Ok, this is admittedly nuts sounding, but I keep looking at my bike's frame where the intake openings are, and at the frame where theres a hole on either side of the headlight, and I constantly think to myself, that I could fab up a ram air induction system in there real easily if I tried.

would I actually GAIN anything from rigging up a ram air induction system in there? or am I just dreaming here?

 

i suppose you could reason it out.

for instance, those who run without bodywork. when those 2 holes on the frameare not covered by bodywork, the bike tends not to run very well because of the way air is entering the airbox, pretty close to ram air since air is not impeded by bodywork. hence the reason for needing to cover up the holes somewhat. this pretty much means that the bike is tuned to run on "still" air rather than ram air.

i do not think this bike was designed to run a ram air setup. i've pondered this for many hours myself and only really gained any insight when those running a streetfighter type setup complained of having problems and the solution. it would be neat to duct air from either side of the headlight but the ducting would have to run around the fork tubes. i'm sure honda had tried something of the sort as they do pretty good design work.

i believe the other problem with ram air on this bike would be fueling. more air, leaner condition which would facilitate the need for richer setting at greater throttle openings.

there is a special way ram air setups on newer bikes are run, both at low rpms and high rpms and throttle openings. not just a matter of getting more air into the airbox. - this was bothering me all night long because i could not think of it. there is an air reservoir that the carbs draw from when at a stop or low speed.

also, when these bikes were raced in the day, noracer was using any sort or ram air and i am pretty sure that a bunch of race teams had thought of it and even tried but had a different outcome when tested.

if you want an answer to this question, call factory pro. they have quite a bit of experience tuning this model bike. for sure they can tell you if ram air would work or not.

 

If you look closely on some of the old racing photos(Doug Polen)you can see tubing routed from the signal light openings... so it has been done. How sucessfully? I don't know. Back in the old days the bike was strong enough that they didn't add the tubes... It was the two campers and the bear story...they didn't have to outrun the bear, just the other camper.

 

Well, I've been consulting a few buddies of mine who build dragbikes, and have a LOT of experience in the field, with some tuning, I think I can make it work relatively well for general cruising around. I"m not looking to outrun much on the old girl, she's plenty able to outdo 90% of production cars on the road as it sits anyhow, if not closer to 99% of em.

MY main reason for wanting to do this, is just because I can, and I like trying new stuff to see HOW well it works out, or doesnt work out.

 

Let me know what you come up with. After my rr front end swap there will be a setup for ram air, it would be nice to know I didn't have to block them off.

 

If the motorcycle (or any vehicle for that matter) is carburated and the only thing you do is fabricate the ram air induction setup to it you may harm the engine.

michigan_313 is right when he says more air without more gas equals leaner condition. What happens is that when the ram air setup starts working (which would be when going faster, obviously), you are pressurizing the carbs solely from the inside out, and by the carburators nautre, it uses vacuum; therefore, without increasing fuel pressure as ratio of above atmospheric pressure the carbs are being fed, you are actually forcing air pressure onto the jets backwards-creating the lean condition. If the pressure being fed to the carbs superceeds the fuel pressure (unlikely) you would actually be forcing fuel backwards from your carbs to your tank.

In other words, to make it work, the all the carbs would either a)Have to be enclosed in a boxso that the "boost" being created by the ram air would effectively pressurize the whole carb (including fuel bowl), or b) boost reference the float bowls with "boost" pressure.

You can think of what you are trying to do like adding a turbocharger (ram air being much less efficient) without modifying the fuel system to compensate for the increased air being consumed by the engine.

 

AAAAAHHHHH.... Head.... imploding......

 

hi i did it and my cbr wouldnt pick up . it ran like s..t . its best if you leave them alone . when i got my cbr it had no fairing so i streetfightered it . it kepty bogging down evry one thought it was a fuel problem but it turned out to be the two holes in the frame they didnt like it as ram air . i put a fairing on it and it ran great

 

So, what solutions have you guys found, other than putting fairings on, to fix the holes in the frame, air problem? Can you just cover the holes up all together, or just slightly so as to not take too much air from the bike?

 

I noticed on my frame what looked like little bolt holes, suggesting you could fab up a little sheetmetal shield to help smooth out the airflow going into the intake ducts. other than that, I'm not really sure what to suggest trying.