Arlen Ness Big Sucker First Impressions

Another reason why I love motorcycles is because sometimes the smallest little thing can completely change the characteristics of a moto. Ok it's not always a "little thing" but regardless you can always feel the difference whenever you make a change.


Take my recently swapped in Arlen Ness Big Sucker. Firstly I'm super impressed with the build quality. In comparison to what I removed its light years a head in manufacturing and also final fit and finish.


Where I had to stack washers on the previous setup and always had leaks (either from the crank case breathers of the intake itself) it was always more hassle than it should have been.


Another bonus of the ness kit is its internal velocity stack. seat of the pants judgement for this is that you can in deed feel the difference mainly in the mid to high range.


It was also very straight forward to install with easy instructions and all parts easily identified. Ok full disclosure it helped that I had also installed the very similarly designed V&H intake on Jimmys HD Street 500 last year. The main difference between the two intakes is the big sucker  has routing of the internal breathers where as the V&H has tubes.


I opted to not install the rain sock/Pre Filter because you have to remove the k&n, fit the pre-filter over it and then reinstall it meaning the pre-filter goes between the K&n rubber and sealing surfaces.


I'm super pleased with this bit of kit and also glad I didn't opt for the stage 2 (it has a bigger filter area and larger plate also mounts with opposing angles (see the pic)


I'm still scheming and planning what my softail build will comprise of but this intake just went straight to top of the list (in chrome obviously)



UPDATE: If you look closely at the front side of the filter you will spot that some of the fins are squished. Something hit me in the shin as I was riding and on inspection of the bike there was also a matching dent in the filter mesh. I'm not sure if it was a stone or a stick (it was dark). It creased the filter enough for it to be sucking air. I have to order a replacement filter now.