Would any of you recommend a closed air filter box over an open air filter. I know when you expose your air filter it is better for the bike; but what about rain, dirt and other elements?
I have a '08 stock Sportster and looking to put a new air filter on as well, if I were to put one on that is more exposed would I have to get any retuning done because of the airflow?
I was looking at the Arlen Ness Big Sucker that was mentioned above and K&N Air Filters.
Thanks for the help.

 

The HD Heavy Breather uses a K&N filter, and comes with a rain sock to protect from the elements.

 

It is nice but I don't wanna drop that much. So what is second best?

 

Thunderheader is the best exhaust you can get hands down for horsepower.

 

I wonder if the Big sucker filter is as good quality as K&N filters.

 

Yeah I just don't really care for the look though that is the only down side.

 

Highly recommend the Heavy Breather. Running that with V&H Short Shots and PCIII From FuelMoto Pre Mapped.

It's F*A*S*T*

 

It is a K&N filter.

 

Oh cool thanks.

 

There are others... the thunderheader is not the best, but a blind monkey could get a decent tune out of it, and since most HD techs are slightly less adept at tuning than a blind monkey, it's popular. There are better options, but any good 2>1 combined with a good tune and high-flow air will do you well...

Not sure what you're going for though... if you are looking for actual quickness you want some pretty open pipes, and a good tune, open pipes can be hard to tune correctly... so allot of HD guys convince themselves they need back-pressure and "tune for torque", which really means tuning for a down-low power band... hp is torque created up high...

What are you going for here? The fact that you bought a Harley means somewhere in the decision making process you decided at least one X factor was more important that pure performance....