Bear Claw Mod

OK...this is what I was thinking of doing to the claw with the triple K&N 2780s. It's just a mockup I did in my digital editing software using photos of a black claw and some mesh vents I found on the web (2nd photo). I think it looks way cool and stylish. Plus, it should let plenty of air into the claw to feed the K&Ns better than the closed up stock claw. Should be an easy mod too. The mesh vents come in silver too for those with the chrome claw. Should be able to make cuts in the inner flange to do some bending/shaping of the vent to fit flush on the curve of the claw bumps, then silicone around the inside and bend the flanges flush to the inside of the claw to seal against the silicone.

Pix show 1/4" and 1/8" mesh screens.

URL for the vents:

round Aluminum vents - open screen with no louvers and 1/8 inch screen

Doesn't look to bad. Don't know how effective it will be but it should let air in. There isn't much room between the bear claw and the K&Ns so you'd need to trim off pretty much everything behind the grill. In any case, it's different!

Yeah...I was trying to come up with another way to let some air into the claw without trimming from the bottom. Mesh grills look good to me anyway so I thought this would do it. I'll have to fiddle with the fit as you mentioned about the filters being so close to the inside of the claw. I may be able to angle them some to fit better and/or tweak how I attach the grills but we'll see.

Should look good! Probably just have to cut the barrels off and maybe mount a couple bend tabs into the rings to hold from the back. Definitely haven't seen anything like them. Also, since it's "closed" off a little, won't notice that the filters don't line up perfectly with the humps so you can keep it symetrical

I was thinking I could slit the barrels down to the base in 3 to 4 places. This will allow the vents themselves to be bent and shaped to the claw to fit flush and also form 3 to 4 tabs to be bent back into the inside of the claw. Then, cut holes in the claw just big enough to allow the barrels of the vents to slide snugly in and flush to the claw. The barrel tabs can now be bent down to the inside of the claw to hold the vents onto the claw. Might not even have to cut the barrels down at all since they will be bent back into the backside of the claw. Some silicon around the inside of the vents and under the tab where the tabs will be bent down and you'd have a good seal with a little more help in securing the vents to the claw. And yeah...since I'm not trimming the claw to expose the filters, I can turn them any way I want to get a good fit. Sounds like it'd work (in theory). Real world applications may present other issues though but so far, I'm liking this setup if I go with the 2780s. I actually like the look of the stock claw and don't really want to trim it if possible but I do want to infuse more air in there to let the triples breathe better...hence my idea. Clean, stylish, and functional...and vents always look cool in my book. I'm diggin' it!

Keep a look out on ebay for a salvage claw (scratch n dent) to "practice" on, play around with, etc. That's what I did and now I'm thinking I may just rechrome it to get rid of the few blemishes left. Not bad, cost $20 + 5 shipping, chroming shouldn't be too much, and gave some life back to an old rocket part
Still have the original claw on the shelf in the garage in case I later decide on different filters or want to change it up a bit

I like the general idea of the mesh. What if you got the mesh screen in a sheet, cut some stylish but not round holes in the claw, and then used the mesh to retain the original shape, but fill in the holes? Just a thought...there's a local machine shop i use from time to time that does some weird stuff for me and a few others...I might run the idea by him. I know he has access to stainless steel mesh. I'm ok with the cut on my claw, but different is good

I was thinking of mesh too, something like my front mudguard vent.

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Yep...I thought of that already but wanted a little more refined look with a flange around the vent rather than a cut-out with mesh underneath. It's still an option I'm looking at though. There are lots of cool looking meshes out there to choose from.

Nice front fender TriRocket. Looks sweet.

BigBlockRocket said:

OK...this is what I was thinking of doing to the claw with the triple K&N 2780s. It's just a mockup I did in my digital editing software using photos of a black claw and some mesh vents I found on the web (2nd photo). I think it looks way cool and stylish. Plus, it should let plenty of air into the claw to feed the K&Ns better than the closed up stock claw. Should be an easy mod too. The mesh vents come in silver too for those with the chrome claw. Should be able to make cuts in the inner flange to do some bending/shaping of the vent to fit flush on the curve of the claw bumps, then silicone around the inside and bend the flanges flush to the inside of the claw to seal against the silicone.

Pix show 1/4" and 1/8" mesh screens.

URL for the vents:

round Aluminum vents - open screen with no louvers and 1/8 inch screen

Click to expand...

I also did a claw mod a year ago and posted the pictures you might still find the pictures of the bearclaw on this forum I had 1/2 inch holes drilled in the rounded part of each bulbous area in three vertical row then I glued some mesh on the inside you might see something there

http://www.r3owners.net/attachments/bearclaw-corner/2498d1310578674-bear-claw-mod-img_0416.jpg