Carpenter Sidewinder on a Touring

brsmits

BRB, on adventure...
Joined
Sep 24, 2019
Messages
80
Location
Yosemite
Ride
2013 R3T, "Trinity"
Don't tell me it won't fit. It just needed some "persuasion."

Ok, so here's the deal: I was originally looking at the rocket because it's crazy. Then I saw that carpenter had built it up to another level of stupid crazy. It was always in the back of my mind, but I liked my race bike and my track days and 200 mph on my ****** rocket.

Skip ahead a few years and I find myself living in a park where everything useful is more than an hour ride away. The jibblets didn't like that. The wife also didn't like the fact that there was no back seat. So I trade to a 2013 R3 Touring. In the back of my mind I always had the carpenter bike in my head, and when I check google: Holy Crap they made a sidewinder now too!

Skip ahead a bit more and I'm calling Carp to order this lovely sidewinder! Now I don't know if they failed to mention it to me, or I failed to mention it to them that I had a touring, not a roadster, or whatnot. But the Sidewinder exhaust apparently wasn't made to fit the Touring bike. Yet here it is: $1600 later and i'm trying to figure out how to NOT make this a huge waste of money.

So head to the hardware store, find myself a chunk of metal, grab a dremel and some extra cut off wheels, take a few basic measurements, and start hacking away at it. A bit of trial and error later, I make a bracket for ~$10 that pushes down the megaphone JUST enough to avoid the Saddle Bag Support bar.
Bracket.jpg

There was a bit of a learning curve. Little tips like (in order):
After you pull off the old exhaust, be sure to pull out the little oval gaskets inside the block.
You'll need 5/16" washers to act as spacers between the mounting plate and the capped nuts you took off the old exhaust. You'll need about 30 of them.
Take off the right side pannier support rail and passenger foot peg.
Put the mounting bracket on the block.
Assemble the three exhaust pipes into the collector.
Put pipe/collector combo onto mounting block.
Use a wine bottle opener to put the springs on. Screw it onto the long bit of the J hook, pull it over the necessary loop of the exhaust, unscrew. Easier than pliers.
Put the O2 sensor into the bung of the Megaphone.
Put the megaphone on the collector.
Cover the megaphone with a bunch of padding that it was shipped in
Thread the Pannier support bar into place, use a little bit of leverage to "convince" the megaphone to move down.
Use a piece of paper to mark off the location of the megaphone's mount, and the mounting holes.
Cut some metal to the right shape, see the photo above to what I ended up with.
Bolt it in, put everything back together.


Trinity Tunnel View.jpg
 
Looks like you are going to get some heat on your leg, I have a sidewinder on one of my Roadster Rockets and I can feel the heat, remember and get a tune done for your bike plus buy the correct spring remover -eBay has them for around $10
Good job making it work:D me likey smart people:D

Yeah, I installed a PCV with AT as well. Gotta get a tune from Carpenter for it. I have the 3x K&N 2780's on as well, I just need to find that thread on this site with the overflow relocation.


As far as the parking ticket: the joys of the park being closed to the public: nobody is around, so less LEOs. That and Im friends with most of the rangers out here anyway. ;-)
 
Be aware ...
You mentioned "use a little bit of leverage to "convince" the megaphone to move down."

You have now put the entire system under stress, this is not good, it will break.

When I build an Exhaust System, I'll build part of it a Jig, but then will mount it on a real bike.
Some times I need to "convince" the system into place to get it fitting 100%.
I then heat it with the gas torch so as to stress relieve it.
Once it's cooled, it comes off the bike real nice.
 
Be aware ...
You mentioned "use a little bit of leverage to "convince" the megaphone to move down."

You have now put the entire system under stress, this is not good, it will break.

When I build an Exhaust System, I'll build part of it a Jig, but then will mount it on a real bike.
Some times I need to "convince" the system into place to get it fitting 100%.
I then heat it with the gas torch so as to stress relieve it.
Once it's cooled, it comes off the bike real nice.


What are your thoughts then? I have a benzomatic ts8000 and can of MAP-pro, if that helps.
 
Be aware ...
You mentioned "use a little bit of leverage to "convince" the megaphone to move down."

You have now put the entire system under stress, this is not good, it will break.

When I build an Exhaust System, I'll build part of it a Jig, but then will mount it on a real bike.
Some times I need to "convince" the system into place to get it fitting 100%.
I then heat it with the gas torch so as to stress relieve it.
Once it's cooled, it comes off the bike real nice.
YES that will do it good job Paul
 
What are your thoughts then? I have a benzomatic ts8000 and can of MAP-pro, if that helps.

Ignoring what it will look like (I'm sure you would be able to re-polish it) simply heat the tail pipe between the 3 into 1 collecter and the muffler, don't just heat in one spot, make the heated range about 2" long all around the pipe.

Just as a matter of interest, how much did you have to pull the muffler down ?
 
Ignoring what it will look like (I'm sure you would be able to re-polish it) simply heat the tail pipe between the 3 into 1 collecter and the muffler, don't just heat in one spot, make the heated range about 2" long all around the pipe.

Just as a matter of interest, how much did you have to pull the muffler down ?


The end tip of it? Not quite 3 inches, the bracket I made is 1.5-2" between the mounting holes

I did a 10 mile ride to check ecu error codes and whatnot and no issues.

I could easily continue that loop for another two weeks, allowing it to heat and cool, but ill take the torch to it a few times as well. I appreciate the advise!
 
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