If the air is to cold it is not as good as warm air . With warm air the fuel turn from a fluid to a vapor faster & gas in the vapor form is more combustable then it it in the raw form . You may have noticed automobiles had a heat tube from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner to heat the incoming air , that helped to vaporize the gas , it is not good if the air gets to hot that is why there was a butterfly valve in the air cleaners so the input of hot air could be controlled . When you are riding there is enough cool air to make this a non issue IMO , if it was a issue the MOCO would have changed the air intake system . They do make air cleaner covers that pull air from the sides & they cost less than the big sucker . Just my .02 worth .