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[Tzen]

Excellent Gwilly, that is just what I was looking for. Thack, my concern also that the pipes were welded before bending. I suppose it has to be worth giving it a go and if all else fails bite the bullet and order our hosts replacement!

[Gwilly]

The cat is only that restrictive crap in the end of the pipe. remove the welds and it drops out..

The pipe is not double skinned throughout its length.

Also remove the PAV (Pulse air valve) as this is also junk and is made totally redundant without the cat anyway..

[Tzen]

Gwilly, brilliant, many thanks.

[Thack]

Hey, Gwilly, you mean at the top end of the pipe? If it isn't double-skinned all the way through, presumably just unwelding the cat gives you a clear pipe all the way through? By the way, on my Electra X I noticed that the exhaust pipe blued right down at the *bottom* end - three or four inches in front of where it fastens to the silencer. Is that hot spot something to do with the end of the double skin? Or something to do with the cat, maybe?

[Gwilly]

Thats the cat restriction which gives the extra heat at that point..

[Robin]

Hi Tzen. Transforms the character of the bike quite dramatically. After fitting free flow header pipe and silencer, bellmouth and larger jets(in original carb), and taking it out for a ride, my first thought was :"Hey it's a nice puttering toy bike now!". Does that make any sense? Probably not, but the point is that in standard guise the restricted setup creates a massive amount of back pressure, which is eradicated. Ever so slightly higher top end, a bit more revability and acceleration too. Well worth it.

[PeteF]

Tzen, you will need to do some porting work on the head if you intend to go to 32mm

[PeteF]

Just worked it out, if the original is 28mm like the other 500s then you are going from 616 mm/sq area to 804 mm/sq
That's a big jump without tuning the head to cope.

[Adrian]

Peter, the Electra-X head is a bit odd in some ways, the standard inlet port is a sort of flat-sided oval shape roughly 32mm across x 36mm top to bottom at the flange, to which the factory fitted a 29mm CV carb instead of the VM28 Mikarb normally used on the 500. No opening out needed for a 32mm carb. The standard exhaust port on the Electra-X head however is very restrictive and badly finished, though presumably the factory's thinking was that with the small inner bore of the exhaust pipe it wasn't worth opening out/tidying up. Nothing that can't be quite easily remedied, however.

Regards,

A.

[PeteF]

I stand corrected