Triumphrat

TraderVic

It's a 90 degree conduit elbow. Cut it in half and use one half for each side. I bought it at Home Depot for about five bucks.

With the long TORs, it's pretty loud, but only when you get on it hard. At idle and cruising it's pretty mellow. There is some occasional popping on decel, but I don't think it's any more than with the cat in place. Definitely not objectionable to me and I am pretty bothered by decel popping. The tune feels pretty perfect. I can't really judge the power, because I didn't ride it long enough with the cat.

Attached Thumbnails

   

888captain

I did exactly the same thing yesterday. My bird still has the stock pipes on it and it did not seem to make alot of difference. It is a little throatier on initial throttle but seems to mellow as the revs build. Will take her out for a blurt today to see if I go back to how it was or leave it. Another reason to ride YEE HAA

mrj

is it worth removing the cat for both performance and sound in your estimation?

TraderVic

I don't think it does much for performance. I like the sound much better with no cat and TORs. Don't know how it would sound with stockers.

Thatch

I did my cat bypass as part of a pipe install so I can't say what just the cat removal does. However, I did experience much better upper end horsepower. The stock bike seems to be a bit flat at highway passing. Once fitted with my new pipes I had much more spirited performance in the 70+ range

argyle

Even with the BB kit?

I picked up my TBird last Wednesday and rode it home in the rain
It has been sitting in my garage since then with 13 miles on it, waiting for a halfway dry day to actually get to ride it a bit. Naturally, I'm already thinking about what enhancements I want and anything to do with performance is at the top of the list. I'm kicking around the idea of dropping about 2 more grand into the bike for the BB kit, new pipes, and air-filter.

Given that I'm almost doubling the displacement of the bike I'm currently riding (BA - @865 CC) I'm waffling between riding the Bird for a year as is to get a baseline and really appreciate the improvement, or just go ahead and jump on it so I can enjoy all it has to offer from the git-go.

Thatch

Well, I can't say for sure as my improvements have all been sequential... I rode stock for about a month then added the K&N filter. I then rode another 3 months and added the British Customs pipes. I then ran another 2 months and added the big bore kit. So I can't say what the BB kit with stockers and / or cat would be like. I can say though that the flatness that I am referring to is an issue of breathing and considering that the exhaust flow would only increase with the bb kit I would expect the same if not more dramatic issues / improvements with an exhaust swap. Again, I can't say if it is just my pipes or the cat removal that improved things for me as they were one in the same on my bike.

That was my route and I'm quite happy with it. I will be ripping out the air box and moving to pod filters as soon as a tunning solution comes out. Doing so now however will most certainly cause the bike to run too lean.


Only thing I can say on this one is, if you purchase the BB kit after you buy the bike you will only be covered under a 1 year parts only warranty. If however you purchase it at the time you buy the bike, you will be covered under the bikes original 2 year parts and labor warranty. That was what pushed me over the edge in getting the kit at the start.

Best of luck what ever you do.

argyle

That's a pretty compelling argument. My dealer is already giving me 15% off all accessories bought within the first 30 days (plus free installation, but I'm sure that would not apply to the BB kit, just the bolt-on "accessories") so I'm tempted to just go ahead and have them trick it out with factory add-ons. I don't know if the pipes would be worth the price by themselves, and I'm sure the BB kit wouldn't give maximum bang with stock pipes.

The BC pipes are about $200 more than the Triumph brand replacement pipes - can you give me any specifics about what makes them worth the difference?

Thanks for your info - over the years I've wasted so much money on "gee, that looks cool" stuff for my bikes that a few weeks later I was selling at swap meets for 25¢ on the $, that I'm going to give a lot more thought to what I put on the Bird and empty my checkbook for.

Thatch

Well the objective side of things they are stainless steel and therefore more durable. It turns out that when I took off my original pipes that I had hit something at one point or another and had dented my pipes which in turn had cause the chrome to flake in that area. That area will obviously rust, a problem I won't ever have with the BC pipes.

I also knew I wanted to eliminate the cat so it solved that issue for me with a single purchase. The BC pipes being both stainless and eliminating the cat saved me something like 15 lbs off the bike (can't recall exactly off hand)

On the subjective side of things my focus on the bird has been to increase it's performance focusing on making it more of a 'sport cruiser' both in form and function. While the stock bird pipes have a sort of sexy 60's Cadillac sort of thing going for them, they give a sort of long lazy look to the bike, fine if that's what your after but I wanted more 'sport'. I also never cared much for how wide the pipes splay out. I was never a fan of the shorty TORs as they seem too short and unless you do something about the pulley, you really don't want to go around showing that thing off. The BC pipes are just about dead center between those two lengths and hug the bike closer. The bike is physically lighter and just looks lighter with them on.

Lastly, British Customs has a long history of supporting Triumph riders and delivering quality products. Sean stepped up and started making pipes before anyone else. He was informative during the process and helpful after the sale. He's always quick to get back to you and I received two personal phone calls from him during the wait for and after the delivery of my pipes. While all that wouldn't of made me buy a product I didn't want, it sure as hell made me feel a lot more comfortable in being one of the very first ones to put down a deposit and take delivery.

Of course, now I'm moving to Europe and there is some question as to whether they'll be able to stay on my bike or not. We shall see.

argyle

EXACTLY the kind of info I was looking for - thanks a bunch!