After using bike with and without snorkel I agree with @klx678 . With lidless setup it's way too much roaring. Maybe if I stick sponge to the back of the seat it will be less noise, but just removing lid is too much noise and unattractive bike sound overall.
The second point about water is also valid. While at first glance it might seen not much difference between snorkel and lidless there is huge difference if you drop the bike to the water. In this case without lid your airbox is full of water immediately.
So I use bike with KDX snorkel most of the time.

 

For me I don’t even hear the intake sound with my lid off. My exhaust pretty much is all I hear and most of the time I wear ear plugs so the wind noise doesn’t destroy my hearing any more than it is already. JMO YMMV

 

@Olderider Heck with a pair of industrial quality ear plugs you could run the exhaust up beside your ears and be okay. I just happen to not wear ear plug, haven't for over 50 years, except when sleeping, the wife snores some. Other than some tinnitus my hearing is still very good. Can hear the bumps in the night. So, the intake roar on the 650 was just plain too much for me.

As for the 250, with the MCM and the small displacement probably wouldn't be a bother. That's not why I run the lid. I run the lid because depending on where we ride it might just be possible to slosh some serious water in the air box, so I just don't take the chance. Apparently a lot of people seem to have missed that point that I write virtually every time.

Plus I did the measurement and math with the OEM snorkel and the bigger KDX snorkel. The cross section of the opening is actually about twice the size of the OEM snorkel and significantly bigger than the intake throat, being as big as the cross sectional area of the intake boot. It may not flow as good or better than no lid, but I guarantee you it flows better than the longer smaller OEM snorkel. So I'm not at too much of a loss if I give away a couple horsepower at the very top end.

I also don't run some loud exhaust to get one more horsepower, or whatever. I like good tone, but I don't like high volume (sound) that will scare children, interrupt conversations pedestrians may be having (I've had plenty of blatting V-twins and screaming sport bikes do that to me), and, in general, **** off people. If I want more horsepower (although I am leaning toward more mid range torque these days) I will go to a bigger bike with more power... Oh, wait a minute, I'm putting a 299cc kit on my bike with a flat slide, so I guess I'm doing just that. But really, on the street I don't look to my 250 for fun, that's where the 700 comes in. The 250 is for dirt/gravel roads and any trails we might happen to be able to rude. JMO YMMV Back at ya.

 

I was also curious and did the same calculation as you did.

The KDX is a nice compromise between stock and none.

 

Why don’t we have a “like” button ??

 

Here ya go...

 

That works!

 

Works here too.

 

 

Hello from Bali! Nice to meet another member from Indonesia!