exhaust angle?

Has anyone tried or found a way to make the exhaust angle more straight instead of the upward sweep? A buddy had suggested using a torch to heat the pipe where it angles up, and gently bending it. I have done this to change angle of exhaust on cars, but never on a bike.

 

Well i tryed this on my last bike (1981 yamaha SH850) and my resalts were good i did the same thing you are talking of but you sould remove the exhust assembly manifold and all i put it on pavment and took a rose bud torch to it heated it up and bent it with the help of a 4X4. So it is possible my only down fall was if i leaned into a corner to much some times i could get the pipes to scrape (mind you i mean relly lean into a corner so it is a good idea to have help after you bend it and lean the bike down as far as you would ever lean it while riding and see if the exhust hit's the ground.

Mind you do not try this with out a spot to help hold the bike i would hate to here that you did and ended up laying it on the side. But as long as you dont drive relly fast and lean real far you shouldent have worries.


Reson i say check how far the pipes are off the ground in your lean are because i was folowing one of my dad's frends he was riding a 2000 HD fat boy and the new exhust he put on sat about 2 inches lower then the stock and when he went around a wide corner and dident slow down and just leaded it over the piple cought the ground and the back end pushed out from under him and pinched his leg under the bike while sliding tward the ditch at 55mph.


Please dont not modify your bike because it was his stupitity he noticed the pipes were lower and even said and i quote before we left for our jont ( i hope theay wond scrape the ground when i lean into the corner) he new it and never even thought to check the resalt a totald bike broken leg right arm 3 fractured right ribs and a huge hospital bill.

 

Hmmm.... modified exhaust, free. Chipper carefree quip, free. Trip to the hospital and all the ensuing pain, priceless. Did I get that one right? All the schooling I got mentioned that to mod your machines physical dimentions was best left to the pros. Last I checked, there is very little cool factor in dragging an exhaust. Pegs maybe, but not exhausts (or anything else for that matter). I'm not happy with the upswept exhaust pipe either (gathers water at the bottom unless your one of the enlightened ones who clear the drain hole regularly) but I can't really complain. It works and the pipes flow with the bikes lines. I'll tuck this one into my "if it don't stink, don't stir it" file. Just an opinion Regulator. What do you hope to accomplish with this mod?

 

I want to do this mod too. Two reasons:

a) So as not to roast saddlebags
2) Looks (yeah, subjective)

One possibility would be to cut very narrow "darts" (remove a narrow V shaped slice from the pipes), after pretty careful measuring, and bend so the V closes, and weld. I've done this successfully before, but it's finicky.

Take careful note of where the centre stand resides. I'm still scratching my head over this. Present thinking is to make two bends in the pipes ahead of the mufflers: an upwards one closer to the front, followed shortly thereafter by a downwards one, enough to bring the mufflers near horizontal. I am imagining the mufflers' old vs. new positions as rotating about the point where the centre stand touches.
I think this should work, but it's still chilly where I live so won't be getting to this project for a while yet.
Jim

 

basically was wanting to get the angle straighter for saddle bag clearance same as jim, but also wanted to get some turn out mufflers, dont want them so straight or low that they scrap just a little more of a straighter angle not such a upsweep

 

Trying to bend pipe with a torch like this will almost certainly kink it , rather than bend it. If you want to bend a pipe, you must pack it tightly with sand, heat up the section to be bent red hot, then gently persuade it into the desired position. Naturally, the chrome will be toast after this. The pipe almost certainly will need to be held in a vise. Good luck getting both to the same angle.

 

I melted my bags on them too. I just learned to hike them up a little higher, rendering my passenger carrying abilities nil. Tit for tat, pity really. But I wouldn't call the XJ passenger minded machines really (not that that stopped me in my youth). Good luck to you on this one, I think your going to need it. That center stand issue will be a bit tricky.

 

bending has worked well before on car exhaust just by heating red hot, but they are not chromed when done, but the upward bend on the cycle isnt chrome either atleast didnt think so, just the muffler area and headers the part I am thinking of bending is just under the frame and small diam. about same size as large breaker bar, will let you all know if works out.

 

My Uncle had the same proplem when he had my 750, all he did was add any extension bracket to the muffler and now it sits a little lower and doesn't affect the saddle bags, I just hope it works for my new saddle bags. I'll ad a picture to my gallery to show the extension.