Motorcycle Airboz

Motorcycle Airboz

CW EVALUATIONS

Snake oil with spinning blades

SOME THINGS DEFY LOGICAL EXPLANation. Black holes. Fast-moving lights in the nighttime sky. Donald Trump's hairdo.

You can add to that list a device called the Motorcycle AirBoz, a free-spinning fan that fits into a motorcycle's airbox atop the air-filter element. Though not powered in any way, the AirBoz is claimed to accelerate airflow through the airbox, thus delivering a 4-plus-horsepower inPcrease on just about any sportbike, regardless of its engine's size or degree of modification. All that's required, says Clearlnnovation, AirBoz's manufacturer, is to remove the airbox cover, drop the fan in place and reinstall the cover. No tuning or other modifications are required.

Structurally, the AirBoz is simply a plastic fan pop-riveted onto a sheet of aluminum cut to fit the shape of the bike's air-filter element. The fans appear to be the very same type used as cooling fans in computers, but without the brushless motors. The original mount ing ears have been modified or ground off, and the routing channels for the mo tor's wiring remain. The diameter of the fan depends upon the size and shape of the filter element in each applicable mo torcycle; the short, wide, rectangular el ement in a Kawasaki ZX1 OR, for ex ample, calls for three k small-diameter fans instead of one large one. Regardless of con figuration, the units list for $100 and are available for a limited range of Japanese sportbikes.

Clearhmovation's description of the AirBoz's effect on performance is inter esting, if illogical. "When the AirBoz is installed inside the airbox," says the lit erature, "it pressurizes the air inside. The perpetual motion of the counter clockwise fan blades increases the ye locity creating more horsepower." Wow! Perpetual motion? Pressurized air pro vided by an unpowered fan? Evidently, all those people who've been fooling around with exhaust-driven turbocharg ers and crankshaft-driven superchargers have missed a golden opportunity.

Putting aside our natural skepticism and knowledge about how moving air actually behaves, we decided to give the AirBoz a fair evaluation. We installed one on three different sportbikes-a bone-stock 2004 Suzuki GSX-R600, an equally stock 2004 Kawasaki ZX-lOR and our 2003 Honda CBR600RR long term testbike, which remains stock, en gine-wise, except for an FMF slip-on. We then conducted back-to-back dyno tests on each machine both with and without the AirBoz.

I. Those tests netted mixed results, none of which met Clearlnnovation's claims of adding at least 4 more horsepower. The GSX-R and ZX-1OR both did, admitted ly, pick up more power, but only by a gnat's eyelash. On its very best run with the AirBoz, the Suzuki made a miniscule .4 of a horse more (103.16 vs. 102.76) than it did on its best stock run, and the big Kawi went from 150.65 to 151 flat, a whopping .35-hp increase.

On the other hand, the CBR600RR hat ed the AirBoz-actually, make that two AirBozzes. With the first unit provided by Clearthnovation, the Honda dropped .9 hp (103.23 vs. 104.13). The company lat er sent us a revised unit with a bigger fan, but with that one, the CBR lost more than 4 horses and 2 foot-pounds of torque.

It's no wonder, then, that the AirBoz defies logical explanation. In two in stances, the device scarcely helped-or at least didn't hurt-performance; but in one other, it resulted in a 4 percent re duction in power. Our guess is that this discrepancy is due to differences in each bike's intake-tract design, airbox volume and shape, and location of the fan in relation to the air horns on the throttle bodies.

Whatever the case, the bottom line is that the AirBoz doesn't work. A gain of three or four tenths of a horsepower is insignificant, and a loss of 4 percent is unforgivable.

Spend your 100 bucks on something useful-like a good hairdo.

DETAILS Clearinnovation LLC 28 Flower St. Redwood City, CA 94063 650/365-6020 www.clearinnovation.info Price.. .$100 Ups A Easy to install AJustas easy to remove A Makes a good conversation piece owns v Doesn't live up to its claims v Cheaply made v Relieves your wallet of a C-note