Lennies : Any noticable difference?

[Boxermed69]

Yup, Mike certainly has point looking at it objectively, but we tend to only do this when considering things that don't affect us directly, or interest us. When it comes to your own motorbicycle it's 'subjectivity - a large portion, yes', and heart often rules head. Good job wallet has the casting vote

I love my 11S because it's a quirky, flawed but characterful twin. Got the IL4 t-shirt - no longer does it for me. It's torquey and handles nicely as it is (I think), but I want to optimise and personalise the bike for me. I've spent many an hour on this site and elsewhere soaking up information and questioning those with the knowledge and expertise. On the back of this I'm busily collecting bits and bobs as I can afford it. If I stopped to consider cost vs benefit (the accountant's curse) and applied cold logic I would flog the bike, swap my MINI for a sensible thrifty diesel car and invest the money for retirement Mind you, if I had a desirable highly-modded classic stinkwheel to tinker with I'd probably be perfectly content with a largely standard R11 as well!

Mike

[Hayden]

Just my 2p worth,

Induct, yes. but air filtre first, you can chuck all the air you like at it, but it hits a barn door ( small one at that) when it gets to the filtre, this results in low pressure in the chamber ( probably flattens torque and makes responce predictable)

Not entirely sure about the individual filtres, I can see the reasoning but there relying on atmospheric pressure, ( see above comment on chamber) the intake is having to draw the air in rather than it being forced in so there is no velocity. Didn`t race bikes go through this process in the seventies?

there are many piece`s to the puzzle but ultimately ( and many £`s later) you will end up with 8-10hp more, probably where you don`t use /need it. BMW spent loads on development etc, lightening, electonincs, bore of the engine etc, its called an R1200s, go one step further, lighten more, tune the motor more, add a couple of electronic gizmos and bling and you get a HP2s......A Fireblade will still piss all over them.

But so what, that`s not the point, the R11 is a lovelly bike, and who doesn`t enjoy a bit tinkering.

Incendently, I do run a Lennies induct.. and rocket sprockets... oh, and a accelerator module,..... oh and laser silencers....chipped, with Y-piece. ( I also have just got off an CBR-600- FS1, so have some kind of comparrison, and that`s the thing, weight!)

Performance?, the best advice anyone ever gave to me was, spend the money on petrol, have fun and enjoy it, but most of all use it!

[Dai wiskers]

Talking to my Ann the other night and i said with the money i have spent on this i could have bought a nice shiney bike that had never been writen off

I think she summed it up perfectly when she replied "Yes but it wouldn't be your bike then you would spend just as much making it go and handle like yours then you would spray it matt black cos thats what you do"

Would i buy a induct from lennie? probably yes if i could justify it to myself i think i would [but its three weeks+ pension for me]and i feel the money was better spent on a hagon shoc for the front

The rocket sprockets are IMHO worth every penny they realy do make the bike noticably better for every day riding

My bike goes and handles how i like it if i'm out with a group i can easily keep up i don't get left behind and often feel the group could get a move on
Now and again i will have a hot head on and will purposly[spellin] go looking for the power ranger brigade they can lose me on the straights but i piss them off in the corners
when i first got the bike on the road i could see the potential that was there it was getting it out that cost many pounds, skinned knuckles, and hours but i feel it was all worth it and that's what counts
It's your bike do what you feel you need to make it yours Dai

[sandbar]

Holes in the snorkle i'm not sure on that one i think Sandbar tried this one on the dyno and found it no help.

Yes I did. It was an instant loss of 5 bhp - losses pretty much from 4000 rpm upwards.

I applied dimly remembered theories from O and A level Physics and drilled a couple of holes where I considered low pressure might exist. I covered the holes with a few layers of duct tape that could be reached from outside the bike. The tape could be removed very quickly so that a comparison could be quickly made! From memory the results were as I stated above.

More details and pictures must be on here somewhere, but it will be 7 or 8 years ago.

sandbar

[slparry]

Couldn't Lennie do a fibreglass cheap model for us tight wads? I tend to feel having a pretty carbon one is overkill when it's hidden away in the depths of the bodywork.

[Blackal]

Or a Blue Peter one - made out of the insides of toilet-rolls?


If you got thin, plastic (adj) tubing and connected it to the original elbow into the filter box .........

It would squeeze nicely with the fairing panel in place?

( like thicker shrinkwrap tubing)


Al

[Daveg2812]

Couldn't Lennie do a fibreglass cheap model for us tight wads? I tend to feel having a pretty carbon one is overkill when it's hidden away in the depths of the bodywork.

That's where the SJ BMW one comes in. No doubting that the Lennies is a lovely looking piece of kit, but the cost to me would be prohibitive for the performance gained, after the all the other mods I've made.

[r550s]

The thing with the induct is this, if it were a complicated looking gizmo with milled aluminium parts, or maybe some impressive electrical gubbins, it'd be one of the most successful 'real-benefit' bolt on goodies available anywhere in the motorcycling world. And that would apply even if only added half the improvement that it does.
It's just a shame that it's only a humble-looking black pipe.
Aftermarket exhausts sell in spades for three or four times the price and many add little or no horsepower at all.
Power Commanders sell in spades too, and they only do anything if your bike was wrong to start with.
Exhausts and Power Commanders, although they can be worthwhile, are made by companies who have to punt out products for every bike available. The induct was made by a man who ran and modified a yellow R1100S over and over again; it's a bespoke item beautifully and carefully crafted for just that one bike. Nobody else gets one.
How can you not join the club? give your 11S what it deserves.

[oyster]

Someone could try this: silicone vacuum tubing is designed to remain round, so using the 100mm tube attached to the air box elbow, laid along the existing route to the front of the bike. It will crush at the tight spots under the fairing, but will try to retain its natural round shape. Incidentally, there is 'bad' air, disrupted and buffeted, at the open end of the intake behind the forks and wheel, which is why the japs have put theirs (after all the research) as far forward as possible into the nose cone. Perhaps an even better idea is to run the new pipe through the tank to the disused intake on the fairing. That fairing intake will obviously have to be enlarged...

[r550s]

I'd be concerned that a tube made out of any non-rigid material didn't resonate or flap in any way - a tuned air intake is full of pressure waves after all.
Lennie did go further and run a monster air intake full forward from the airbox top, under the tank and out the front. He found there were no improvements over the 'induct', so that's what he gave us.
As I said, this is a full-on bespoke item produced from a lot of research and testing.
Go on, do it.

Edited to add: Lennie resited the battery and ECU, and fabricated 2 holes through the petrol tank to run a Y-shaped intake out below the indicators - modifying the RH one to match the mystery intake already on the LH one. All hail.

[boxerscott]

If you want a 4hp gain overnight without forking out enc just put new engine oil in

[Daveg2812]

If you want a 4hp gain overnight without forking out enc just put new engine oil in

Chris, if I did that every night for a week, would I have an extra 28hp at the end of it?

[boxerscott]

No probably not, I have not carried out extensive research on that situation so can not speculate on your assertion Dave but i think your money would be better spent on the stuff I`m on at the moment.. It`s Wicks finest and comes in a beautiful cast bottle known to us purveyors of perfomance as "Old Poultenay"

[lennie]

The first place to start as stated is suspension and brakes as once these are dialed in you can ride it fast whether you have engine mods or not. That is where I started. Braided brake lines, suspension mods to lower the front and raise the rear and eventually shock rebuilds with Gold Valves.

Engine mods started with head porting and exhaust then I started to work on the intake mods. If you can't get air in, no amount of other mods will fulfill their full potential. This happened with my 5.7 litrs GM based wagon. After spending $4,000 on a full custom made system we only gained 13 rwkw but more importantly the intake vacuum went from 1.8 to 2.4. Years later I put on a larger throttle body, over the radiator intake, 1.8 roller tip rockers and a chip. 50 rwkw increase just like that. I never got to measure the intake vacuum as we just did the straight power runs.

As far as the separate filter pods are concerned, good idea but they cannot possibly function as well as a ram air system that pressurises the airbox not matter how little.

r550,

Yes in the end as an exercise in expermentation when I increased the tank size, I did run two tubes through the tank but in hindsight they needed to be bigger in internal diameter. I used a large Guzzi style K&N filter and a huge plenum on top of the airbox to connect it all. When all was said and done it was a cool mod but did not run any better than the InDuct.

In the end it is up to each owner to decide how they spend their money to make the bike as rideable and as enjoyable as possible.

Enjoy.

[oyster]

These bikes and this forum have been running quite a few years now. I believe that if any intake mod had been identified as giving any gain in that time, we would have heard about it, as owners of these bikes tend to be those that enjoy tinkering. There have been, quite well documented, fibre glass mods to enlarge the restrictive areas above the air box on the intake, drilled intakes, shortened intakes, absent intakes. At the end of the day, the carbon Lennies intake is the one that has been proven to be of use. Strangely, it was the only mod on my bike when I bought it. Was the original owner interrupted before he could complete his desired series of mods, or did he feel it was all that was needed? I will never know. Is it value for money? Yes. Do you need it? No. Nor any other mod. BTW, check the tire pressures.