Dude came home thinking his girl sounded better each day. Looked at the bike and found it like that. Is a "carbon" exhaust supposed to be like that? I expected the outer shell to be completely made out of carbon fiber...
The carbon part, I can answer: "Carbon Fiber" is actually composed of two parts - the carbon weave itself and an epoxy resin. The carbon weave is capable of handling quite high temperatures (carbon-carbon panels, a cousin tech to carbon fiber, were the heat shield of the space shuttle), but because its a fabric, it needs some sort of stiffener. Enter the epoxy resin. The carbon provides strength, the epoxy keeps it in whatever shape it gets molded to. Epoxies do not handle heat as well as carbon - they tend to melt and burn through - so you need a backing material to protect the epoxy from direct contact with hot exhaust gasses. Aluminum seems to be the material in this case. As for the failure, I've got no idea. Did you hit some road debris that got tossed up to the clamp?
Pic ain't mine. I got it from a facebook group. The guy is sending pics to the manufacturer. Apparently the pipe has about 4 years and 25.000 kms. Will let you know about any developments.
I'm not sure I should be handing this info, but let's just day it starts with an "L" and rhymes with "Leovince"
That looks like an early model Leo Vince....... I can assure you it is not surprised to look like, or fail like this. If you have a resil failure due to heat( only way it can fail normally is bu heat) it would relieve the presure, and have small poke through. I can azure you someone tossed in a very big firecracker, or poured in some flammable liquid, than then self ignited as you rode home. This is evidence of catastrophic failure due to an I contained explosion...... Do you have an angry ex????? Seriously ........ Someone made a pipe bomb. I do not think lv have seen anything like this before. More to come as I get of the iPhone.
seems to me that it's a SBK exhaust: http://www.renazcoracing.com/index.cfm?action=viewdetails&itemid=538853
I highly doubt it's an explosion. It's not a sealed container; there's no way it could build that much pressure. Certainly not from standard gasoline. The picture looks fake. I don't mean Photoshop, I mean staged. Look at the edges (and size) of that piece of metal. It doesn't even come close to mating with that hole. There's enough metal there to cover 5 of those holes. Also look at the jagged edges of the hole and the very smooth edge of the piece of metal hanging out. And where's the packing? Something very fishy is going on here.
I don't see how that could happen under normal operating conditions. That doesn't look right at all. Also, that carbon fiber looks really faded and beat. Mine still looks (and sounds) like new after 4 years and 16,000 miles. I live in a very sunny and salty environment. Granted, I park under a covered porch and when I didn't have the porch I covered the bike whenever parked for any length of time, but that one looks bad. Even so, I don't see where it could build enough pressure to blow out like that. .
As stated earlier...... Cannot happen , unles you introduce an explosion. Mind you there is some resistance , as the breach happened between the core and outer shell. That space is occupied by glass, or other means of dampening. My big question is why on earth are there an inner shell of metal, that the cf is wrapped around. I fail to see why LV incorporated that. Even if they used the metal core to lay up the outer carbon..... It has no benefit. Unless you want to save on cf, thus creating a thin composite...... But I cannot se why lv would do that, as the layup process already have started, and it would cost more to incorporate a metal shell, than just spinn the wheel one more time. This failure is simply a mechanic created failure....... Explosion or staged with hammers...... Axes..... I have no idea. But one thing is for certain to me....... Someone did something to this muffler. Finally, why is there no trace of the glass insulation. Anyone that have ever packed one knows how it catches on every thing sharp.
Well I'm no expert but since everyone is speculating........ If it was an explosion, however caused, the entire muffler would look more like a balloon or a 2 litre pop bottle. It looks perfect aside from the hole. When my toolbox exploded, it became round despite the many areas for the pressure to escape (no further comment ). It's all about the speed of expansion vs. the area of resistance. In my experience, the metal/carbon fibre whatever construction develops fatige cracking from vibrations/resonance and the crack progresses until failure. Titanium jet exhausts are extremely resistant to heat but crack all the time from thermal expansion and vibration. Hell, there's a whole shop dedicated to exhaust repairs in most Airlines. Just another day. What do I know?
..... Your absolutely right...... I for one were loud in the speculation department...... Perhaps too loud...... All I wanted to convey, is that a carbon layup will not fail like this, unless pushed mechanically.... I am interested to find out if LV are rolling up the CF sleeve up on a steel sleeve...... Anyone repacked any of these yet.....?????
Didja find a shell casing on the ground? Or a bullet still in the exhaust? A .45 dropped into someone's exhaust ... Since we are "guessing"
