Is this a bad idea?

[Guest]

Other than using duct tape to hold your exhaust together?

Ive seen some old pics of Yoshimura bikes where the pipe just comes right off the collector like this. Understanding I don't ride like Wes Cooley, Is this going to be a huge detriment to mid and low power? I will baffle it to provide a little back pressure... Honestly I am not trying to get great performance, this thing is already fast enough. I just kinda like the look. I'm thinking 2-1/2" pipe might have been more suitable over the 3".

[tom203]

I like duct tape- in your case, it helps visualize the layout. How much road clearance do you have?

[BigD_83]

I'd like to see that pipe tucked up closet to the undercarriage, and as long as you're not carrying a passenger or bags, the upsweep shouldn't hurt. The low-hanging pipes might make it easier to access the drain plug, however. I see it working well, visually at least, with rearsets.

As for performance benefit 2.5" vs 3"...who knows? Seems like you'd have to go empirical rather than use some finite modelling of flow, but one of the performance guys here might have a feeling for its effects.

[kw86er]

Not much at this point. I am going to shorten the head pipes. The header is from a KZ900. I'm not really interested in bolting on Mac or V&H set and I found this on craigslist for less than buying all the mandrel bits and pieces. Im kinda interested in the craft. I am considering doing a hand bent header in the future after I learn a bit more. I have a guy to do my welding next door.

[kw86er]

That is a cosy spot for a passenger! You should see what some of my buddy's girls have to cope with on hard tail choppers with skirtblowers and P pads! Might tame the sweep a bit though. I am not much of a "honey lets go for a cruise" kinda guy anyway, it's more like "I've had enough of this Sh*t, I'm outa here!"

[kw86er]

And rearsets are in line. I am trying to fab as much as I can these days so I need to wrap my head around the geometry...

[Wraith]

Looks good to me but I'd go for the 2 1/2 inch pipe, but that all dependes on how much of a baffel your putting in there and how loud you want it if your keeping with a say 1 1/2 to 2 inch baffel you will need to do some rejetting.

[coombehouse]

I like the look & personally would stick with 3" diameter. More room for a baffle & packing. The collecter needs to sit closer to the oil pan tho & the pipe be tucked in as much as possible as has already been suggested.
Nick

[spyug]

I had a Yosh pipe on my Kat shaped like that and while they look good they take away the use of the centerstand. It may not be a problem for some but I find it hard to do some of the maintenance without one.

[coombehouse]

Last bike I had with a centre stand was back in 1984! It wasn't cool to have 1 then & an easy way to shed weight so I took it off! Can't say I have missed it as its easy to use a rear stand or to lift it on the side stand with a car jack. If we were talking sensible we wouldnt be considering any mods at all but each to their own I guess.
Nick

[cableguy]

You may also want to pay attention to your mixture, since you will pumping a lot more air through the engine. Maybe you can get away with the adjustment at the air screw but you might need to up a size on your jets.

[kw86er]

Thanks allot for the feedback guys.

Yeah I ditched the centrestand. I like them mainly just for saving space in the shop but I have paddock stands, just need to rig up bobbins.

I figured on re jetting. I am putting an 02 censor bung in at the same time and getting an 02 kit. It's hard in the city to get good runs in for plug reading... you spend so much time in traffic. I figure I will put the bung in all my bikes and plug them when I'm not tuning, not sure how good it works with 2 strokes though? My other project at the moment is a TZR250. I'll have to do some research.

Thanks again.

[1_v8_merc]

I've got pipes lower than that, and I don't have problems dragging on "casual" rides.
But once you start riding more aggressive, you'll start to drag and spark.

[kw86er]

So it's been a while. I ended up with allot of pieces to weld together and was too much work to expect my neighbour to tackle for beers. So I went out and bought a welder! I guess by now I could have just bought a nice set of pipes... but hey thats not how I roll. We used to have one in the shop but the person who it belonged to has since left. I though I would just tack them together and bring 'em next door but I got so into welding I just went to town and finished the task myself. Anyway I will not show any pics of my nasty welding job, but they cleaned up pretty nice with a grinder. The header will get pipe wrap anyway. Not 100% sure that my flanges are going to be square enough to the exhaust port, that was the hardest part. Does anybody know if there are crush gaskets or any exhaust gasket I could use that would be more forgiving? Harley's use crush gaskets and I find them pretty forgiving. I might be able to torque the pipes around a bit more if I need to. Anyway worst case I learned a few things... even if it was that buying a set of pipes is allot easier.

[GSX1000E]

If just one of the stock exhaust crush washer/gaskets is not enough when using some ulta-copper gasket goop, why not double up the washer/gaskets? There is plenty of room in there for them.