To keep with the Airhead take over....here are my 2 baggers. This is the full bagger for when I need a change of undies on a ride. This is the little bagger, this one is for roads that don't come with the straight bits. I walk into the shed, and I can't decide which one I'm going to ride today. Too many choices bro.
The way things are going in another thread, I better defend my R65. I've just spent the last hour writing many words about my bike....and deleted it all. The bike is for me, it does the right things for me....I've very surprised about that, an Airhead wasn't on my list. It was my wife's bike.... She likes the changes. I rode British twins through the '70's into the '80's, and had a 1971 XS650 for 15 years - a 650 two valve twin is burned deep into my riding experience....on the R65 I have to peek down at the cylinders to remember what I'm on, not that it really matters, there is just something special about a 650 two valve pushrod twin. Another thing is traction - oh, wild wheelspin and getting sideways is fun on gravel...but it's not fast. Just something I've learned over the years, getting hooked up gets you out of the corner faster.
Playing with exhausts...again. I gutted the collector years ago, it's just an empty box now...the scars will never heal. Last year I made an equal length 2 into 1 using an IDSII Supertrapp. The original cans look pretty good, but are as gutted as the collector, and the mounting bolts are history....so I decided to resurrect them. I ended up brazing some washers over them to give more surface area and a mounting surface. For a completely empty system they are pretty quiet, and give very good performance all-round...I'm very surprised. On my road test 140kph in 3rd gear @ 8,000rpm. I can use these for my WoF test....the Supertrapp gives 97db. Now it's the turn of my short mega's. Freakin' noisy, but what a ride. It's hard to tell if there is a power improvement or if it's a case of ''Oh my god, what a gorgeous noise!'' More top end, and red lined in 4th at 160kph - hard to find a place to wind it out on the Waikato back roads...without being caught at it. Next I'm taking the collector box out and having true 2 into 2 systems. 5 exhaust systems is enough to keep me happy for the next year at least. This bike is in a constant state of change, and i like to keep it that way.
Between Arapuni and Mangakino there are a few quiet spots. I spent a fair amount of time around there on 250's and 600's whilst living in Tauranga.
West Waikato roads have more corners per km, so I tend to play out that way....the go fast thing doesn't really interest me, but corners do.
Collector eliminators, just have to weld them up....which could take some time when I run out of acetylene and find my bottle is useless. The left side needs more bends to clear the sidestand.
Had to use that method when putting the WR muffler on the KLR recently. Used a hacksaw, Steel and tube sell the pipe or an exhaust shop. Tip If you want a 90degree bend for example then cut the pipe at 45degrees and butt them together 180 degrees apart so the shape is the same (elliptical). Does that make sense? I used an arc welder. Mig or gas would be better.
Believe it or not I was just arranging the pickup of a new 2nd hand MIG I have purchased from Trademe for tomm nite. Pm sent
This is not a flash system, and the bends are too shallow to use bends, so I cut small wedges out of the pipes with a hacksaw for the bends. This is what we used to do before exhaust shops or mandrel bends were around....we also used to crinkle bend, but even I wouldn't use that on a bike. I tacked them with the MIG, but don't like doing butt welds on exhausts with a MIG - too much intrusion on the inside, I prefer to gas weld butt joints. I got the pipe from an exhaust shop a couple of doors up from work, but it's bending tube which has a larger wall thickness, so pipes don't slide into each other easily...however this sorts them out....
Interesting. I have always wondered about the crap on the inside of the a welded exhaust pipe as far as impeding gas flow. Also I was wondering about the rusting of the welds on the inside as it can't be treated.
It's fun experimenting with stuff on your bike - sometimes it's just fucking hilarious! I finished my collector eliminators and fitted them up last night. Fired it up, and oh shit - it's got a loose baffle! Uh, hang on, there are no baffles at all inside those things. This is the worst exhaust I have ever heard, so bad I'm not even going to ride it down the road. The cackle is so bad that at all revs apart from idle it sounds like a loose baffle, soooo tinny. It's all about expansion I suppose - we make an explosion that pushes the piston down, but before all the energy is used up the exhaust valve opens. Controlled expansion is what noise reduction is all about, that's why your 2 litre car has a 20 litre muffler on the end. With the collector and then 2 large mufflers there was quite a bit of expansion room in this system, now with 1/3 of the volume it's not so good. From 94db, we now have this.... The original plan was to cut open the mufflers and make some new baffles, that may still be a plan, but for now will put new outlets on the old collector...it sounded and went well. With just open pipes it sound gorgeous...almost tempting to ride around the block....with every hoody eye watching... And with open pipes it quieter than empty cans ! Just because I can, doesn't mean I will.
