Pods vs Stock air box - CB550

[koonendez]

Anyone have a link to a thread already on this topic? I would love to hear some thoughts on the topic as it seems to have a difference in opinions. Thanks in advance

 

[Maritime]

There is a good thread here discussing in general how to do or not do pods etc. on various bikes. They can be done on any bike, but some are easy and some are almost impossible to get running right but all take some work to do it. Not sure on the CB550's specifics. I had them on my CM450 which was supposed to be one of the impossible bikes but I got it running good enough to hit the ton + and reliabley start, idle and cruise too.

 

[koonendez]

Thanks. Seems like a lot of work (bench syncing, etc) for not a lot of gain. Unless that is, there is a lot of gain?

 

[Maritime]

some bikes ther can be a lot of gain, others just best to leave the airbox. I also had modfied exhaust etc. and you need to bench sync and sync carbs not matter what, Pods involve rejetting and tuning above and beyond the basics.

 

[nrcb125]

I don't know if the 550s come with CV carbs stock but generally speaking, pods and CV carbs don't like to play nice.

Pods probably won't add a whole lot of performance unless you're racing because they're designed to suck as much air into the system as possible. You really don't need this unless you're giving it full throttle. You could look into poking a hole or two into the airbox like this http://www.ex-500.com/wiki/index.php?title=FOG%27s_Airbox_Mod.

As best I understand, unless you're running the piss out of your bike on a daily basis pods are mostly for the aesthetic look and not the performance.

 

[Maritime]

I don't know if the 550s come with CV carbs stock but generally speaking, pods and CV carbs don't like to play nice.

Pods probably won't add a whole lot of performance unless you're racing because they're designed to suck as much air into the system as possible. You really don't need this unless you're giving it full throttle. You could look into poking a hole or two into the airbox like this http://www.ex-500.com/wiki/index.php?title=FOG%27s_Airbox_Mod.

As best I understand, unless you're running the piss out of your bike on a daily basis pods are mostly for the aesthetic look and not the performance.

This makes sense, my 450 and my 210 lbs made me ride ir at WOT all the time LOL. I have stock airbox on the GL1000 and it only get WOT for a few seconds at a time.

 

[canyoncarver]

A CB550 does not have CV carbs so theoretically it's fine to do pods on it. You may have to change/tweak your jetting to get it to run right. Most of the time, it's not about performance, it's about looks.

 

[CarbsAndCylinders]

Pods only help your bike produce more power at full or nearly full throttle because that is when the engine is sucking in the most air. This doesn't make them a race only thing, everybody does full throttle. It depends on how much you want to get that little extra out of your bike. If they allow your bike to suck more air then you need to re-jet. They also almost always look better. As previously stated, your bike does not have CV carbs so it will be fairly simple. Go up a few main jets and do a plug chop.