Re: [ST] 02 ST Underseat Exhaust ???

[Paul English <tallpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006, Todd J wrote:

> Hey Paul, wanna post some details for those that HAVE NOT heard your position on the Duc exhaust mod? I would be interested in hearing that. Especially as I was one that strongly disliked the loud PowerMax system.
>  Todd

Heh - sure, although I haven't gotten very far with the whole thing. With 
everyone suggesting a custom system though.. what the heck. For what it is 
worth, last I knew RoTLE was working on something, but their first 
priority was a Tiger exhaust and I'm not sure how far they got beyond 
that.

For starters, there is a _lot_ more hack your own underseat exhaust 
information on t595.net

The idea: Purchase a very cheap (I've seen < $100 on ebay) OEM Ducati 
underseat from a 916, 996 or 748. At a guess, the 748 can is smaller and therefore 
you'd have a much louder pipe, but it might fit better.

Redo the undertray of the ST - again lots of good information on t595.net. 
A popular option seems to be thin aluminum sheet scored and bent 
appropriately. You could also use a sheet of thermoplastic (without too 
low of a melting point!), then you need a thin straight heating element 
to bend it.. more information about this available elsewhere if you don't 
want to just buy one.

I don't think this step can be avoided at all.. the current undertray is carefully
formed to give you maximum underseat storage without conflicting with the tire,
whereas you'd need one that basically just gave you some heat insulation from the
seat and gave you maximum clearance for the exhaust.. ie pretty much minimum underseat storage 
space. It should be fairly easy to form the undertray to project down to 
mount the license plate and the very important section below that with the 
brace and bumpers for the side luggage. The brace/bumper assembly is 
attached to the current plastic undertray and could easily be moved to 
the new one.

Get a small section of pipe bent by a muffler shop - this should end up 
being 6-8". The Ducati pipes head in the right direction to mate up with 
where the stock muffler can bolts to the header. I think a short connector 
should make them mate quite nicely without any excessive restriction due 
to the extra bend if it can be made gently. If the bend turns out to be a 
"relatively standard" angle, you could even buy a nice mandrel bent SS 
piece from one of the online shops and loose the "wrinkly" look of a 
compression-bent piece.

You might also need to reposition the rear brake reservoir depending on 
clearance, since that is where the down tubes of the Ducati pipe would 
run.

I think the Ducati exhaust would give you as good, if not better rear tire 
clearance as the others - I've seen reports of tire scuffing on the Wolf 
and Powermax both.

I also expect to to be quiet.. maybe not as quiet on a bike it wasn't 
designed for, but it is enough to muffle the honkin' V-twin down to EPA 
acceptable levels for retail sale.. it ought to muffle our engine pretty 
well.

Someone posted to the list (it is buried in the archives) about starting 
just this project, but they never followed up and when I emailed them it 
bounced.

Paul

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