K&N Filter/Carbs
 

Hi, thanks to the forum for a great 'Welcome'. Since I bought my SHawk a few weeks ago, I have begun to 'tear' it down for maintenance. I noticed that my air filter is quite old, so I ordered a K&N. What are the issues that everyone is talking about? I expect it to run lean due to the increased air. My Hawk GT had no issues when I swapped filters. I don't have any experience with multiple carbs, not to mention motorcycle carbs. I also noticed that the front plug was fine, but the rear appeared to be fouled from being rich. I changed the plugs while I was in there. Do I need to have my carbs synced at this point?

I did see the reference to the TwinMax carb adjuster by Greg as well....

You only need to synco the carbs if you have separated them or messed with the synco adjuster. As far as jetting a high flow filter will definately lean out the bike. If you install a jet kit the instructions will tell you to lower the clip two position vesus a stock filter.
On most modern bikes with tuned airboxes a stock filter is recommended, an aftermarket unit actually reduces power on a stock bike. It sounds like you're stuck with it so that being said buy a stage 1 jet kit and follow the baseline jetting instructions for a stock bike with high flow filter with regard to your altitude. If you want to go really cheap you could shim the needles and maybe richen the main jets.