I was at a track day and bumped into a fellow Storm owner.
His bike looked like a piece of sh1t.
A cobbled together thing that looked like a death trap.
I was in the med to fast group with him.
We got talking and compared notes.
Same hi comp pistons, same jetting, lightened flywheel etc and as near as we could tell the only difference was that I have an electric water pump.( Other similar engine mods were present on both bikes)
Some of our running gear was different, and my bike would be heavier as it is road registered.
One major difference was that the other bike had a home made big bore exhaust with a set of crappy carbon microns with baffles in that looked like they were ready to fall apart.
There was no collector as such, just a link pipe between the front and rear headers that was huge.
The system looked like it was made out of scrap, and was roughly built.
All that aside, I had a ride and it offered good power at all revs.
I rode it hard, I laboured it, short shifted, revved the ring out of it and it felt strong, and sounded incredible.
One thing I noticed was that the gasses out the back were more evident.
He rode my bike as well and we compared notes again.
Like me his impression was that his bike was stronger in the upper revs, especially in the lower three gears.
We measured the length of our cans and they were the same at roughly 450mm.
I don't profess to understand the dynamics of exhaust design, and yes there is a certain brag and bling factor at play, however I am still convinced that a larger bore would be of benefit to me both at the track and on the road taking into account that I do thrash my bike regularly.
I am not a Rossi or anything like that but I am at a stage where I want to develop the performance more and also personalise my bike .
An ideal situation would of been to put both bikes on a Dyno, but my butt told me that his bike was stronger.
Not by much, but enough to notice it.
I was a little disappointed as I have done a lot to my bike over 2 years of ownership, but was a bit happier when he told me he had been mucking around with his bike for 8 years.
I could go on and on , however it has aroused my curiosity and I am intending to have a go in the near future.
One could say that it is a pipe dream of mine!
No pun intended.
