A mate of mine here in Australia has removed the backfire screen and plate with holes from his airbox and says it has much better midrange power. Anyone done this? Anyone don't this and dyno'd it?? Oh, his bike is an X model.
Hmm, well on the 6 Gens it's usually removing the snorkel and flapper that supposedly does the same thing. Personally I only really noticed a difference, other than a much louder intake growl, which isn't such a bad thing but ultimately I put them both back the way they were.
Removed the backfire plate from my 2010 F model's new OEM air filter at the same time I installed a Guhl reflashed ECU earlier this year and the difference was AMAZING, but hard to quantify the effect of the plate removal from the filter. Remember , you're not removing the plate from the air box, just from the replaceable air filter (at least on the F). BTW, G'day, mate. Good luck.