Best exhaust for 650R?

[FooBarr]

Anybody got a reccommendation for an XR650 Exhaust? I've been thinking about the Bug gun with a quiet insert. Any advice?

[billyj7175]

If you do a search, you can find out a lot of feedback from this forum. I did, and ordered a WB E-Series S-bend, because it supposedly has horsepower gains all throughout the rpm range, although it's pretty loud. The general consensus, is that unless you are running the HRC Power Up Kit, and ride in Baja like conditions, definetely stick with the stock headpipe. I've heard good things about the Pro Circuit as well. All others give up the awesome low end for some gain in peak, top end horsepower, particularly the Big Gun. I'll let you know how my WB works out. I'll probably be trying a quiet core for it as well.

Good luck hunting...it took me about 6 months to decide on which pipe to get.

[qadsan]

Here's a link to a XR650R pipe shootout. It's about 1.2MB in size and a bit difficult to read, but its worth reading.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/XR650R/files/Pipe%20Shootout.pdf

[FooBarr]

Hey Qadsan,

I'm not a member of the Yahoo group, what did the shootout reccommend?

[qadsan]

The article pretty much pointed out that most of the pipes didn't offer any real improvements over the stock system with the insert removed and that some of the systems such as from Big Gun actually sacraficed good bottom & mid range power to get a tiny bit more on top for longer. The article favored the WB R & E series pipes and said they increased low end performance while also out performing the stock pipe by 2000 RPM past its peak power.

From all the reading I've done and talking to various people including a guy who personally bought every pipe made for the XR650R sometime last year and conducted his own tests, the WB E series with 10 disks is a very good choice with the stock head pipe. The stock head pipe appears to be the best head pipe out there for most applications, better than most aftermarket head pipes. I'm also under the impression that the stock exhaust system with HRC insert performs better than most exhaust systems out there up through the mid range and that the only benefit most other exhaust systems offer is up on top while sacraficing some of the low end power. The stock exhaust with the HRC insert offers the best bang for the buck in my opinion, but it certainly doesn't look as pretty as the aftermarket systems and it's rather heavy compared to other products.

The person that bought every XR650R pipe he could find adamatly believed the WB E series was the very best perfomer in his opinion and he sold all his other pipes and kept his WB E Series as his personal favorite. He also thought the stock exhaust system with the HRC insert was quite good and better than most systems he bought and tested.

I simply run the stock exhaust with the HRC tip and I'm very happy with it, but if I wanted the very most from my exhaust, I'd probably buy the WB E series silencer because it looks better than the stock exhaust, is lighter in weight and offers better performance throughout a wide RPM range.

It would be nice to see this test done again to see if things still stack up the same way because I'm sure some things have changed along the way with some exhaust components, but I doubt we'll get that lucky.

[Moredesert]

I put the White Bros. on mine. I like the sound the best.

[AZ Thumpdaddy]

Moredesert - Are you running the stock header pipe with your White Bros E?

[FooBarr]

Great, I just ordered a Big Gun. Should have used the money on an Quicksilver.

[qadsan]

Originally posted by FooBarr:

Great, I just ordered a Big Gun. Should have used the money on an Quicksilver.

From what I've seen, the Big Gun exhaust is a quality built & great looking exhaust system and the people I've talked to who bought it were happy with it. I believe Noleen makes some or all of the Big Gun exhaust components. You can always buy a Qwiksilver later on if you want one. Heck...it's only money ?

[BBD]

Is there any way to get the article here at ThumperTalk? Yahoo wants a credit card number for registration. There is no bleeping way I am giving them a credit card number.

[ July 31, 2002: Message edited by: BBD ]

[FooBarr]

Okay,

Just got the pipe the other day and what a pain in the butt! The stock pipe took all of 10 minutes to take off then the pain began. First was it was shipped with the head pipes and mid pipe already assembled. No biggie but the midpipe was actually rotated 180 degrees, and the bend would have been routed outside the frame. The fit was tight and would not budge no mater how hard I pulled on it. I finally wrapped it in an old T-shirt and clamped it in my vise. A few ice cubes in the header and my propane torch on the mid pipe. Even with that I had to put on the leather gloves and twist and torque the mid pipe off the header leaving some nice scratches on that pretty ceramic coating. Getting the four pieces on my BRP was even a greater joy. I loosely fastened the headers on the cylinder and couldn't get the mid pipe to slip on to the headers more that 1/4", for what was supposed to be a 1 inch joint. Break out the rubber hammer and block of wood and after 1/2 hour it had moved another 1/4 inch. The next a$$-pain was getting the muffler on. When I bolted the lower point of the muffler to my frame the upper hole came up a 1/4 inch short. After another 1/2 hour rubber-hammer love I finally got the muffler mounted. Next I put the springs on the header midpipe and followed up with a final 1/2 hour of rubber hammering and finally got the slip joints in thier correct spots. The 14 ounce dead-blow rubber hammer from Home Depot sure paid for itself that night and never left a scratch. Okay, overall it was a 3 hour job to get it on right and to be honest, I don't think I will be able to take it off with out a torch or hacksaw. It was that bad. But as far as looks, it's pretty sweet and I like not having the left header routed forward of the frame.

6 hours later and some marginal sleep and I was on the trail, so here's my observation. I did loose some low end, but minor. I was previously running a sawed out OEM exhaust tip with the internals gutted, so it was already pretty much free flowing. I did notice more power and snap from 1/2 to full throttle. And it is loud!! Definetly going to get the quiet core and might see if I get some low end back. My right leg also did not get as hot as with the stock head pipe.

So here's my reccomendation: If your racing with some engine work, this pipe is probably for you. If I had it to do over again, I would save some money and get the White Bros exhaust and stick with the stock header and either use muffler wrap or get it ceramic coated. I read somewhere Baja Designs can do it.

[bigtom17]

I Installed the big gun tail pipe only. Love it, looks great sound good and noticed big power difference. I recommend it.

[DrDirt]

Hey guys,

I'm still debating what silencer to buy for my BRP. I have a friend who just put the PC T4 system on his 650. We switched back and forth between my bike and his and he seemed to have a bit more top end. Then we cut some air holes in the left sidecover and installed screen with rivets like team Honda does with their bikes. After doing this there was a notable difference, more power everywhere and it seemed to rev out much easier. According to one article I read, you should do this modification when installing almost any aftermarket pipe. I will do it to mine as soon as I figure out which friggin exhaust to buy. Happy trails,

DrD