My experience with Wolf

[AVATR]

Let me start out by saying that the sound & look of the Wolf under seat pipe for the Sprint ST are INCREDIBLE! :upthumb:

That being said, the experience of achieving this sound & look turned out to be quite a headache & financial expense.

I bought my Wolf pipe in early 2005 for about $1000 (quiet baffles included), plus another $200 for what turned out to be very sub-standard pannier support brackets.

Upon receiving the pipe, I noticed that the right silencer was welded on, at a rather crooked angle (check out My Photo Album, Wolf Exhaust). I lived with this for the '05 riding season & sent it back to Wolf for warranty work last winter. When I got the pipe back, the rework was twice as bad, with a hole through the pipe in the welded bead. I had a local blacksmith remove the right silencer & reattach it. Looks GREAT! This whole thing cost me $65 for shipping back to Wolf & $70 for the blacksmith repair.

As for the Wolf supplied pannier brackets, I used the 4 pieces of thin, unpainted metal as a template to create two 1/8 thick steel brackets (had a friend laser cut & powder coat the steal). Then I threw the $200 Wolf supplied brackets, in the trash.

Additionally, the Wolf supplied installation instructions were almost useless. I used the notes & photos posted by unummyu (John). Keep in mind that installation is pretty much a whole day (fun)project. If you plan to utilize the Triumph rear trunk reinforcement bracket, you'll have to re-bend the Wolf supplied under seat stainless heat shield.

To sum it up:
Peter at Wolf was good in his correspondence prior to my warranty work. However, if you plan on purchasing this pipe, I wish you luck. The idea & materials are great, but the craftsmanship (on my pipe) sucks!

Other Notes:
1) I noticed NO heat increase in my seat after installing this pipe.
2) I did install heat shield tape to the remaining part of my battery
box. Not sure if this was really necessary, though.
3) Plan to significantly increase your rear spring preload to prevent
the tire from rubbing the pipe, especially when riding two-up.
4) I had to trim off about half of my Triumph rear hugger. Still
works & looks good, though.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I just wanted to answer all the questions that I had prior to purchasing this pipe.

Hope this helps someone,
Rob

P.S. If you do install this system & want to use the Triumph panniers, I still have a spare set of the custom support brackets I'd be willing to sell. Just send me an email.

[ This message was edited by: AVATR on 2006-04-12 08:20 ]

[dnlwthrn]

Wow, there's not much to those mufflers... Its hard to believe they can ship something that out of alignment, much less botch the repair job...

What are you using for the bracket at the bottom of the license plate (pannier support picture)? Is that metal, or plastic?

Looks good, too bad it cost so much time and $$ to get where it is...

Dan

[Stlakid]

If I remember back those brackets were not even designed by Wolf. They were a fix to another customers problem with the Wolf supplied hardware and he gave them permission to copy them if they wished. I don't know what gauge steel the customer used but my bet is he used something along the lines of what you used. Pretty expensive bracket pieces for something with $0.00 engineering costs!

Looks like one set of pipes was welded by a left handed welder and the repair was obviously done by a right handed welder! :-D Glad it finally worked out for you, albeit pricey in the end. When you spend $1,000+ on an accessory you would think it should not require this type of rework to fit! At those prices they should fall into place!

I've made race car parts for people and if a part didn't bolt on like a factory part; I didn't sell it or put my name on it. But that's just me I guess!

I hope this doesn't stare a feud here as Wolf doesn't like negative press no matter how well deserved it may be.

[AVATR]

Hey Dan,

The bracket at the bottom of the license plate is the Triumph fender stiffener that came with the panniers. With the metal I used on the supports, this stiffener may not be necessary, but I wanted to overdo things where stress & fatigue may be involved.

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I would imagine this will start some heated conversation. However, I figured I owed it to my fellow RATs to post my honest experience (loves & hates) with this mod, since it is such an expensive job.

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Forgot to mention, although I never had a chance to do a before dyno run, there is a noticeable hp increase. I had a chance to test out a 1050cc Sprint (with the Triumph race can) last fall & for the shear front wheel lifting torque alone, I'll stick with my 955 (no offense to you 1050 riders, it IS an AWESOME bike).

Later guys,
Rob

[unummyu]

Rob,
Very nice job with the brackets. Mine are rusting already around the bolt holes, I should have had them powder coated. How much do you want for the second set, are they powder coated too? I can't believe how bad those pipes looked. Mine were pretty close, a little too close together but nothing like yours. Must have welded one before lunch and one after lunch (liquid lunch)??
Gotta love that sound now.

[AVATR]

Just wanted to add another bit of info for those of you that are curious about the sound of the Wolf under seat pipe on a 955cc. Checkout my photo album again (if you have high-speed internet). I've just added a Video section with some short sound/video clips. Truthfully, my wife says that the pipe is somewhat louder than these clips represent, but you'll get an idea.

Ride like you own it, unless you're not paying for it :wink:
Rob