[keithb]

Anyone contemplating the purchase of the jd's jet kit, I say Buy it! I just installed this kit, did the airbox mod and drilled a half inch hole in the baffle diffuser. MY BIKE JUST CAME TO LIFE! it is amazing the difference that it made, i can take sharp corners in 3rd gear now instead of having to "scream" 2nd or smoking my clutch.
My thanks goes out to ~ who helped out with a few "dummy" questions. This site is awesome!!!

[JJ]

Is it me, or does anyone else have a hard time having to chop up a perfectly good bike? It pains me so much that the X model requires so much surgery. The jetting issues are bolt on's, but the airbox hacking, and the baffles drilling seem a bit extreme to me. Can you image what the bike would be like if it were 20 years ago, and had the same technology we have today?

I do have to say that the four stroke technology has grow so much in the last 6 years. I had a 2001 Honda TRX400EX I purchased new, and the only thing I had to do to it was jet it. They did have an airbox mod as well, but that seem to be about it. I am amazed at the aftermarket products available now compared to just 6 years ago.

Jeremy

[Monkeywrench]

JJ:
I thought the same thing (about hacking up the airbox) for the longest time. Mainly because I viewed it as a change which couldn't be reversed. But after a full 2 years of riding it (original owner) and doing everything to it I could to get more power and better response (short of singing it a lullaby) I decided it made sense. Anytime you can get more air into the combustion chamber, that means you can increase the amount of fuel. This argument just made sense to me so much that one night I went in the garage and just plain did it. Only took all of about 20 minutes to do, but have enjoyed the results every ride since. Yes it does expose more surface area of the air filter to incoming dirt, but if/when you are comfortable doing the cut, wait till you see how much more air does get pulled into the airbox (shows up as a square patch of dirt on the top of the filter, just below the square hole you cut). I was surprised to see it "want" that much more air. But it puts it to good use.

So while it seems extreme, if you compare it to a 250R, it's actually being choked, since all the race bikes have a large filter access opening beneath the seat, where all their air enters in. In comparasin, the square hole you make will actually be smaller than the race bike's.

Just some food for thought. It's never fun taking a knife to a new anything, except when it produces results you wish you had benefitted from months and months earlier!

Happy slice and dice (well maybe someday you will)!
matt

[JAWS]

Emissions are the reason it is so choked up. You have to give it the air that it really needs to perform. It is rideable as is, but not the beast that waits within!

Don't look at it like it is hurting the machine, but as it is helping. That is truly what it is doing.

Joe

[Old Dude]

If your kid had asthma would you let him suffocate just because that was the way he was made? I think not! Open that dude up and let it breathe
O.D.

[Halen]

Don't think of it as 'chopping up a perfectly good bike'... think of it as chopping up a poorly designed bike to make it 'perfectly good'
believe me... I contemplated every conceivable option not to do any 'permanent modifications'... and was left with a perfectly good, poorly running bike.
so... as my father used to say. 'chop, chop, let's get 'er done!'
Van...

[Monkeywrench]

Don't think of it as 'chopping up a perfectly good bike'... think of it as chopping up a poorly designed bike to make it 'perfectly good'
believe me... I contemplated every conceivable option not to do any 'permanent modifications'... and was left with a perfectly good, poorly running bike.

Well said, Halen. That captures it right there.

[Halen]

Thank my pappy...