headers are much lighter, and would put off that nice growl that lets everyone know you're a litrebike... Still hemming and hawing on that point.

[jabberjoe87]

its all jetting accordingly to the rest of the bike, i have pods on my bike and ride int he rain and bla bla bla and never have problems when it falls flat on its face thats the main jet being really lean when you crack that puppy open plus pods sound so cool when you roll on the throttle

[49er]

Aye...A "gentley" massaged head from Terry (headsbikesmopars) stock airbox with a KN drop in, and BS36SS carbies, 1150 cams degreed for a touch more punch in the mids, and on the pipe i havent decided...bone stock pipes (still flow rather well, albeit rather heavy as well) or a Yosh or my Supertrapp header... They all have their own unique sound, and for LOOKS sake, the stock system would make it a bit of a sleeper, if one could consider the GS11 a sleeper. But the headers are much lighter, and would put off that nice growl that lets everyone know you're a litrebike... Still hemming and hawing on that point.

Go with a good 4-1 pipe unless you're solely into bling!
Bottom end and lower mid range is sometimes better with the stock pipes, but it is possible to match them with stronger mid and top end performance with a correctly tuned 4-1. The weight saving is also significant in the power to weight equation. The other mods sound very reasonable, under the circumstances.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

No way pods, pipe and jetting will take a full second off a GS bikes 1/4 mile time. You'd be luck to get 1/2 second.

You're intitled to an opinion, like everyone else.
I never went to a track and verified what my best time would be when my bike was stock so there would be no point to go now. No other way to do a true test using my bike.
I can only give honest estimates and past experience to back me up but you've already made up your mind.
With completely stock bikes I believe a solid .2 or .3 can be shaved off simply by adjusting the cam timing better than how some 1000's came from the factory.
I can tell you a properly jetted '78/'79 GS1000 with quality pipe/K&N pods pulls a lot harder than the stocker. I've ridden them both. Back when my bike was new I had two friends that also had just bought new 1000's. We had the perfect test situation and we made lots of mistakes at first but we learned how to tune our bikes with these mods. One friend didn't want to play around with his bike until he saw mine beat a stocker by at least 100+' every time we raced.
There's at least one trusted member here (Bruce) that believes he shaved off a second and said so. I've raced several other bikes that were reported (per magazine test) to be approx' one second quicker than my models best time of 11.85 and won/lost some very close runs. I can't accelerate as well as those professional riders that did the 11.85 run but neither can most of the riders I've raced against, so using the magazine reports gives a fair idea of how much quicker the bike is. I've also heard many statements over the years suggesting the same performance increase but I can't prove it. I believe Kerker and V&H made similar claims for several brands/models but I don't know if they could prove it.
I could go on but without proof it wouldn't matter.
I believe one second off is possible. If in reality it's closer to .8 then so be it. I don't try to type thinking my words are under a microscope. "One second" is just part of a casual reply to someone. It's approximate or said in general. But I don't back down from it because I think it is possible and that many have achieved that result. I believe if Peewee Gleason (the 11.85 tester) rode my bike he could shave off one full second or very close to it.
And though I didn't elaborate before, complete re-tuning goes beyond properly jetting the pipe/pods, it includes adjusting the cam timing as I said and the ignition timing to work best with the new intake/exhaust changes. On the '78/'79 GS1000 this all makes quite a difference.