I got the lightech today and the DNA filter may be better. The Lightech hs the washable material but the area is not larger than the stock air filter. The DNA by its pictures has a larger filter material area. With that said I did 20 miles and here are my impressions.
At first the idle cold seemed slightly smoother but nothing appreciable. Took it real easy the first 3 miles to warm up the engine, all felt normal at about 35 MPH cruise for that period. Now warmed up started to try noticing any changes.
The first impression is the idle is smoother. You can still tell it is a thumper but it is slightly silkier and more consistent. It now sticks and hold 1,600 RPM on the money all the time. Couldn't explain at first why but I will get to that later.
For the next 5 miles in town I noticed the engine responded to throttle acceleration more rapidly. It was pretty fast before but now feels almost instant. Seat of the pants feel a bit more mid range responce but at first I attributed this too placebo effect but discount that now. Again I'll get to that later.
Finally got to the 50, run at 50 MPH, highway. Acceleration felt slightly brisker out of the jug handle but I could not explian this right away. Now after a mile a light came up and I had to let off the throttle and this is where it all started to make sense.
As I let go of the throttle the engine breaking was no where near I was letting off the gas in the car. I had my position pre planed b efore doing so to avoid hitting the breaks but now I had to as I was now slowed down as much as anticipated. Next light same thing again so now things were starting to click.
Just to be sure I tried other deceleration speeds and the same effectt. Most notably if you let the throttle off to about 15 MPH the bike transitioned hard from hitting the throttle. The transion is no where near as hard now. The same can be said where apr 10 MPH is reached and the clutch lets go to a coast. you still feel it but the transition is not as hard.
Now to my theory of why, all engines have to over come many resistance factors. This includes that of drawing air especially when through a high resistance air filter. Thumpers are effect more so as the lowered rotational mass and the fact other power pulses do not exist to help over come those high resistance air intakes to a cylinder. It is bad enough the compression stroke tries to slow the piston down but adding air intake stroke as well makes alot for the power stroke to over come. Not that there is still resistance on the intake stroke but it is reduced some what.
In lay terms it is like having engine driving an air pump that would eat some power that would cause the extra engine breaking effect. Now with the new air filter you have effectively removed the air pump from being driven by the engine to release the power to the rear wheel. Same goes for idle, since there is a lowered power draw the thumper can run more smoothly.
To put it another way, even though the air cleaner was clean, the change is like that of changing an old dirty air filter to a new cleean one. The engine seems just that happy with the added air flow capability of the new material. I was only hoping for just a washable air filter but it seems there are some other bennefits.......................
Edit; did a short WOT from a 10 MPH roll. It seemd to get to 6,500 RPM a tad quicker but that is all I noticed as only brought it to 40 MPH.....
