I don't understand the need for lightness, if it is for off roading then within 10 minutes of ridining in mud you will have more then 10kgs of mud stuck to your bike any way. :nana:

If you want a single one so you carry make a tool tube for the other side then I can see the logic in that, but to save a few kilos in the great scheme of things is not really going to make a great difference on the bike IMHO. :clock:

Why less weight ?

Simple.



I can eat more pies. :smilies0349:

Excluding Darren's excellent 'pies FTW' stance ;) it comes down to power to weight. The Tenere is no lightweight and despite the same claimed power as a 1985 DR600, manages to have 50kg extra slapped about it's person. That's the same as a small pillion. Anything that can be done to reduce the weight of the bike is a bonus.
It would be lovely to be able to ditch the FI, and leccy boot from it as well, but that's realistically not going to happen. Losing 5kg from the back end is definitely a bonus, how can it not be? The bike will feel more responsive, the suspension less overworked and the handling improved. Wins all round, and more pies for Darren.

as Tom says there is a definit advantage to removing 8Kg of weight form a high point in the bike, and at the rear to.

This might go some way to explain:

http://www.smokingtailpipes.com/Gallery/Drawing1.jpg

I've not worked out the torque that this gives, and it's very simplistic to say the least.

The stock cans are the highest heavy object on the bike, by reducing that the centre of gravty will lower. Also the turning force that is put onto the front of the bike will reduce, keeping some pressure on the rear wheel under heavy braking (and you stop better with both wheels on the ground!).


Little by little.....

I hear what you are saying, but again when I go on my travels with my bike loaded up with givi 52lt top box, tent etc over the back seat and soft luggage on the sides. You could also save alot of weight with fitting a smaller tank 1 gallon =2.72kilos, I would never go off roading on the Tenere with a full tank.



I will back off now at the risk of high jacking the thread :thumbsup::whipit:

You are not wrong in what you say, in the scheme of things a 6Kg saving (say from the X-Racing system, if they ever respond!) isn't much.

However, I just don't make 'bling' or asthetic changes to my bikes, everything is for a reason, and improvement. Changing the pipes for something that gives an extra couple of HP isn't worth it, more torque? yes that's a move in the right direction, but if I can get the weight down too then that's a real improvement, not only power to weight, but in the goemetry too. The sound makes no difference to me at all.

There are also advantages to having a single pipe end to end over twin setups - I just can't remember where I read it, or what it is, but it's down to improved torque

Anyway, what I'm really interested in is what people's percieved and proven improvements are when changing the pipes, wieght, power, torque. Looks and sound aren't important to me.

Darren, if you want me to dig out some books on exhaust design I'd be more than happy to? The silencer can make a difference to the final power/torque output, but the header pipe design is where most gains and tuning can be had.
I realise though that it's not an 'off the shelf' thing to do, so has limited appeal, but I think it's the way to go. You may find someone local to you has the facilities to make something up to suit.

This is not entirely true, because the weight of lets say 8kg puts down a reverse torque that keeps the tail down. I just worked it out and it seems that, assuming an angle of 45 degrees of the horizontal to the exhaust can (apex being the front wheel-ground interface) you need a braking force of 10G for the inertia of the exhaust to negate its downward force! If this angle is 30 degrees the force is about 17.5 G

According to my calculations, the braking g-force is given by the formula

g=9.81/tan(a)

where 'a' is the afforementioned angle, and g is independent of the actual weight of the can, or its distance from the front wheel.

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooo, what happens if I use less front brake and more back brake would the heavier exhaust give me more grip....................



I think this is getting abit out of hand now :stirpot: :hidesbehindsofa[1]:, I am signing out of this one now :bricks:

lol yes it will!