After Market Pipes

[reckon]

FYI, the Spec IIs work fine on my '83 with stock jetting. Guess that's because the stock jetting is for unequal pipe length.

spec II's?  I found a link for yamaha RD/RZ stuff,...but nothing about an XZ550 exhaust system

are they still available?  I'm getting a set of the MAC's, but I still like to see options.

my friend that runs a welding service, says he can re-work the MAC's so I get one pipe up each side, which is probably what I'm going to do.

thanks for all the pics everybody

[YellowJacket!]

Heres a couple views of the Macs on Yellowjacket!.











David

[reckon]

man, thats a really nice job you did on that, dave.   very clean, looks like a pic from 1983!

1 more question if you please:

do the MACS scrape on right hand corners?  anywhere on the pipe?

for instance: medium right hand sweeper, your fully scraping the right side pegs, and you hit a small bump, will the MAC's scrape?

the reason I ask is I notice that lower pipe is MUCH lower than the stocker, and even the upper pipe, does not snuggle up into the passenger peg mount area like the stock pipes do, so I was concerned about clearance, as I simply LOVE wearing out a set of footpegs, from the END!  :D

[YellowJacket!]

he heh heh.  Hadn't gotten  that far down yet.  But, they don't stick out bearly as wide as the stock exhaust does.
From the looks of it, I think I'd scrape a peg before I hit a pipe.

Thanks for the compliments on the bike too.  From a few feet away, it looks good, but up close, its a bit amature.  It was my first attempt at using an air sprayer. ;D  The tank has a bit of orange peel on the top, but I think thats because my compressor was way too small.  When I get ready to paint tank'n stein, I'll be using a better sprayer and a much better compressor....with an inline water filter. 
If it didn't cost so darn much to ship cross country, I'd ship you my tank and side covers to do.  ;D

David

[Lucky]

I've got Macs on mine too, it'll scrape pegs well before scraping the cans.

--Lucky

[reckon]

he heh heh.  Hadn't gotten  that far down yet.  But, they don't stick out bearly as wide as the stock exhaust does.
From the looks of it, I think I'd scrape a peg before I hit a pipe.

Thanks for the compliments on the bike too.  From a few feet away, it looks good, but up close, its a bit amature.  It was my first attempt at using an air sprayer. ;D  The tank has a bit of orange peel on the top, but I think thats because my compressor was way too small.  When I get ready to paint tank'n stein, I'll be using a better sprayer and a much better compressor....with an inline water filter. 
If it didn't cost so darn much to ship cross country, I'd ship you my tank and side covers to do.  ;D

David

orange peel is a tricky one to diagnose, usually it means you are putting on too much paint in ratio to air flow, so as your shooting the pressure drops and you start to get too much paint in relation to air flow.

orange peel is a FLUID adjustment (usually you would back the fluid knob down some), and runs are an AIR adjustment (usually you would crank UP the air some either at the gun, or the regulator ON the gun)

the TRICK, is getting a gun that will run within the compressors output range:
one of my detail guns (harbor freight=$40) will run on about 3 to 4 cfm, and my TINY little 4 gallon 1 HP compressor will run that thing all day long, and the finish looks great.

harbor freight also ,makes a SUPRISINGLY good gun it's this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90977

if you notice it'll run on less than SIX cfm,...and thats just ridiculously low, so what that means is most any compressor with a 20 gallon or larger tank, and with 3HP motor, you can get a GREAT finish. I use that gun whenever I have to go and shoot somewhere with a small compressor and it produces a GREAT finish, and actually I LOVE it for shooting metallics, and lie about NOT using it as much as I do,..GREAT gun,...and CHEAPER than most "primer guns"

I'll start another thread about painting and equipment for the home/hobbyist painter to give you guys some tips.

[h2olawyer]

Looking forward to your painting primer, reckon.  I've heard from other people that Harbor Freight has a couple good paint guns - especially for the hobbyist painter.  May include that gun in my paint materials & supplies budget.

H₂O

[Minitor911]

I've gotta ask Dave, and I'm sure it's been asked before, but where did you get that fairing on your bike? It looks awesome.

[h2olawyer]

That fairing was a Yamaha factory option for the 82 Vision.  It also fit the Virago.  The style is what we've been calling the "Shark" fairing.  Good wind protection for the torso.  I got one when I bought my V back in 84.  For style on the Vision, it is my favorite.  I prefer riding with the full fairing, though.

H₂O

[YellowJacket!]

I've gotta ask Dave, and I'm sure it's been asked before, but where did you get that fairing on your bike? It looks awesome.

I got the fairing from a one of the members here (hadn't heard from him in a while).  I traded it for an upper fairing that I gave up on looking for parts for.  I have seen my old fairing show up on ebay recently.

My Shark fairing came to me in great shape and with all the hardware.  The windscreen was yellowed and cracked but I got the new "smoked" one from www.bikescreen.com .  For my size (about 5'7") the screen provides decent wind protection but the noise level seems to have increased a bit.

The original paint was silver and was in very good shape.  SOmeone suggested painting it black, which I did.  For some reason, it looks like a bumble bee head or a yellow jaket head on the bike, hence the name of the bike.  (I thought bumble bee just didn't fit the biker guy image so I went with "YellowJacket!".)

David

[reckon]

The original paint was silver and was in very good shape.  SOmeone suggested painting it black, which I did.  For some reason, it looks like a bumble bee head or a yellow jaket head on the bike, hence the name of the bike.  (I thought bumble bee just didn't fit the biker guy image so I went with "YellowJacket!".)

David

check out the giant killer japanese hornets!  they are like two inches long   :o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

I always LOVED that orange-ey yellow color they are

[YellowJacket!]

check out the giant killer japanese hornets!  they are like two inches long   :o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

I always LOVED that orange-ey yellow color they are

We get something like that around here about every 10 years.  They are freaking horror movie huge!  We saw a couple hundred a few summers back CARRYING Cicada's.  They would attack them in the trees, sting them and carry them-still alive and buzzing-into their holes.  Unfortunately, the holes were in the very middle of our Memorial Day campground picnic party which put somewhat of a damper on things.  They were so freakin big you could see the stingers sticking out.  Not a good day to be a cicada. :o

David

And now back to our regularly scheduled topic. ;D  ;D

[YellowJacket!]

Oh, um Lucky...heh heh.... just ignore that post.  Theres still a few more years left before they come around again. ;D

David

[Lucky]

i'll just have to keep the fce shield down, hehe

[YellowJacket!]

i'll just have to keep the fce shield down, hehe

Dude, these things are HUGE.  I even think the Brinks trucks dodge them for fear that they will break the bullet proof glass.  A face shield is like wet tissue paper to them.  :o

David

[Brian Moffet]

Ever get hit by a June beetle (or june bug)?  I got smacked by one once in the top of the helmet on the freeway.  My neck was sore and my ears were ringing and it was only a glancing blow.

Brian

[tremalzo]

The SPEC II pipes are single pipes that go up each side,

Coil

The SPEC II pipes look great. Never heard of them before. Is there a link to a manufacturer?

Tremalzo

[Kenny]

  Hi DaveTN,
    I was wondering what that hose on the seat is used for? Back in the old dayswe called that a "mexican credit card".
                         ? ;)  Cheers Ken S.

[YellowJacket!]

  Hi DaveTN,
    I was wondering what that hose on the seat is used for? Back in the old dayswe called that a "mexican credit card".
                         ? ;)  Cheers Ken S.

Thats actually braided stainless steel. ;D  I pulled it off a plumbing fixture and am planning to dress up some of my hoses and lines with it.  Probably going to do the YICS first and see how it looks.

David

[zore]

man, thats a really nice job you did on that, dave.   very clean, looks like a pic from 1983!

1 more question if you please:

do the MACS scrape on right hand corners?  anywhere on the pipe?

for instance: medium right hand sweeper, your fully scraping the right side pegs, and you hit a small bump, will the MAC's scrape?

the reason I ask is I notice that lower pipe is MUCH lower than the stocker, and even the upper pipe, does not snuggle up into the passenger peg mount area like the stock pipes do, so I was concerned about clearance, as I simply LOVE wearing out a set of footpegs, from the END!  :D

Mind you my tires are a set of Yokohama's installed in 1989 but even still I was scrapping the bracket on the mac as well as the foot peg at deals gap.  If you are touching pegs, you'll touch the mac at about the same time.