Ramair filter arrived...

To the best of my knowledge, Art - least-ways that's what we (Battersea and I) were told would happen - Filters went out FOC to more tuners than just Wayne and Nev.

I understood from their sales manager that Bob Carpenter was to receive one too for example. If he (they) did not than that's between RAMAIR and their selected "tuners". If they did not go out and other tuners wish to do a head to head - I'm sure RAMAIR will oblige with filter. Carpenter was who RAMAIR wanted to send to, Battersea and I made them aware of Nev and Wayne as well. They had other tuners in mind but I don't know who - UK based at a guess.

  • Wayne may have more important things to do - He's been pretty quiet recently generally.
  • Nev pretty much made it clear he runs a business not a parts benchmark facility.

Some customers also may well ask for their data NOT to be made public. Certainly in the EU it's become a risky issue as insurance companies will use ANY modifications as an excuse not to pay out. I know of one case here involving a Hayabusa. They guy was a bit of a prat - and was really caught for something else really f*cking stupid - but they piled on "invalidated insurance" for good luck.

My $0.02 is that many who've fitted a RAMAIR were not per-se after performance. More after a simple easy to get at solution that freed up the filter box.I was after something that breathed better than a single under tank filter - but did not make the horrendous noise the K&N's did. So much so I modified an outer plenum to see if it could be done. Even that breathed better than K&N's (based on my only source of reference - the PC5)

All I have to base my technical thoughts on is that my PC5/AT has increased fuel pretty much across the board compared to when it had K&N's fitted. And as PC5/AT simply strives to maintain a given AFR - more fuel means it was/is getting more air.

Since fitting Les's Aussie Bear-claw it's enriched again but only at higher rpms (4000rpms and up) and not much. I've not changed any exhaust etc since 2010 - but it's not standard - so on other headers/tailpipes it could run differently.

It feels as if it runs smoother and accelerates faster - but that is ONLY a personal subjective impression. But unless I'm forced to remove it - I wont be.

iirc Nev discovered it was almost up with big (4040?) K&N's. but this fits under the claw - and I know that was a (if not THE) MAJOR point of Batterseas design - INVISIBLE UNDER THE CLAW. i.e. look stock. The only real reason I became involved was that Battersea could not road test the prototype due to pending hospital engagements - So I collected it from him on a UK trip and did the first runs over here.
 
GOOD reply but why not see the testing completed correctly I asked for the filter to test on my Rocket as I would have tested it as soon as I received filter BUT BOB Carpenter doesnt have a test bike in the shop SO I asked him today about testing I cant ride mine in as it is cold and snowy SO we will not have an answer for a while SO ???????
 
Art, believe me I am a little disappointed too.

But I can fully understand why folk put their day to day business or personal life ahead of testing. I am blessed in having a job that gives me a lot of free time (though very little money). But so many do not, including my wife.

And I'll bet nobody pushed K&N to provide comparative numbers. Was guys like Wayne, and yourself who over time - did testing and made those numbers available. But I'll bet even so other were fitting stuff in parallel or before you published.

If I was in a position to do a comparison at reasonable cost with a Dyno operator I trust - I would have. I can personally understand the problems of justifying the cost of a Dyno run just to see what difference a filter has made but I would like to know what bhp I have. There are (afaik) no braked dynos in Spain. The only dyno anywhere near me has a terrible reputation for overcooking engines. I have a friend who builds and maintains track bikes but he can't justify a braked Dyno so has a simple inertia one that he pretty much made himself. He is open that this would not do justice to the R3 due to the massive torque.

So far everybody who has contacted me "offline" for my opinion has been either doing the change as part of something bigger - new exhausts etc OR has (like myself) no access to a Braked Dyno and uses a PC5.

As time goes on, I'm sure that as happened with K&N's more and more folk will have Dyno runs. One problem I guess was the release's timing. It was towards the end of the Northern hemisphere riding season - I only had the prototype at the end of Sept - that's not even 3 months ago.

Over what you and I call winter - we're dependant on the Aussies.
 
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I must say I'm a little perplexed that anyone would expect significant gains from a filter alone. There seems to be evidence that it not only works fine, it can handle the demands of other mods to the engine. Isn't that the point? It works? And is a legitimate substitute for stock as well as the lower end (size wise) K&N and unifilter options, whether triples, under seat or under tank. In fact, as soon as someone comes out with "proof" of a big power increase from just this filter, I'll stop believing in it.
 
I am not about to get into a pissing match about a set of air filters. I was asked to see if these filters were as good as the little K&N's which go under the bearclaw. This is because many folk wish to retain the bearclaw. I tuned a bike with exhaust and RU1770 filters( which are much better than 2780s), then fitted the Ramair as a comparison. I checked the tune of the bike and it did lose average of 2 ftlbs and 1-2 hp across the range. To me that was a very GOOD result. The Ramair filter is better then the little K&N's and fits under the bearclaw well. A week or two later I had a customer with a classic with Jardines of the day on it. I fitted some street cams to it and a Ramair filter and tuned the bike. I have done quite a number of these bikes with Jars and K&Ns or Unifilters, under the claw, and never gone over 169hp with that combo of parts, so to get at least 3 hp MORE while still retaining the bearclaw, that again is a good result. The exhaust is what holds back the numbers in that combo. I am sure it is not the most high performance filter on the market, but I believe it is absolutely up to what it was designed for/to do. I made the effort to do this partly for you guys here and partly because the Ramair guys sent me one to test. So it is tested. Merry Christmas to all, have a safe one.
 
Well said Nev...