ratsidecar
.060 Over
Today was spent sorting out the exhaust on my NTV650.
This is the bike:
This is the old worn out, rusty, full of holes and still rather heavy exhaust:
A replacement aftermarket exhaust is available but costs over £200 and the silencer is quite long for it. I wanted something short like the original to show off the single sided swingarm and to allow me to remove the back wheel without having to touch the exhaust system.
A cheap chinese ebay silencer was sourced for £20
The ebay silencer came with a db killer. However the total area of the holes in it was less than that of the original outlet. It needed the 21 5mm holes in it enlarged to 8mm to provide an area about 30% larger than the original tailpipe. The silencer also came with a 51mm to 38mm reducer.
A Y pipe from an aftermarket LCB exhaust manifold for a classic mini was found for £15
It provided a nice interference fit on the original downpipes and allowed me to save money by not using any gaskets, just a pair of decent clamps. The Y pipe outlet was 48mm diameter but conveniently by cutting the tapered ends off the reducer that came with the silencer it could be slipped back in to fill the gap between it and the silencer perfectly.
An afternoon of cutting grinding and welding got the Y pipe reangled to where I wanted it and the silencer grafted on to the end. It was my first time welding stainless. I just used a gasless mig and normal mild steel flux core wire. It turns out stainless is a nightmare to drill but very easy to weld, its quite hard to burn through it. My welding skills with mig are dreadful but functional and after a bit of grinding im happy enough with the end result.
And here it is on the bike. I added a length of angle steel underneath the Y piece to stop the centre stand from coming up too far and hitting the swingarm when in motion. I still have to fit the rear silencer hanger but I ran out of daylight to do it in and my favourite drillbit expired.
Im happy with the result it sounds lovely. Reasonably civilised at idle and light loading and very pleasing to the ear as the revs and noise build up. Throttle response is improved and it runs nicely as is without having to adjust the mixture. And the best bit is it saved me a ton of cash on a bike that isnt really worth very much anyway.
This is the bike:
This is the old worn out, rusty, full of holes and still rather heavy exhaust:
A replacement aftermarket exhaust is available but costs over £200 and the silencer is quite long for it. I wanted something short like the original to show off the single sided swingarm and to allow me to remove the back wheel without having to touch the exhaust system.
A cheap chinese ebay silencer was sourced for £20
The ebay silencer came with a db killer. However the total area of the holes in it was less than that of the original outlet. It needed the 21 5mm holes in it enlarged to 8mm to provide an area about 30% larger than the original tailpipe. The silencer also came with a 51mm to 38mm reducer.
A Y pipe from an aftermarket LCB exhaust manifold for a classic mini was found for £15
It provided a nice interference fit on the original downpipes and allowed me to save money by not using any gaskets, just a pair of decent clamps. The Y pipe outlet was 48mm diameter but conveniently by cutting the tapered ends off the reducer that came with the silencer it could be slipped back in to fill the gap between it and the silencer perfectly.
An afternoon of cutting grinding and welding got the Y pipe reangled to where I wanted it and the silencer grafted on to the end. It was my first time welding stainless. I just used a gasless mig and normal mild steel flux core wire. It turns out stainless is a nightmare to drill but very easy to weld, its quite hard to burn through it. My welding skills with mig are dreadful but functional and after a bit of grinding im happy enough with the end result.
And here it is on the bike. I added a length of angle steel underneath the Y piece to stop the centre stand from coming up too far and hitting the swingarm when in motion. I still have to fit the rear silencer hanger but I ran out of daylight to do it in and my favourite drillbit expired.
Im happy with the result it sounds lovely. Reasonably civilised at idle and light loading and very pleasing to the ear as the revs and noise build up. Throttle response is improved and it runs nicely as is without having to adjust the mixture. And the best bit is it saved me a ton of cash on a bike that isnt really worth very much anyway.
