Toying with the exhaust

Hi all, long time no talk!

No I haven't been in the lock up, just on long service leave and traveling. Hense my absence of late.

With so much rain here I hav'nt been riding much, but did manage to sneak to Eastern Creek for a couple of track days on my track bike which sadly ended in the gravel !

But have just scored a set of titanium wrapped carbon end cap Akropovics off eBay for a sweet price. So I have just stripped the pipes off the Superduke in readiness for ceramic coating!

The plan is to coat the headers in semi polish silver, fit the Akras, get the map changed and ejoy that sweet symphony of twin aggression.
Any advice re what to tell the mechanic about set up tune? Eg the SAS block off etc.

Will the KTM map be adequate or will a power commander be on the cards? Any advise would be appreciated.

BTW, good to see all the regular bullshitters are still on the forum. Woulnt be the same without you's!

I too was thinking of going the PCIII route but now with tune ECU that seems to be the way to go, and it's free,

first of all... since you were here last... tuneECU has revolutionized SD.net

the power commander is an expensive, out dated thing of the past now.

tuneECU allows for new fuel maps, ignition maps, full diagnostics control and just about anything else that is controlled by the ecu... a big wow and thankyou from those guys... oh and its free

There are a bunch of maps around to suit whatever mods you have.


Secondly, welcome back to the madness.

OFF Topic but

has anybody thought about what an underslung exhaust would look like on the SD (same sort of thing as the the 690 duke)? Can anybody knock something like that up in photo shop? Exposed pipe/ muffler kind of thing

yeah... thought about that... was thinking of some kind of new tail piece similar to the SD but designed to be enclosed as opposed to a set of pipes finishing it off.

I also have been thinking of a side exhaust. I weighed my bare frame at 20 lbs. I weighed my stock muffler cat combo at 26 lbs. WOW ! If / when I move my muffler to the side I will make a cavity under the seat to store stuff. I am also thinking of moding the seat to solo with a raised rear section for increased storage. I need to use a quite muffler so I can use the loud handle as often as I do. I am well known in my neck of the woods and the last ticket was wrote up in my drive way. They just sit in the wood lot down the road untill I get home, Thinking about a stock ti gixer 1000 can for like CFM flow and stealth. Anybody been there done that?

Got my ceramic headers back on with Akras now fitted too..... sounds and looks awsome!
I Got the Akra map put on at the dealers, and now it runs much smoother and the gurgles on closed throttle are also gone.

Will post pics soon when I work out how to.

pics attached .....I hope!

and a couple more pics.

how much does ceramic coating cost if you dont mind me asking?

that looks very nice! any reason you didn't get the Y pipe done also?

Cost $170 for the two headers and three clamps. That's at Virginia, bris north side.

I didn't get the link pipe and mufflers until after I had the coating done. They were off eBay and grubby, but cleaned up well. I reasoned why coat that beautiful titanium and TIG welds. It's not that noticeable in the flesh as it appears in the photos.

You gotta be happy with the finish on them. If it looks as good in real life as it does in the pics I'd be smiling.
Does the ceramic finish have a special name.

I got it done at " Thermal edge coating" . He has sample headers and turbos coated in different colours/ finishes in his office.

He said there are a couple of different products used in the industry to ceramic coat. He prefers his of course, and I'm very happy. He does powder coating also.

The ceramic apparently gets sprayed on like paint ( without the +ve charge like powder coat) and baked at a much higher temp. Mine have a satin/ polished alloy appearance.

Good value and worth doing I recon, as the bike hadn't been loved cosmetically when Ibought it, it has taken a bit of elbow grease to get it looking how I want it.

Should be interesting to see long term. I had my headers off and polished them, took me friggin ages and lots of work keeping looking good. You can never get rid of that shit blue grey colour near the exhaust port.

Hey Aussieduke, those coated headers do look sweet!!!! I have too acquired a set of Akra slip ons & plan to get the akra map installed in the next couple weeks.
Will the coating discolour at all from the heat? & will they be easy to keep looking new? not familiar with the coating process, so was just wondering. I would invest that money too to have them look sharp like that.

cheers, Rob

I coated my header s with the same stuff about a year ago and it's holding up very well. The shine is starting to dull slightly (more so near the cylinder head), which IMO looks even better.

Good looking bike

Word is they will never discolor, but you need to occasionally give them a polish with a non abrasive mag wheel cleaner to keep them looking good. Tar comes off with thinners.

My mate has had it on his 1098 headers for two years....still looks like new.

The guy who did it said he does a lot of speedway race cars. He's seen headers crumpled up after a crash and the coating has not flaked or split.....so tough stuff!

I did polish mine to remove hand prints after fitting them. Used Maguires wheel cleaner, no effort and they look great.