mounted my new big gun exhaust last night! what a mistake!
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 8:32 pm
Hi Ryan, check this out.
I bolted up my shiny new BG and put in their new "Vortex quiet core" insert,
and the screen type spark arrestor. Now, I don't think they have ever
shipped any KLR exhausts with the new Vortex Quiet Core insert. Someone
please correct me if I'm wrong here.
My commute to work and back is a whopping 15 miles each way, max. By the
time I arrived at work on my first ride, I noticed a blemish in the head
pipe. THe shiny silver coating had become dull gray in a spot about the size
of a silver dollar. I thought "crap!", and not much else.
That night, on the way home, my KLR was really quiet, and seemed to me to be
losing power in the upper rpm range. So much so, that riding up a long hill
on the way home, I leaned over to look at my exhaust pipe.
The whole thing I could see from the head to under my leg was GLOWING
ORANGE! It was so damn hot! I put on the choke (thought it was running way
lean) and basically idled the last mile and a half home.
I was leaving for a camping trip on the biek in the morning, adn I told the
missus I was going to have hang out in the shop and rejet the carb that
night.
I went out to the shop, and I thought I should take a look at the exhaust to
see if I had done any damage.
Lo and behold, there wasn't a damn thing wrong with my jetting, the stupid
spark arrestor screen was full of silencer packing material and clogged
solid!
Now my shiny pipe was all gray from one end to the other and the stupid
Vortex (quiet) insert had melted into a blob!
I yanked the spark arrestor screen and the bike fired up and ran fine. No
glowing headpipe, just a clean sounding, well running machine. Not too loud.
I was semi-pissed and diappointed, but I bolted it all back together sans
spark arrestor and figured it's be OK. Strapped on all my camping gear and
took off the next morning.
Krok mentioned to me at a stop about 100 miles into the trip that my exhaust
wasn't as quiet as it was when we firs started riding that morning. I put it
down to the packing getting blown out a bit.
15 or 20 miles later, the screws that hold the endcap on to the exhaust (and
the Vortex and sparky screen in place) stripped out, and my BG shit the
endcap and the vortex core out onto the street! At this point the core was
completely melted and looked like a piece of modern art. I hope someone had
pics of it, I may, but I'll have to check it out. I'll put them in the
Photos section when I can.
Luckily, MarkB was on the ball and he stopped and retrieved the parts.
Thank God I pack earplugs. I was forced to ride that baby around Death
Valley, and then home the a couple of days later, with NO ENDCAP AT ALL ON
IT. Basically, a straight pipe. It's loud.
Big Gun is repairing my pipe, I asked them for a new one, but was told "No".
They have agreed to put the previous generation Quiet Core in ther, which I
understand some people have been using for a while with no problems.
I'm not real impressed with the treatment I got down there.
When I dropped the pipe off to them, I was told by Ryan, the customer
service man, that he "didn't think the Vortex would work with big
displacement bikes." Why the hell did I get one, then?
I believe that some listers have used the quiet core design with the metal
plates and had good results with it?
And then, I got told that "riding wide open across the desert" would burn it
up. What the hell? I was putting around on the street, and even if I was
riding WFO, that is supposedly a "performance exhaust"?
And THEN, he told me that he had shipped other KLR systems with this new
core and had no problems. I've never heard of it or seen it, has anyone? I'm
not saying the guy's fibbing, but I find it hard to believe that anyone has
tested this item without having the same results as I got.
Hell, I thought the fact that I brought a design flaw to their attention
promptly and without being angry aould net me a "Thanks!" or at least a
"Sorry!" and a new pipe. Instead, I'm waiting for them to glue together my
pipe, and I got treated like it was my fault the damn thing fell apart.
If someone alerted me to the fact I was selling a faulty product BEFORE I
had the chance to ship out a bunch of them and ruin potential customers*, I
think I would have been pretty grateful and given the guy a free hat, as
well as a new pipe.
*could there have been any negative effects to my bike's engine performance
or longevity due to riding it with an exhaust that was clogged shut? The
pipe was red hot...
I'll let the list know how I get treated when I go down ther tomorrow and
get my pipe back.
Thanks
CA Stu
PS Bogdan, you may be right after all...
> -----Original Message----- > > CA Stu, I've been planning on throwing a Big Gun exhaust on my A-18 > since I got it last year. I was waiting until this season to do so > and here's my dilemma. I want the added power and noise associated > with the race series for tearing ass around manhattan, but I > definitely want to keep it under 96 decibles when taking it off road > so as not to enrage the hippies that are shutting down all the > trails. If I get the quiet series, can you remove the quiet core > and effectively have the race series? > > Ryan > KNEVLKLR > A-18 Manhattan > > > --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "CA Stu" wrote: > > > > It's shiny and pretty. > > > > Also, it's not as loud as the old style, like I guessed. > > I noticed that now it comes with a warning sticker that says to > > replck teh exhaust every 15-20 hours of use. Using the silent sport > > pre-wrapped packing, should cost about $25 and take about 1/2 hour > > every mcouple of months. > > > > The new design of the BG is neat, a lot of billet, it's really light, > > and the Quiet Core insert is just a tiny little piece held in by 3 > > button head bolts. $519.90 is a lot of cash, however. > > Good thing I got mine at the special price> > > > Cheers > > CA Stu > > > > PS it looks like it should cost at least $520...