Last Wednesday nite I went out into my cold garage to start the engine and check it out for a Thursday a.m. PGR mission. It started okay but did not want to maintain a good idle speed without using the throttle; even died on me twice. Finally it acted normally after it warmed a bit and I didn't think too much about it except to get some STP gas treatment and dump in it. Seemed to function just fine the next day but it did get me to thinking about the air filter.

So... today I finally got around to removing all the requisite parts (as per JeffR's fine pics) and pulled the filter; I got the bike with 2K miles and it now has 10K (no, I don't do a lot of riding like most of you). The main discrepancy was that there was a black, oily residue, mainly where the airflow enters the chamber and on back on the leading edges of all the pleats. Was 'some' hair too but I attribute that to our resident cats. After 'blowing' out the element it looked reasonably good enough to reuse except for that residue stuff. And that leads me to these questions (because the search function didn't help much)...

Has anyone ever heard of cleaning that element? If so, how? Or should I just bite the bullet and get a new one? I'm really not averse to using the old one again but don't want to have to take it apart again anytime soon. I read somewhere about someone using standard filter media to replace what is there (would be a little 'tacky' but they said it works). Does anyone know (off the top of your head) what the price spread is between a new OEM and the K&N?? I'm keeping all my options open. Also, has anyone experienced the oily residue I speak of?? Any help will be appreciated.

DickO,

I think you can use an air compressor to blow "some' of the dirt out of the OEM filter but it probably wouldn't be too much. I believe I paid approx $35 for the OEM and $55 for the K&N. The K&N is very easy to clean since I also bought the cleaning kit for it and it should last about the life of the filter. I have cleaned mine 3 times and I still have a lot left.

I also need to clean my filter about every 8,000 miles but when I do it isn't 'filthy' yet but just somewhat dirty. With the K&N though it says to make sure it is dry before you reinstall it. I just use a hair dryer on low speed to dry it quicker. I have no idea why they used so many screws on the air filter but it is much easier if you have a cordless drill to remove it. I tried the first time with a screwdriver and felt like I had a "popeye" forearm when I was done.

I wouldn't bother cleaning the old filter. You will just end up forcing the small particles more tightly into the filter media by blowing compressed air over it.
Either buy an OEM replacement, or go K&N re-useable. I did like Jeff and run a K&N. I also did some mods which benefit from the higher airflow of the K&N, but that's another story.
When it's time to clean and re-oil the K&N, follow K&N's instructions to the letter.

Back to your original problem. It is highly unlikely an air filter would cause a hard starting problem. A clogged air filter would manifest itself under high air requirement conditions, such as full throttle applications.
I'd look into the battery's condition.