Aaaargh I leave you guys alone.......
I went into this eyes open, expecting to have to tune the bike.
I was clearly hoping the untuned stock pipe would crack some extra HP but wasn't banking on it, tuning was always on the cards as with previous aftermarket pipes I've had. It was only a bit was disappointing at the time because I always hope this time will be different! I have no doubt that I was a victim of advertising, which is ironic because I work in that industry.
I also hadn't accounted for he vast differences between dynos, which after my conversation with Todd outlined earlier in this thread, also put things into perspective. All the claims of the final results from AR in terms of HP & TQ look feasible with the right dyno setup.
With regards to heat I never really expected the pipe to be cooler even though it might end up being so, and Rich has already offered a shield if required, so that's a non issue for me.
Forums discussions miss the nuances of face to face contact, and the written word can sometimes be a blunt instrument, often reflecting the heat of the moment, and, on reflection not always what we might have said in a real conversation.
I tried really hard to keep my posts in this thread as un-emotive and factual as possible whilst conveying my genuine emotions at the time. I did this to avoid denigrating AR's reputation because I know that tuning is not an exact science and my results were preliminary. IMHO it would be great if both sides of the argument could respect that and do the same.
I run my own business and I know how much personal time, money and commitment that takes so I have some empathy with Rich. I am passionate about what I do and also pretty protective of my company and my brand, but I've also learnt to be more circumspect in social media. If you wouldn't say it to their face then don't say it!
For those that are still following this thread for news on the pipe, I have ridden the untuned bike for a couple of hours today and I am excited (again)
From a performance perspective clearly the fuelling is f****d so there are all sorts of small issues, not least a gaping hole in the torque curve and a gentle surging that wasn't there previously BUT low down I can already feel the performance potential. All things considered though the bike ran well, at both low and medium speeds. Ultimately the tune will nail this.
The bike will need a heat shield but we knew that already right?
The sound at idle and low revs is growing on me, very race bike but any real throttle action and it growls beautifully. Gun it and it positively howls! Cars are jumping out the way! I passed between two dawdling roadtrains and nailed it and it was spine tingling hearing the sound ricochet off their trailers.
From the aesthetics perspective I really like the way the pipe/belly pan fit the lines of the bike better, as they don't 'hang' underneath. The large slash cut looks mint and the carbon is decent quality, fairly closely matching OEM but not exact. I wish there was less 'air' showing between the pipes and the carbon because it makes the carbon look a bit flimsy even though its not. Overall though the looks get a big thumbs up, despite thenAR sticker that I haven't had time to remove yet, sorry Rich
We are going to be tuning Wedneaday/Thursday next week. It will be tuned on the more conservative dyno so I would be ecstatic with 180hp peak and really good mid-range. On the BunburyDyno I would expect that to be around the 190hp mark based on Todd's feedback.
At the end of the day I won't be going back to my Termi slips regardless. More soon, let me know if I missed anything.
