Winter mods for an Alaskan Drifter

Started by JagLite, January 03, 2016, 22:34:18 PM

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JagLite

Well, after 22 years my shocks need to be replaced, one has blown the air bladder and now oil comes out of the valve.
I just started searching for recommended replacement shocks and I've found several threads with various suggestions but so far I haven't found anything definitive.

Some like the Progressive (444?), others the Hagons from England, and others various Harley shocks.
I don't want anything shorter than the stock 13" shocks, slightly longer might be nice for cornering clearance.

I will keep searching but if you have suggestions or links to threads I will appreciate it.

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JagLite

I've been riding this summer instead of checking the forum.
I only had one ride last summer because I had a low speed high side on my street tracker and made the mistake of reaching out to break my fall (on dirt). That dumb mistake dislocated my shoulder and put me out of action all summer. I tried physical therapy but after 6 months my therapist and doctor agreed that surgery was required. That happened in November and I have been doing exercises daily since January to regain movement and muscle. This summer I am riding!

I did bolt on the backpacks I bought to use as saddlebags and they are working out great.
Instead of just one hole like the original small leather bags, the backpacks have several areas of different sizes.

I am using the stock saddlebag brackets. I cut off the shoulder straps and waist strap on the backpacks and sandwiched a UHMW cutting board cut to fit inside the backpacks to put the bolts through and hold the bags in place.

I have a 1.5 gallon gas can in the left side bag and spare gloves, lunch, water, and assorted stuff in the right side.
There is a lot of room for camping gear and the bags expand much further out as needed.

I'm happy.

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JagLite

Here it is with the stock secondary muffler completely gutted of the two small diameter long tubes so it is now an empty shell. In combination with the modified primary box muffler (aka Goat Belly).

https://youtu.be/SZCiwrn03Xc
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JagLite

I was surprised that it isn't very loud, just going through the bell muffler really takes the volume down.
My theory is that it allows the sound wave to expand and loose energy with just the small hole for the wave to come out of. Much, much quieter than my neighbors Sportster with short straight pipes.

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mittico68

Definitely a cool sound!
But I guess your neighbors wouldn't really like it...  ;D

I love my swingin' bike!

JagLite

#150

Not really liking the sound with the stock secondary muffler on the modified primary muffler I have removed it and will gut it by removing the two small diameter full length tubes.

I wondered what it would sound like with NO pipe installed and with the modified primary muffler only, so...

HERE

The chrome cover/heat shield is loose I know.
I had to loosen it up to get the muffler out.

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JagLite

#149

The flange clamps arrived and I bolted the modified stock exhaust on the bike and set up my video camera.

I tried to put the camera in approximately the same locations as before.

Here is the combined video of both systems.
You need headphones to really hear what they sound like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk0vehwXX6Y

Modifying the chamber to allow free flow of the sound waves made very little difference to the sound or volume of the stock muffler.

I am now thinking about going back and cutting out the two tubes running full length of the "muffler" pipe.

I believe the two inner tubes are keeping the sound waves from expanding by funneling them all the way out at about 1" diameter.

I think allowing the sound waves to expand as they do in the 5" diameter Borla muffler gives it a deeper sound.
Of course the sound absorbing material Borla uses also helps with the tone as well as the volume.
But the muffler chamber under the swingarm is already diffusing much of the sound waves before they enter the "muffler" pipe so it won't need much, if any, sound suppression.

Always something to experiment with, eh?

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JagLite

Thanks!
I bought a set on Ebay and they are in the mail so I hope they arrive soon.
I would love a set of Longshots but shipping to Alaska is way too expensive.

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OR Seedman

yeah, it's only the difference in finishes....the V&H pipes from my 1500 with the built in flanges bolted right up to my 1600 engine....nice and snug...but then I swapped them out for the nomad exhaust.  The V&H longshots with all three sets of tips will be posted on the classifieds here shortly.

The exhaust ports on the heads for both the 1500 and 1600 are exactly the same diameter....I check with a caliper.

OR Seedman

JagLite

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Troll

I would have to say t's probably the finish color. I have a Peace Pipe, designed for the '99, and it fits my '01, using the original flanges

Recovering H-D owner...W-650 Cafe' No excuses...Ride it or sell it to someone who will!

JagLite

Well, that's interesting. Part no: 18069-1156?
I looked at Bike Bandit, Revzilla, Partzilla, and two other new OEM parts sellers and they all show the parts as "Unavailable".

The 1999 and 2000 Drifters used a different part number than all the other 1500 & 1600 bikes.
And they were half the price!
But they are unavailable so that doesn't matter.
The other bikes use part no: 18069-1161.
Kawasaki uses part no: 18069-xxxx for many bikes of various displacement so I don't know if the bolt spacing and flange size changes or if it is I.D. maybe that is the difference?

After searching online with no answer for what the difference is I am hoping it is that they just have a different finish, chrome or polished instead of plain steel.

I am watching Ebay for a used set.
There is currently two listed and I have a question sent to one seller so maybe I will be able to buy some soon.

And hopefully they will fit correctly!

Thanks for replying, that made me do more searching  :)

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OR Seedman

since they are available for about $25 each from Kawasaki and you need 4 of them, I definitely would look on ebay if nobody here has some...any model of Vulcan 1500/1600 stock clamps work....I put nomad exhaust on my 1600 classic engine I just put in my Drifter and they worked perfectly....part numbers are all the same.

OR Seedman

JagLite

Well, I searched for another 2 hours and can't find those pipe clamps.
Anybody with aftermarket pipes willing to sell or trade the stock exhaust clamps?
Nothing new for me to lose things, I do it all the time.

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JagLite

Well, things started well for the exhaust sound comparison.   8)
I set up my video camera and started the bike up with my Borla exhaust:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrbQ8Y6PTCw

Huh? I thought I could embed a video but I am not figuring that out...
Hopefully the link to YouTube works.

Here is a comparison picture of the two systems:

My custom Borla straight through system weighs so little compared with the stock multi-piece system!
The stock pipes are heavy  :(

But I can't include a sound comparison because after I shot the video and removed my system I discovered that I can't find the head pipe flange collars to bolt the modified stock system back on.
I know I have them, I searched for hours with no success. ARGH!

I will keep searching but I may end up installing the Borla again.
I do love how it sounds...  ;)

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JagLite

I will try to remember to shoot a video for the sound of the Borla before I take it off and mount the modified stock system and do a similar video for the sound. I also wonder what it will sound like...
It won't be a riding video, we have snow on the ground here.

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Old Drifter

Thanks for posting the detailed info on the modified exhaust project. As Marco said, I'm also interested in hearing how it sounds when it's completed.

Gene

1999 Drifter

mittico68

Good to know that you're still on the road.
As for the last-in-time mod, it would be nice to hear how it sounds. Just curious...
BTW: Maybe you should consider to add a sidecar, so Bobby could ride together with your passenger!  ;)

I love my swingin' bike!

JagLite

Winter mods for the 2020-2021 season, or as we will probably remember this year as the "Covid Year".
I put the dual seat back on so that Robyn could ride with me anytime she wanted to.
That was one time all summer. That's okay, I just wanted her to know she is welcome to ride anytime.
Bobby doesn't want her to come because she won't ride with me if I bring him.

I am going to put the stock exhaust system back on even though the Borla system sounds so nice.
My "old muffler look" didn't appeal to anyone except me.  :-\  So it goes.

But I decided to modify the stock system to hopefully let a bit more Umph out of it.
I cut the primary muffler open to see what it looked like inside.
It has a closed tube drilled with a lot of little holes where each of the head pipe inlets bolt to the muffler.
I considered cutting them off then decided to leave them in place but to cut a couple large holes in them to reduce the restriction more and let some of the sound wave escape intact instead of broken up by the tiny holes:

Then I welded the muffler back together:

After it was all closed up and repainted I opened up the secondary muffler to see what it looked like inside:

I cut around the pipe just inside of the end cap to pull it out:

Those tubes are straight through with no baffles. It is interesting that the larger tube they smaller tubes go through act as an expansion chamber because there is a hole in each of the smaller tubes to allow the pressure wave to go into the larger diameter pipe. Or something like that anyway. There is just one small hole (1/4") in the side of each through tube. I couldn't get a picture of that though.

So what is inside the secondary muffler tube?

Two long tubes that the two end tubes slide over that run almost full length of the outer tube.
I could shine a light into the far end (the inlet from the primary muffler) and it was easy to see from the end through the two long tubes.

The "figure 8" plate just guides the end tubes onto the two long tubes, it is not a baffle.
The exhaust flow comes into the secondary muffler and can go directly into the two full length tubes or around the tubes in the are up to the middle baffle plate that closes off the first chamber. Some of the pressure wave will go into the long tubes but most of it expands and goes around the tubes, hits the baffle and bounces back to the inlet. That's how I understand it working anyway, sound wave experts may know a better way to describe it.

The actual exhaust gasses flow through the twin long tubes and the length acts as a way to dissipate the volume similar to a long straight through exhaust compared to a short straight through system.

I considered drilling around the center baffle plate and removing the two long tubes, then cutting my Borla muffler apart and putting the core and packing in the stock secondary muffler... But I decided to just weld the end cap back on and see how it sounds with the modified primary muffler first.

Robyn on our one ride together this summer:

Bobby was not happy he didn't get to ride that time!  :(

Attitude:
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JagLite

I don't think he noticed it, he was having too much fun going for a ride after so many winter months. He sure does love seeing people in cars beside us.

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CDNRatMan

 What does Bobby think of this new fangled thingy on his ride?

GPS is not to get you THERE but rather to get you home from THERE

JagLite

The only addition to my Drifter this winter is a tire pressure monitor.

From Amazon and under $60

Like many things the instructions are less than clear but with enough playing with it I was able to set the parameters I wanted, screwed on the sensors that replaced the smart caps I had on it and went for a ride.
It works!

I was surprised how the pressure and temperature increased when riding.
The front tire gained 2 pounds, the rear gained 5.
Temp on the front only went up a couple degrees but the rear went from 60 to 80!
The front cooled down almost instantly, the rear took several minutes.
I took the picture about 5 minutes after stopping so the pressure had gone back down.
I have them at 38 front and 40 rear cold.

Hopefully it will last.

Attitude:
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JagLite

I had to check my headlight as soon as I got home from work and discovered, as you know, that it does not come on when I turn the key on.

Since my spot lights are always on, or I leave them turned on always, it was the light from them I always saw when I turn the key on.
They probably use more juice than my LED headlight so if my battery is ever low I will have to turn them off before starting the engine.

Ah, well, good to know!  ;)

You won't see me riding with the selfie pole, that was just a one time ride to get pictures to send to my folks.   :-X

You might see me on Alaska Troopers though if they pull me over to check Bobby's navigation license.  8)

He's been riding with me for 6 years now and so far I have only had a few officers look at us.   ???

Attitude:
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CDNRatMan

JagLite......this is just an FYI for you my Alaskan Buddy, I am now hooked and addicted to watching " Life Below Zero", "Last Alaskan" to see how people who live north of me do things.....and of course "Alaskan State Troopers" and been waiting to see the Troopers chase and arrest that crazy man riding about on a Drifter with a Selfie stick and a hound for a co pilot.......

GPS is not to get you THERE but rather to get you home from THERE

Old Drifter

Quote from: JagLite on May 30, 2017, 11:19:24 AM

Huh?   :(
I thought the headlight always came on as soon as I turn the key on, but now I wonder...  :-\
I won't be surprised if it doesn't, that's the sort of thing I do all the time.  :o
"I am sure _______"  but I was wrong.  :-\
Good thing I don't gamble.  ;)

The headlight comes on after it starts and is running.
Gene

1999 Drifter

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