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FMF Q2 Review

By heavyhitter,
in XR600R & XR650R/L

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heavyhitter

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My Q2 came today from BikeBandit.com. They had the best price by at least $50-100 from anywhere else. I have seen a lot of post about this pipe but not so much of a review, I figured I would put together a comprehensive review of this pipe to help others decide if they would like to buy this or not. Maybe this can help you decide before you spend your hard earned money. This review is my opinion only from my experience. I am using what I have learned from the 22 years of riding and the pipes I have owned on various bikes in the past include: Hard Krome, FMF, Pro Circuit, HMF, Supertrapp, LRD, Bill’s, M4 and Micron.

The fit and finish is very nice and the aluminum ‘can’ is much thicker than some of the FMF products I have purchased in the past. Seems more durable. It bolted right up just fine, perfect fit. It does touch my rear fender on the side of the can, just a couple of mm if it touches. This thing is MUCH louder than my stocker; I was expecting this to not be nearly as loud as it is. The stocker is around 80 or so decibels. I would suspect the Q2 to be about between 94db on my bike. For every six decibels, the intensity of the sound doubles. So the Q2 is roughly 2.5 times louder than stock. It is nowhere near as loud as my PC pipe on my RM but much louder than stock. The tone is deeper and makes the bike sound like it has some balls. The pipe is lighter but not substantially so the weight difference is not drastic. The bike has Dave’s mods and been rejetted, my UNI filter was back ordered and will show up Monday so it is running a stock filter. I took it for a spin and I can say that I did NOT notice any power gains. Maybe a dyno could confirm more but the butt dyno says no. Adding the air filter may make a difference. Things that the pictures do not show you about this pipe are. There are allen screws at the back of the can to remove for repacking, this is definitely a plus, versus drilling rivets. Also the end if the pipe does have an allen screw to remove the spark arrestor. The spark arrestor is a coned screen type. The anodized finish is done very well.

Is this pipe for you? If you want a deeper throaty nice sounding pipe that looks a lot better than stock that is not obnoxiously loud yes! If you are expecting to save lots of weight, looking for a substantial HP increase, or looking for a stealth machine, no! No doubt if you have added a high compression piston, cams, ext. you would no doubt get much more out of this pipe versus stock.

If I had to do it all over again would I buy it again, but I would have waited and used that money to do other mods and add this one later. ?

Cheers! Ride safe Ride often!

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heavyhitter

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Update-

Martinfan, youre right.

I put in my Uni filter the bike will wheelie (not huge just a lil) in 2nd gear with a crack of the throttle and a tug on the bars. A slight tug on the bars in first and it will come up. I am running 14/45 gearing.

After riding 60 miles on and off road with the bike since the add on I can tell you this the air filter and pipe make the bike MUCH MUCH smoother and less vibrations. The smoothness alone is worth it. I do notice a little more power, nothing to right home about but there IS a power increase, my top speed also increased by 5mph and it rolls on and get there a little quicker.

I LOVE the sound keep in mine its a quiet aftermarket pipe, but not a quiet pipe! Your neigbors will still hear the bike idling in your drive way.

After putting this pipe to use I can say I am MUCH more please with it than originally. Make sure you add the UNI filter when you add the pipe or gains will probably not be there. ?

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heavyhitter

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I'll tell you that a REALLY good set-up is that pipe with a 160 main jet, Uni air filter AND vented sidecover. Makes a definite difference. I also love the sound of this pipe on deceleration - extremely manly and righteous:prof:

Yes I grew even more chest hair from the sound alone lol.

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heavyhitter

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DE-Snorkel the air box and rejet the carb. You added more air in and can get it out but you did not add more fuel to keep the ratio correct. You will see more power with a rejet. IMO you are running too lean.

RH

Carb is rejetted with Daves mods too. no snorkle, no side cover.

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truck6driver

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Was the rejet done before or after the new pipe and air filter? If not you must rejet after any air or exhaust mod that allows the movement of more air through the engine. If you did it after then I am not sure why you did not see a noticable gain. My 93'had the origional "Q" on it with a K&N filter, desnorkeled box, drilled and shimmed slide and a rejet. I noticed different things with each mod and had to rejet twice during this time.

I hope you will figure it out.

Try a new plug and ride it a bit. Then pull the plug and check and see how it reads. There are several links to reading plug color.

RH

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Motosprtman

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Having removed the White Brothers E2 pipe from my 650L and replacing it with the stocker, I must truly admit that although quieter AND that makes it like-able by the general public - albeit performance sucks. I left the DJ needle in and removed the DJ 165 main and replaced it with the DJ 160 main (has a 55 Kehien pilot jet) left the air fuel screw alone (at 2 1/4 turns out) and although it starts and runs just fine, it is now apathetic in performance in comparison to a aftermarket pipe. I aam also running the UNI filter and airbox open. Yea it's quiet again, but man what a dissappointment. What was I thinkin! Now I am in the market again,for an aftermarket pipe for BIG RED and am strongly considering the FMF. With teh WB E2 I had CRISP throttle response and it pulled like a frieght train, blip it in 1st and the front end would loft, even into 2nd. Now it sounds like an overgrown trail 90 and is severely inhibited. I think it simply, as we all know, cannot breath correctly.

Same thing went for my XR250R wnet back to stock and then woods riding, what a dissappointment, it was doggy in power everywhere, as compared to when I had on my FMF powercore IV, so I reverted it back, and wa-la - woo-hoo! that is one completely different bike with the FMF pipe and a 135 main, wow!

So now all I have to do is sneak a new aftermarket pipe back in the house for BIG RED. Sigh..... what was I thinkin!!!!

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Grand Master

Motosprtman

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Oh yea.... they are so doggy with the stock pipes. Very, very inhibited. I am really happy with the FMF on the 250 so I think this time I will give some more $$$ to FMF and get the Q2 and back to a bigger main, think I will try the 158 Kehein jet vs the DJ 165 and see if there is any difference. Gonna keep the DJ needle and spring in though.

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martinfan30

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Oh yea.... they are so doggy with the stock pipes. Very, very inhibited. I am really happy with the FMF on the 250 so I think this time I will give some more $$$ to FMF and get the Q2 and back to a bigger main, think I will try the 158 Kehein jet vs the DJ 165 and see if there is any difference. Gonna keep the DJ needle and spring in though.

i run 158/52 2 1/2 turns out with my fcr41 at 4300ft.

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