Mufflers

Yesterday I went around to a mates place. He had a bunch of old 2-stroke mufflers.
He was able to hobble together a couple of end cans for me.
Slightly big bore, which is kinda OK by me and a little bit short I guess.
Carbon-Kevlar outers. One can has a "TYGA" emblem riveted onto it.
They weigh in at 440 grams each compared to standard cans at 1150 grams each.
That's a saving of almost 1.5 kgs.

They don't quite match up with the 3 holes on the attachment plate at the end of the stinger pipes on the standard pipes. I will slot those holes with a file tomorrow and fit the mufflers.
I have removed the muffler support brackets as these cans are so light that I hope that they can just be bolted onto the stingers and have enough support just from that.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if they end up being a bit too loud, but I guess I will find out tomorrow.

OK, it is now tomorrow, Monday, and I have fitted the new mufflers. The bike is definitely louder, but it is not as bad as I had feared. I'm pretty happy with it actually.

The old standard mufflers have an ID of approx 25mm and there are about 4 sequential sections to the inner path at slight angles to one another. 295mm long from stinger plate to end of baffle tube.
These new mufflers are just a straight through ID of 32mm. 225mm long from stinger plate to end of baffle tube.

Pipes, gauges and fairing fix-up.

Two months since my last post. Well overdue for an update.
In early April I got my parts from Yahoo!Japan auctions.

2 exhaust pipes
Speedo cable
A broken set of dash instruments that I just wanted the mini wiring loom off.
A tool box (for holding puncture repair equipment)
Rear seat lock actuator
Engine Kill switch
Pillion footpegs

They took 7.5 weeks via sea freight, just to save a bit of money (compared to air freight).
Total cost was NZ$488.
Total of Yahoo!Japan prices bid was approx $190
So $300 basically went on Japanese internal freight, international sea freight (approx $160?), and Gary's commission.

Parts from Yahoo!Japan auctions, sea freight.

I took the pipes to Rotorua to get them dipped in a caustic sloution at Kiwi Metal Polishers

They also polished up the chrome on the stinger pipes. NZ$126.50 in total.

The pipes weighed 9.6 kg before and 8.6 kg afterwards.

[Edit] The 9.6 kg measurement included the cardboard wrapping which I later weighed at 0.95kg. So basically no weight lost due to caustic dip [/Edit]

The pipe that connects to the LH Top cylinder and exits out the RH side of the bike weighs 4.24kg

The pipe that connects to the RH Bottom cylinder and exits out the LH side of the bike weighs 4.35kg

I weighed these accurately, so I can compare against after market pipes at a later date. :-)

Pipes after being cleaned

I painted the pipes black with paint that is used to paint those efficient log fires / pot belly's. ($30 for 1 can). Apparently "VHT" black paint does not handle the heat so well and discolours with time to have a slight whiteness to it.

Pipes ready to be painted

I applied 3 thin coats. Each coat only took a few minutes to dry enough for the next coat to be applied.

Nice.

An original fairing in the foreground

I had to make up a foam rubber surround to seal off the light from the headlight. Also, I had to make up an electrical lead to power up the the park light that pushes into the headlight body.

Foam rubber held in place with clothes pegs

I glued the foam rubber in place using Bostik "Titan Bond Plus". This glue is supposed to work well on ABS plastic which is what these fairings are made from. There are a few bits and pieces on the fairings that are glued on in China using a poor quality glue. So I used this glue on quite a few of these bits and pieces just to improve the fairings a bit.

I attached the mini wiring loom from the broken set of instruments to my instruments on the bike and finally got the temp guage and tacho working. I also lubed up the speedo cable and attached that to make the speedo work.

I am about to fit the rear seat latch and pillion pegs.
I will then be able to make the bike street legal, although I may now leave that until late Spring (October 2012)
The only other major thing left to do is to trouble shoot my carbies and get them working properly so that I can give Paul his carbies back, along with his pipes.