ISO Not Mike's Commando Exhaust

JWASH

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Hi Guys, I'm looking for a Commando style exhaust for my XS650G. To be honest, I don't want to deal with Mike's because of their customer service. They advertise their exhaust for $350 with free shipping and no tax, but when I went to buy it they said they don't offer free shipping on any exhaust systems.
Is there any other source for the Commando system other than Mike's?
 
Not the complete system I don't think. You can buy the so called Commando mufflers off Amazon. But none of these are the Commando mufflers of old, they're all just EMGO mufflers now. They only look like the old Commandos on the outside, the "guts" are plain jane EMGO baffling now. The headpipes you might have to get from Mike's.
 
In all fairness to Mikes they do say there are exceptions to their freight policy.
Suppliers just can't flat out pay the freight like they did years ago or they would loose $$ $$
big time. The old Heiden/Mike Lalonde Dyno exhausts are in the works now and
a new USA vendor should have them by August ( Still no free freight ).
You never new how good it was before Amazon came along and screwed the rates for
the little guy so now we all pay. Seems that Amazon free freight got us in the end.
 
Thanks 5twins. I guess i'll keep looking for a while. Fortunately I have some other projects to keep me busy (and poor!). I'd read some reports on Mike's and I always judge for myself and to be fair, they've always been decent, but my last two dealings with them have not been good and left a sour taste in my mouth.

If they are the only supplier then I'll have to suck it up and deal with them, but they will be the last call on my shopping list.
 
In all fairness to Mikes they do say there are exceptions to their freight policy.
Suppliers just can't flat out pay the freight like they did years ago or they would loose $$ $$
big time. The old Heiden/Mike Lalonde Dyno exhausts are in the works now and
a new USA vendor should have them by August ( Still no free freight ).
You never new how good it was before Amazon came along and screwed the rates for
the little guy so now we all pay. Seems that Amazon free freight got us in the end.

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In all fairness to Mikes they do say there are exceptions to their freight policy.
Suppliers just can't flat out pay the freight like they did years ago or they would loose $$ $$
big time. The old Heiden/Mike Lalonde Dyno exhausts are in the works now and
a new USA vendor should have them by August ( Still no free freight ).
You never new how good it was before Amazon came along and screwed the rates for
the little guy so now we all pay. Seems that Amazon free freight got us in the end.

Thanks 650trader. I can wait until August, so I'll keep an eye out for these. Do you know who will be stocking them?
 
Hi Guys, I'm looking for a Commando style exhaust for my XS650G. To be honest, I don't want to deal with Mike's because of their customer service. They advertise their exhaust for $350 with free shipping and no tax, but when I went to buy it they said they don't offer free shipping on any exhaust systems.
Is there any other source for the Commando system other than Mike's?
check these Commando big mouth mufflers
 
The old Heiden/Mike Lalonde Dyno exhausts are in the works now and
a new USA vendor should have them by August ( Still no free freight )

care to share a little more on this? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
looked up all commando exhausts and they all state no free shipping so unless they have changed the post its fairly clear .. and as far as free shipping goes , its fine if your in the usa but if buy o/seas we pay full wack plus extra and they dont even deduct the amount it would have cost to send in the states .. their postage is a joke .. looking at a rim 86 bucks .. postage 236 dollars and thats before the exchange rate
 
I have never had an issue with MikesXS customer service and they even give me military discounts on purchases. Dime city cycles is run by the same people as MikesXS. Here is a link for Mac exhaust reverse cone; http://www.macperformance.com/xs-650-.html. I would also check ebay to see if maybe they have something similar there. I am sure that Mikes probably gets their exhaust from an overseas distributor if I was a betting man.
 
New vendor would already be open if not for this virus. I have advised them a bit and i have been told
that Mike has done some also. Mike has had a series of bad strokes that have done him in physically
except for speech and thinking so he can't get involved beyond the important sourcing and product info.
It's bad enough when you get your original developments trashed by the self appointed net experts but the
current owners have gone out of their way to claim credits for Heidens and Mikes work and seem to be
shifting production more and more to ever more low cost ( and Quality ) suppliers. Much more product
detail to be revealed when the time comes. Also I see more big distributors going bankrupt. The most
recent is Motovan in Canada ( a company with about 4-5 thousand page catalogs ) that has been liquidating
to dealers at about 15 cents on the dollar. About 70 percent of motorcycle businesses have been wiped out
to date.
 
Hi 650 Trader I'm new to the XS650 group, so I don't have much history of what went on in the past, except for reading these forums. To be honest, I didn't know that there was a 'Mike' who started the business although I had tried to buy some stuff from the guys in Canada and worked out that at some point they were the same company. So, from your comments i'm assuming that Mike sold the business some time ago. I'm sorry to hear that he has had some medical issues and I know a couple of people who have suffered strokes, including my own father, so I know how devastating it can be. I wish him well and if you can post details about the new vendor when appropriate, I, and it seems the rest of this forum, would be very grateful. My best wishes to Mike.
 
check these Commando big mouth mufflers
I tried those Big Bore Norton Commando mufflers on my XS, but they never sounded right to me. Too tinny/raspy, nothing like the throaty sound of a 750 or 850 Commando. Stock pipes on a Commando is 1 3/8" OD, so the Big Bore mufflers are for 1 1/2" pipes.
 
New vendor would already be open if not for this virus. I have advised them a bit and i have been told
that Mike has done some also. Mike has had a series of bad strokes that have done him in physically
except for speech and thinking so he can't get involved beyond the important sourcing and product info.
It's bad enough when you get your original developments trashed by the self appointed net experts but the
current owners have gone out of their way to claim credits for Heidens and Mikes work and seem to be
shifting production more and more to ever more low cost ( and Quality ) suppliers. Much more product
detail to be revealed when the time comes. Also I see more big distributors going bankrupt. The most
recent is Motovan in Canada ( a company with about 4-5 thousand page catalogs ) that has been liquidating
to dealers at about 15 cents on the dollar. About 70 percent of motorcycle businesses have been wiped out
to date.
Hi 650 Trader, wondering if there is any update on the new vendor and the commando exhaust?
 
OK, bit the bullet and purchased the Mikes "Commando 2 into 2 Exhaust System for 'Specials'" for my XS650G (Part # 07-0764). They arrived on Friday evening. Mufflers are EMGO 80-84034 as others have said and apart from a small dent in one of them, they seemed pretty decent. Headpipes looked fine, bracketry was interesting. Different brackets for each side, which is understandable as the left side incorporates the main stand bumper. No instructions included, but no problem, i'm a semi intelligent, mechanically minded, engineer. Should be no problem right? I can also look at the instructions for the other Exhaust installs.
Nope, other instructions are pretty much useless. So Saturday morning, layout the brackets and work out which go to which side. OK, get where I think they might go, but no matter where I think they might go, they block the installation of the rear foot pegs. Adopt the, "If I was designing it" attitude, enough parts for one side, not both. Bolt the headpipes up, that was easy! but how far away from the frame should they be? Too far out and the brake pedal hits it, too far in and theres not enough 'Splay' of the mufflers to clear the rear suspension. These headpipes don't have welded on tabs, but clamps so realise the clamp can only go to the one of the original exhaust clamps on the bottom of the frame. depending on how far out you swing the headpipe, it alters the location of the clamp bracket to the bolt hole. Look for brackets (Must be a pair, right?) there are two, but if I use the supplied spacer and long bolt, and drill out the clamp bracket holes, I could create an elegant solution. Unfortunately I only have one spacer & one long bolt, so that won't work. Ask myself, "Why do I have a spacer and long bolt? and why only one of each?" , the only thing that is a femail thread is these bottom frame mountings. Everything else is a male thread??? The only difference side to side is the rear and none of them are femail.
On Sunday, invite my Mechanical Design Engineer son over for a beer, and ask, how would you design / fit it? He takes one look and asks if they sent the correct bracket kit. It's Sunday, so I can't call Mike XS, so I send an email. No response on Monday, so I call a couple of times. First time I leave a message, don't bother for the other calls. Eventually use their web messaging service. Still no response and they will have gone home for the evening now. Made up a mounting template from card and probably going to fabricate a pair of brackets myself.
Unless anyone out there has some pictures of how they mounted their 'Special' exhaust???
 
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