I have a 00 Recon, cleaned the carb last week and it idled and ran better but only with the choke on. The air cleaner metal element was in bad shape so i was testing the bike without the element. My question is:

Would the element make that much of a difference when running the bike, causing me to have to keep the choke on

Sorry if this is a dumb question, my background is with cars and personal water craft and it wouldn't have made that big a difference.

Thanks

 

Yes it would make it run lean. By opening the choke circuit it let's mor fuel in witch mixes with more air because of the filter being off. It's kinda like breathing with a dust mask on , if you ever did that you know what it feels like when you take it off