It seems that a lot of people have been hit by people breaking into their shit.

Last week, I decided to modify the exhaust on my gsxr1k by shortening the canister. I like the high-mount, but hated how long the can was, so I cut about 2/3 off it, modified the mounts internally to the can, etc, and put it back together.

The original exhaust looked like this:


I thought it was ugly, but liked the way the tail was exposed. I found a high-mount because I like how clean they typically look:


However, a few rides, I kind of got tired of how big the exhaust can is, so I handled it:


Now that part's done, I'm thinking about doing away with the S bend so it's no longer a high-mount and just have a straight pipe going to the shorty muffler and using the factory mount (or fabbing one) to keep the tail clean. Main reason for redoing the mid-pipe is because my heal rests on the top part above the heat shield. Originally, i was going to add 6-8" at the bottom of the S bend to move the whole thing back, which is why I shortened the pipe, but the more I look at GP-style exhaust, the more I like it.

Anyway, this was on like Tuesday & Wednesday of last week, just a couple hours each day.

My wife calls me around 3pm on Thursday (V-day) and says we've been robbed. I get home and find my bikes & cougar are still intact, but $3050 in cash is gone, along with about another $3000 in small electronics (2x laptops, digi cam, 3x mp3 players, 3x Nintendo DS, HDD, etc). I was sofa king pissed and wanted to kill people.

I've had my car broken into, but nothing felt worse than knowing someone broke into my house and went through everything. The ass even took the time to find the USB cable for my sansa view. I called Brinks that night and had their asses at the house at 8:30am the next day.

I saw Dino talking about the Katrina people and feel the same way. Once Houston filled up, they came here and our crime rate has turned to complete shit. The investigator told me that in his typical 8hr shift, he's seen around 10-15 break-ins a day in my area (assuming general NE side).

Seriously, it makes me want to bait my house and hide out in waiting for some dumb bastard to come in through my window again so I can 'fear for my life'. I won't, though, because I know better, and blood is hard to clean out of off-white carpet.

On another note, I thought I'd be able to buy a 3rd 2gnt and was looking around, but now that I'm missing $3050 in cash (and had to pay for Brinks installation), it's gonna have to wait.

So, for now, I'll stick to driving my mustang (although I'm kind of bored with it), and riding my bike. I was scheduled for a track day (road course style) at MSR-Houston on the 24th, but don't have the money for it now. The people were cool and let me reschedule for March 16th, though.

I really like the LTH design that's out, but I feel it could be better by adding some 'steps' to it, or simply one step, and go with a 4-2-1 design. In the i4 bike world, all the top performing exhausts use a stepped 4-2-1 design. However, my bike turns 13.5k RPMs and my wife's does 15.5k. Now, my busa redlined at 10.6k and the header design was the same. On the dyno, it would start to trail off before hitting redline, so I know the header design is useful in the usable RPM range (3-8k).

Funny thing is, I used to spend HOURS on this board ever day and used to wonder how anyone could leave the site, but as time progresses, we all change in some way. I was an active member on hayabusa.org for a while, but have since dropped off, and tried sportbikes.net, but some of those guys are tools, and I don't even bother with gixxer.com. I found some good friends on a few local boards, but nothing compares to the feeling I get from this place.

I was thinking about it the other day, how it'd be cool to have a summer get together where all of us could rent a beach house or two for an extended weekend (or a week) and just goof off. I thought about talking to the local sport bike board people, but some are squids and I don't want to have anything to do with them.

So, yeah, I just wanted to pop in, say hello, talk about some cool shit I did, some shit that sucked, throw some ideas out there, and that's about it. Typical 2gnt day I guess :shrug

Hey dude, sorry to hear about your loss.

Nice bike though, I didn't know you sold the Busa.

Yeah, I just felt that it was no longer suited to my needs, so I upgraded.

Stock gixxer exhaust is so ugly.

I need a new bike bad. Already got the spring itch and it's still 0 degrees out.

It was nice on Sunday, the high was in the mid-70's.

Originally posted by cougar694u
Yeah, I just felt that it was no longer suited to my needs, so I upgraded.

Cool

Originally posted by cougar694u
My wife calls me around 3pm on Thursday (V-day) and says we've been robbed. I get home and find my bikes & cougar are still intact, but $3050 in cash is gone, along with about another $3000 in small electronics (2x laptops, digi cam, 3x mp3 players, 3x Nintendo DS, HDD, etc). I was sofa king pissed and wanted to kill people. I've had my car broken into, but nothing felt worse than knowing someone broke into my house and went through everything. The ass even took the time to find the USB cable for my sansa view.

Sucks balls, man. It's that indefensible violation. You think , "If I could have been here, I could have......" but the scum would never do shit like that. At least give me a home invasion scenario where I got a chance to protect. I want to go get my shots in; not some behind the back, coward crap.

But on a lighter note;

Originally posted by cougar694u
I really like the LTH design that's out, but I feel it could be better by adding some 'steps' to it, or simply one step, and go with a 4-2-1 design. In the i4 bike world, all the top performing exhausts use a stepped 4-2-1 design. However, my bike turns 13.5k RPMs and my wife's does 15.5k. Now, my busa redlined at 10.6k and the header design was the same. On the dyno, it would start to trail off before hitting redline, so I know the header design is useful in the usable RPM range (3-8k).

I finally get this thing together (with quicksilver99) and all you got to say is it isn't good enough :eek ?

Lol, no, no, just kidding man. I appreciate the good words.

As for the 4-2-1 design, of course you know I looked into everything ;) In researching what I wanted to do, I had in mind a certain design (pretty much what I ended up doing), but I wanted to check other stuff out. From when I raced the mustang, I remember the higher rpm headers were always the 4 into 1 on each side (and obviously, 2 into 1 with a crossmember tuner or whatever etc.) As a matter of fact the 4-2-1 (on each side of course) were pretty much shunned. Now that is one animal that's just related. I then checked into what the Honda guys were doing. 4-1 etc. Still fitting my original design. What I know about the 4-2-1 header design is that it will give you a bit more midrange at the expense of top end (general concept).

So I went about reading up on theory crap etc. After I woke up, I came up with the design that you see (honestly, a lot of what I do is basically intuitive. I may get an idea of what I think would work based on just plain "common sense". Not very scientific, but I try to get a little theory and other's experience in there. That is the way I port my heads. I look at what makes sense to the flow. Again not real scientific but I do know it works :shrug ). I then worked with Mark to get the numbers correct and his bending skills brought on the end result.

As for motorcycle set-ups, I honestly haven't put them into play because they basically live in another rpm land. I can only guess from their design that they do use the 4-2-1 design to help their mid range. Except, of course, their midrange is a lot higher than ours. But again, not having looked into bikes too much, I can only guess.

But there was another guy (who I have a great deal of respect for, like yourself) who also brought up the 4-2-1 design. Hmm, maybe somewhere down the road?

Hey man, good to hear from you.

You may have a point with the idea of going with a 4-2-1 design to help midrange, as it's almost non-existent on a bike (unless you're on a heavy hitter, >1.3L).

I rode my wife's 600 and was amazed at the all around lack of power sub 8k RPM. That's why I pointed out the busa, but it didn't drop off power until around 9.5k. I wish I would have dyno'd after the updated tune, but oh well.

I'm still amazed at the progress you've made, though, and my criticism is positive (at least in my perspective :P), hoping it'll someway help you progress farther.

The only difference I can see in running a 4-2-1 on each bank of a v8 vs 4-2-1 on an i4 is the exhaust pulses are different. I'm sure you've already thought of this, but having 1 & 2 come together (3 & 4 as well) should help equalize pressure between the two before hitting the main collector, instead of coming together at one point. I guess it would be somewhat trial and error, which will get expensive (as I'm sure you know).

I've even seen a few header designs that put an 'H' between cyl 2 & 3 only about 6-8" from the head/flange, so :shrug

All in all, it's great to see 200+ when everyone swore it would never happen. I know I was no where near that point, but I sure had fun.

Originally posted by cougar694u
and my criticism is positive (at least in my perspective :P), hoping it'll someway help you progress farther.

Agreed 100%. Remember you were the first one to show me that there is such a thing as a flat power curve, lol. I could never do that years ago.

Oh, and check out the design of this header:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=001&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=110225512351&rd=1

Very similar to the design I'm referencing (stepped & 4-2-1).

Since you've now passed 100HP/L, I'm gonna dyno my bike and see where I stand. I won a free dyno session, but I'm trying to get my hands on a power commander (piggy back fuel controller) so it can at least be productive.

I'm actually hoping for 150+HP, which will be 150HP/L, seeing as it's a liter bike :)

Originally posted by cougar694u
I'm actually hoping for 150+HP, which will be 150HP/L, seeing as it's a liter bike :)

Lol, I ain't making that challenge without a turbo :P

A buck and a half, eh? Righteous numbers......

Originally posted by bullettdsm
A buck and a half, eh? Righteous numbers......

Supposedly the bike makes 180 at the crank. Found a power commander on egay last night, so here's to hoping it'll be over 150 :cheers

Sorry you guys had to go through the heinous shit you just did. That's so wrong. At least, with a car, you don't actually sleep in the car. Hope you guys are back to feeling safe in your own home again by now. Shit like that should not fly.

Originally posted by DR1665
Sorry you guys had to go through the heinous shit you just did. That's so wrong. At least, with a car, you don't actually sleep in the car. Hope you guys are back to feeling safe in your own home again by now. Shit like that should not fly.

A few minutes ago I heard a noise coming from the garage area. I ran out there, gun in hand, butt-ass naked, only to see everything in place and heard the ice maker finish dumping ice. :thumbsdown