Pipe Porn

[yamaico]

I've been building pipes for my bikes for years now and thought that I did a reasonable job, that is up until I saw the late, great Peter Worrell built pipe on Ted's KX500 at the Gloucester TT. Lobster-back fabrication but with each segment curved to match the pipe radius - phenomenal work, what a waste of a talent. I understand that this would be very time consuming and therefore not practical for commercial fabrication, but I wouldn't even know where to start trying to do this.
Different strokes for different folks, but this really impresses me.





Thanks Ted, for allowing me to take the pictures.

[Hoony]

wow. that really is impressive workmanship.

[Iain Cameron]

My DT1 downpipe is one of Peters pipes . He left us way to soon , by the way you should see his karting pipes they are a maze of turns and twists
 

[dalesween]

That KX pipe is amazing,i would love to know how many hours went into that, as a welder i would be hanging that on the wall of the pool room!

Dale.

[yamaico]

I'd hang it in the pool room as well Dale. Unfortunately Ted didn't leave me alone with the bike long enough

[SlideRulz]

Did you throw the leg on the weekend Pete and how'd she go?

[yamaico]

Did you throw the leg on the weekend Pete and how'd she go?

Only rode the 400 Steve. Will take the RD out to the next Nepean practice day when I get back from O/S.

[Lozza]

It's not that difficult 

[Nathan S]

But your segments are straight, Uncle Lozza.

[SON]

Less bends the better,
What's that Lozza ?

[FAT-TOY]

   Pete a friend of mine who has been making pipes for I don't know how many years does the same thing on all of his pipes and I do the same on mine.  It takes a bit of extra time and I don't think it makes any more power over the unhammered pipe but it makes the pipe look better specially it the pipe is to have the snail type look and not painted.  I will post a couple of photos of the hammering process and the tools used to do the job.  I have just today finished my pipe building tree, for the want of a better discription which makes the process quicker, because now I don't have to change the tools all the time in the vice just spin the one you want to the front.  There are a couple of bent bars that I slill have to use in the vice for hammering the inside of the bends one 25mm and a couple on smaller sizes all with a slow right angle bend on one end.
                                                                                                                            Zane




Cone rolled to size then trimmed to length then cut into segments in the bandsaw to form the bend remembering that the saw cut need to be taken into account in that length, if you make 10 or 15 cuts at 1mm each  then this could effect the tuned length of your pipe.



 

The segments are then tried on the bike marked and tacked checked to make sure they still fit then welded together

 


After welding the joints are hammered on the different bars, tapered formers and balls untill they are completly rounded and have none of the fifty cent stepped look.



  Muffler or exhaust tree





  Pipe cleaned up and the welds blued and the pipe is complete.
   p.s.  Sometimes race pipes need to have small adjustments to get them spot on and this can only be tested on a track or Dyno.
                        Zane

[popeye]

Nice work, you have to admire the time effort and knowledge that goes into making a correct dimension pipe for a 2 stroke....

[jimg1au]

have you seen peter campbells pipes his are 1 piece.i have one for my elsinore .none of all those welded bits and big and fat were it needs to be
jim

[yamaico]

Zane, thanks very much for that. Great photo sequence and great end result. I'll give it a try on my next pipe and see how it turns out.
Jim, Peter Campbell's pipes are pump pipes and are a work of art in themselves, but that's a whole different process.

[FourstrokeForever]

You blokes make it all look too easy......but I won't be taking it on anytime soon. I have enough trouble building a 4 stroke pipe