I'm sure this has been kicked around a lot.
What's the best breather for the DL 1000? Is the K&N any better than the stock or a Fram. I've had K&N on lots of other bikes and never saw much difference.

I put in a K&N at first filter change. I plan to run this bike 100000 miles so it is the last filter it would need... It seems fine.....

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06-DL1000 62000 miles....Sold...
Now Honda NC700Xs.................

By "breather", do you mean air filter?



Assuming you do, my (used) bike came with a K&N air filter, so I'll just keep it cleaned and oiled. But if it didn't, I'd probably just use stock filters, mainly because that's more convenient than farting around with cleaning the K&N regularly.

IIRC, no one's ever noticed a performance difference between K&N, stock, and (some other brand I can't remember) replacement air filters.

Some people are convinced that K&N filters let in dirt and won't use them, and just as many swear they work great. The maintenance does take a while, and you have to use K&N cleaner and oil, but mine seems to work OK, and there wasn't any dirt in the airbox last time I looked.

Flip a coin, take yer pick.

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2002 Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom, Dark Metallic Space Blue
1983 Suzuki GS850G, Cosmic Blue
2005 KLR650, Aztec Red - Turd II, the ReTurdening

The seal on the factory paper filter sucks. Both of the factory installed paper filters on our Vees had leaked. The k&n is a far better design as the whole surface of the filter provides the gasket instead of the small seal surface of the factory o ring setup.

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Keep the Rubber Side Down.
Jim
Present Rides
1986 XR600R,1986 VF1000R,1999 CBR1100XX,2006 CRF450X,2007 DL1000 V-Strom

Good point -- guess I've never actually seen an OEM filter.


My bike's K&N was full of an alarming number of dead bees and beetles. Cleaning the thing took an hour of gentle brushing and washing, and it had to dry overnight.

I'll add a screen to the intake this spring to address the bug problem, but overall it would have been a lot faster and more convenient to just drop in a new paper filter.

__________________
2002 Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom, Dark Metallic Space Blue
1983 Suzuki GS850G, Cosmic Blue
2005 KLR650, Aztec Red - Turd II, the ReTurdening

That's how mine is also.... I did the screen thing last service..

__________________
06-DL1000 62000 miles....Sold...
Now Honda NC700Xs.................