When I bought my '83 Heritage Special it came with a brand new 2-1 header as installed by the previous owner. It was loud, sounded more like a 4 cylinder than a twin, short on power, hated to be cold and made an awful droning noise at 50-60 MPH that drove me insane.
Being I have several other XS650s sitting around the shop with several different types of pipes and mufflers I decided to give them a try. Frankly, they all sucked.
It just so happened that someone had given me a set of older stock pipes from an unknown year (early 70s maybe?) so I sent them to the sandblasting shop, had the rusted old chrome removed and painted then with black VHT.
Yesterday I put them on. They are the ugliest pipes I've ever owned and while they fit the engine just fine I had to cheat a little to mount them to the frame. They also had some pits that sandblasting and paint couldn't hide.
Early this morning, with the temperature at 19 degrees, I went out to crank my bike. Low and behold it cranked better than it's cranked since I've owned it, idled better than it's ever idled, ran smoother, had less vibration and made more power than it's ever made before-- right up to 7000 RPM. Even though it's much quieter I can now hear the thump of a twin and not the buzz of a 4. And it no longer has that annoying drone.
And when the temps got up to the high 40s it ran even better.
Now if I only knew where my right highway peg fell off...
UPDATE: Photo added.
Being I have several other XS650s sitting around the shop with several different types of pipes and mufflers I decided to give them a try. Frankly, they all sucked.
It just so happened that someone had given me a set of older stock pipes from an unknown year (early 70s maybe?) so I sent them to the sandblasting shop, had the rusted old chrome removed and painted then with black VHT.
Yesterday I put them on. They are the ugliest pipes I've ever owned and while they fit the engine just fine I had to cheat a little to mount them to the frame. They also had some pits that sandblasting and paint couldn't hide.
Early this morning, with the temperature at 19 degrees, I went out to crank my bike. Low and behold it cranked better than it's cranked since I've owned it, idled better than it's ever idled, ran smoother, had less vibration and made more power than it's ever made before-- right up to 7000 RPM. Even though it's much quieter I can now hear the thump of a twin and not the buzz of a 4. And it no longer has that annoying drone.
And when the temps got up to the high 40s it ran even better.
Now if I only knew where my right highway peg fell off...
UPDATE: Photo added.
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