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K&N sponsors three of the classes of the prestigious J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show

At each stop of the IMS, K&N sponsors two of the most prestigious classes and a special category in the massive J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder Custom Bike Show. Those prizes are awarded in the Modified Harley Class, the Modified Retro Class, and the aptly named K&N Performer Award. More then 60 customs were rolled onto the J&P red carpet in Dallas.

The bikes that won the K&N prizes in the "Big D" are great representations of the magic that talented builders can create. Here is a closer look.

Modified Harley Class

Harley-Davidson® baggers made up a larger percentage of the entrants in Dallas than they have at any of the previous stops of the IMS. With that strong showing of the breed, it is little wonder that a bagger won the hotly contested Mod Harley class.

A great battleship-themed bagger won the Modified Harley class of the Dallas IMS

The USS79 cruises behind a tall 26-inch custom wheel that carries a theme-appropriate propeller look. A low fairing sits above that big hoop with clean, ship-like curves. The bike’s lines flow down a beautiful, sweeping tank through a color-matched seat to bags that create a fantastic wake behind the custom Glide.

We are happy to say that the USS79 bagger breathes through a K&N filter. The custom exhaust ends in a wide-mouthed bend that conjures visions of a battle ship’s smoke stacks.

Modified Retro Class

A classic 1967 Shovelhead chopper rode away with the Mod Retro Class of the J&P competition

Miller’s custom is a classic chopper that is a fitting winner for a retro award. The stretched and raked telescopic forks rise up from a gleaming, chromed front wheel. The front end is capped with more chrome in the headlight, controls, and even the grips.

The bike falls precipitously from the triple tree through the stretched, color matched frame. The hardtail rear end cradles a chromed rim and classic rubber capped with a shorty rear fender.

The K&N Performer Award went to an innovative 1980 Honda Goldwing

K&N Performer Award

Richard Becker of the Texas-based House of Tandems is one of those builders who has found a motorcycle marquee that he likes, and sticks with it. Becker’s donor bike of choice is, however, a bit of a departure from the norm. The guy sees the beauty in the venerable Honda Goldwing.

Becker has used both 1976 and 1983 incarnations of the Japanese tourer in two fantastic prior builds. The Wing that Becker brought to the Dallad IMS splits the difference. His 1980 Honda custom won the K&N Performer Award.

The striking green Goldwing features very cool retro springer forks embracing a spoked front rim. Spooned on that chrome wheel is fat, classic rubber. Minimalist controls and instrumentation keep the front end clean.

This is not your father's Honda Goldwing

K&N congratulates the Dallas winners of the Progressive International Motorcycle Show’s J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder competition. We are proud to support the innovators and creative forces in the custom bike world.

The last two stops of the Progressive IMS will be staged in Chicago, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

K&N-sponsored snow bike athlete Brock Hoyer’s resume is impressive. 2017 was especially golden for Hoyer. He started the year by securing the X Games Snow BikeCross gold medal. He later won the Snow Bike King of the Hill title at the Jackson Hole Hill Climb World Championships. Hoyer also rode away with the Canadian Snow Bike MX Championship.

Brock Hoyer is flying high in the snow bike world (photo X Games)

Snow biking is a visually spectacular sport, and many of Hoyer’s backcountry free-riding videos have become viral. In fact, his video shoot schedule is as busy as his competitive schedule. Balancing training, competition, performing, testing, and retaining some kind of family life is one of Hoyer’s biggest challenges.

Of all of the activities on his busy schedule, the X Games hold a special attraction for Hoyer. When he discusses the competition, it becomes clear why he wants more of the X Games gold.

Hoyer's snow bike calendar is filled with races, testing, and filming

Hoyer knows that his success on the snow is dependent on the reliability of his snow bike, and getting the most performance to the tread.

“I believe we are on the best product, the strongest product, the fastest product,” Hoyer says. “I use Junior Jackson to build all of my motors, and he trusts K&N to get the freshest air, to get the most power to these bikes…I want to get as much power to the ground as I can.”

K&N is a proud supporter of Brock Hoyer in all of his snow bike endeavors. Learn more about K&N's line of performance filters for motorcycles and find one for your bike here.

Colten Moore eyes the future as he works to get back to top form (photo ESPN / X Games)

It can’t be easy for a seven-time X Games medalist to sit by as other athletes compete in the sport he loves. However, K&N-sponsored snowmobile competitor Colten Moore is making the best of his new, temporary role as an X Games judge. Being a two-time Snowmobile Freestyle gold medalist, Colten is clearly qualified to assess the runs of his fellow extreme athletes.

Moore is itching to again 'catch the sky'

After emergency surgery to repair the spinal damage, Colten regained feeling in his legs and even walked out of the hospital under his own power two weeks later. 2017 was a year filled with rehab, setbacks, and recovery, but Colten has remained positive.

Moore is tirelessly rehabilitating his surgically repaired spine

After the loss of his brother, Colten penned an inspirational autobiography entitled “Catching the Sky,” which reflects on his relationship with his brother and his return to competition after the grieving process. The book was released in 2016.

Colten's insights struck a chord with readers and critics alike. "Catching the Sky" became a finalist for the prestigious PEN America / ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Clearly, Colten is not one to let tragedy and setbacks derail his goals and aspirations.

Don’t count on Colten being a judge for long. His recovery from the 2017 crash has been painstaking and grueling, but the competitor is determined to get back to his former glory. While his goal of competing in the 2018 X Games was stymied by doctor's orders, his sights are now squarely set on the 2019 games.

K&N is proud to be a part of Colten Moore’s team and we have no doubt that he will soon be ‘catching the sky’ again aboard his K&N equipped sled.

The low profile of the ECI spacer plate adds very little height under the hood

Imagine going out to your 1969 Camaro with its carbureted 350 early on a Saturday morning before your local vehicles and morning beverage meet. You hop in and flip the ignition over and the engine roars to life without as much as a hiccup in the process. To most of you out there, this is a dream come true - no priming, no choke, no flooding.

Traditionally, the only way to achieve this type of easy cold start was switching to an aftermarket electronic fuel injection system. But these systems can cost thousands of dollars, be a nightmare to install, and be impossible to tune if you don’t know what you are doing. Well now there is another solution that can be installed in your driveway in a matter of hours, not days. And after setting 5 simple parameters, it can tune itself.

The Carb spacer plate and injector, ECU unit, and Oxygen sensor are the main components of the ECI

In a way, the ECI system works like an EFI system that reads the air/fuel ratio fed to it from an included O2 sensor that you install in your exhaust. Where this differs from EFI, is that it is used in conjunction with the carburetor. Any time the system detects a lean condition, the injector will kick on to bring the AFR back to spec, but the engine is still fed primarily by the carb.

The brain of the ECI system though, is the ECU. It constantly reads input from the included O2 sensor and monitors the air/fuel ratio. Before you fire the engine for the first time, you answer a few simple questions and set parameters for the system to follow. One of those parameters is AFR. If the system detects an AFR higher than the user-defined limit, the weatherproof ECU tells the injector to fire.

After these basic parameters like AFR have been set, your system should run smoothly even in changing conditions. However, users have the option to dive even deeper into the ECU and set more parameters for the system to follow. Some of these include injector pulse width, shot volume, progressive injector firing, and minimum/maximum RPM range in which to operate. This makes the K&N ECI extremely versatile.

The ECI carb spacer plate is easy to install under your carburetor with the provided studs

Despite K&N’s Electronic Carburetor Injection being such an advanced system, installation can be accomplished in only a matter of hours. Meanwhile some EFI kits take days to install. The three major components of ECI are the spacer plate with injector, the ECU with wiring harness, and the wideband O2 sensor. The kit includes everything needed to perform the install and can be completed in your driveway with common hand tools. No need to run a return line back to your tank. ECI also eliminates the need for 3D mapping software and vehicle tuning like is required to install electronic fuel injection kits.

In addition to being easy to install, ECI addresses another common problem that many vehicle owners face. High horsepower engines naturally require higher fuel flow rates to run efficiently. K&N’s ECI is the solution that keeps your engine running extremely efficiently. This system can help where your carb falls flat. Whether it is at the strip, on the street, or on the road course, if you experience hesitation or power delays with your carburetor, K&N’s ECI will feed your engine that additional fuel it is lacking.

If you are running Holley’s Dominator carb, your engine likely falls into the category of higher fuel flow rates that we mentioned. K&N knows this and with the ECI system for Dominator carbs, K&N includes a second fuel injector and fuel block that can be mounted on the opposite side of the spacer plate. The wiring harness also includes a provision for a second injector, so installation is still a breeze.

When comparing all of these benefits of K&N’s Electronic Carburetor Injection to those of a full electronic fuel injection system, the advantages of ECI are clear. At a fraction of the cost and being much easier to install, K&N ECI is the smart choice for all of your carbureted needs.

Thanks to its supplemental and adaptive design, the K&N ECI system is the perfect middle ground between a straight carburetor and a full EFI system. Whether you have a Holley 4150 (part no. 20-0001), a Holley Dominator (part no. 20-0003), or a Quadrajet style carburetor (part no. 20-0002), the K&N ECI system is designed to solve the fuel delivery issues you may be experiencing. Get yours today!

The hardware in the ECI system consists of the Carb spacer plate, injector, and Oxygen sensor

The ECI software comes ready to install and all wiring needed to connect the necessary components

The ECI is available for many of the most common carburetors on the market

Gold tastes so good for Turcotte at the Aspen, Colorado X Games (photo X Games)

Turcotte was born into the competitive snowmobile culture and the sport has become the life work and the driving force for the racer.

“Snowmobiling for me has been a lifelong passion,” Turcotte says. “It’s been something that I was just kind of born and raised doing. My dad raced snowmobiles for many years as I was a young kid and owned a snowmobile dealership. I just kind of naturally evolved into the athlete that I am now.”

Veteran snowmobiler Brett Turcotte wins the X Games Speed and Style event

“I took a couple year hiatus there once I retired from snowcross racing,” he says. “Now I’m back full-swing as a freestyle athlete.”

Clearly, that shift to freestyle was a fantastic career decision for Turcotte. With a few previous medals under his belt in the discipline, the gold in the 2018 X Games is a crown jewel in the racer’s helmet.

"I just busted my butt to get here," Turcotte said after the finals. "I'm speechless. All this time and effort and dragging the family across the world.”

Turcotte has a healthy set of long-term goals in his cross hairs. He wants to develop his own business over the next decade. This will enable him to share his knowledge and mentor aspiring racers. He also wants to give back to the sport that has served as his lifeblood for years.

“(I’d like to) grow the sport. I grew up in the snowmobile industry and I don’t want to see that go away. I’d like to open up some doors for some up-and-coming riders.”

Brett Turcotte has found new life in competitive freestyle