Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust trident pipes

I’ve been riding with these pipes for a few weeks now and I’m really happy with them...certainly a vast improvement over stock and TOR’s.
There is an issue with the baffle pulling to one side. To overcome the problem I made a spacer out of a piece of hollow bar this keeps the baffle centralised.
I agree with the comment about adding a locking nut for the baffle......I lost both mine during a ride out.
I get some popping on deceleration but that don’t bother me.....it lets some of those dim witted car drivers know your there
Peter maybe you could add these spacers and locking nut as part of the exhaust package?

John
With the spacer

Without the spacer.


Inner baffle


My Scoot

I have already started to add in a lock nut and we'll get some spacers made up or perhaps a second lock nut to fix the baffle outside as well as in
Glad you like them

I think you should increase the baffle dia. so it is a snug fit in the pipe.

I wonder why I didn't think of that - oh yeah - because we had to make it the right size to work in terms of noise and power - not just cut to fit the hole and block it - this is a total non issue - you just tighten it up but not so far that it pulls over - it's really not rocket science people...

When I put my baffle in the whole thing didn't pull towards the side of the can like Northeast's did-see my pics ealier in this thread. I'm with Peter-I have a little over 200 miles on these pipes and still love them.

Dog - no offence was intended and none is now but from your post you clearly don't know a little about how this works
There has to be flow past and through the packing - that's what it's there for - if we made a baffle that blocked the outside path it couldn't do that and would as I said adversely effect the power
We don't have off the shelf baffles, as one look will tell you they are hand welded by me - they are uniquely designed for this bike and no other

What I said is quite correct - there is no need for it to pull to one side - if you only bolt the thing in place until it is in place centrally then all is well as 08 America has noted too - if you over tighten the bolt then it will pull over but as I said before there is no need to over tighten it - it is a non issue
Brokenfixed - I appreciate the feedback people give - the entire product was designed from the feedback people on this very forum gave as to what they wanted - I was just being light hearted about it all as it is a non issue - there is nothing I didn't think of or anything badly designed (except not using a lock nut which as I also said above we have now changed) - the baffle is the way it is for a reason and it works perfectly if tightened correctly - even if over tightened it still works perfectly but just looks a bit odd if you peer down the pipe
Don't be so touchy people - every thing I said was meant light heartedly not as a dig at anyone.

So what you are saying is most manufactures are making their pipes wrong? Every pipe I have ever had the baffle fits the opening it mounts in. There should be no flow past the baffle the flow should be through it. And yes I do know more than a little about this, I have been in this business for over 30 years and went to school for it.

If you need flow past the baffle then the design is wrong and the amount of gas able to flow through it should be increased.

Lets take Triumph pipes for an example since many here have seen those. Show me where there is one of their pipes either TOR or stock that has an ill fitting baffle allowing gases to flow out past the outside edge. I could point to many other after market pipes for HD and other to make the same example but I figured with this crowd Triumph is the best example. The baffle should be a snug fit to the outside of the pipe and the exhaust gases should flow through it and the packing and out the hole in the baffle not bypassing around the outside of the mounting. It is simply shoddy workmanship, no way around it. And to say you are right and the entire exhaust manufacturing world is wrong is ridiculous.

If you intended to make gases go around the outside edge you should have put spacers on 3 or 4 sides similar to the single spacer NorthEast1 used to fix the problem. Or as in the Suzuki design a flanged plate for the baffle mounting to go into snugly and bolt to that instead of flopping around in the pipe with a 1/4" to 1/2" gap on one side if snugged down. To say you shouldn't tighten it down is not a good thing either since the nut would then vibrate off as happened to a member above and then lose the baffle. You are not going to win this, you know what I am saying is true and correct. If you do in fact make the baffles then you should correct them, if you need flow at the outside through the packing make the mounting plate fit the pipe and put holes in that. You were right when you stated above, it isn't rocket science.

No - most manufacturers don't make baffles designed to be used in two parts - something you guys on this board asked for so we designed - if we were using a single baffle I might agree with you (though in fact you are still wrong and many other manufacturers don't "fill the hole" - I'll try and dig you out some pictures) - but we wanted to do a two stage baffle that could give a street noise level and a legal level without compromising power - the problem you get is that the reversion waves caused by the baffle are fine with one but you get a negative inversion with the second unless you can tune that out and to do that we increased pressure through the side plates of baffle two (through it's design - note baffles one and two are different designs) and allowed it to seep by the edge of baffle one - that way the negative wave is disapated and the pulses still work positively to scavenge the cylinders with either baffle in place - the only other way round this would have been to find the tuned length for each artificial swept volume created by the baffles and try to put a reverse cone inside the pipes at the next shortest pulse length to try and create a positive inversion wave but this would mean lots of tricky maths and more tricky welding a couple of feet down a 3" pipe so we didn't go that way

We didn't put spacers all around because the packing acts as a spacer unless over tightened and holds it all neatly central - we did mess up by supplying two nuts designed to lock together instead of a lock nut which is fool proof and as I said we have now amended this.

I hope this will have explained why we did this the way we did and that it is indeed correct - I don't intend to get in to a battle over this - at one time or another most manufacturers have turned to my company for exhaust help (up to and including Honda R&D) so my reputation kind of speaks for the validity of what I am saying - if you really do know what you are at with exhaust design and can think of another way to tune out two differing waves then drop me a PM and we can discuss the finer points of gas dynamics and so on off the board so as not to bore everyone else.
For now let me say that what we have done works, it works well, it is the right design choice and so much of a non issue that I can't believe the column inches we're all wasting debating it - even the one guy who said it moved over and looked a bit ugly says he loves the pipes and is very happy so it's really just not an issue.
I hope I didn't offend anyone - I am always quite light hearted in the way I write things and no personal slight was intended against anyone.

I am not going to keep going back and forth with you, shoddy workmanship. I understand what you are saying and I did before you said it. None of it has anything to do with how the baffle fits the pipe. Just info to try and confuse the laymen who don't understand the dynamics to try and justify a baffle that doesn't fit the pipe. I'm done here, have better things to do that go back and forth with a person who won't admit when they are wrong.

I have the Suzuki pipes out back that have the part welded into the pipe that the baffle fits into so some do make the 2 part system. They did it because the opening in the end of the pipe is smaller than the diameter where the baffle fits. If they didn't then you couldn't remove it for repacking. In your pipe that wouldn't be needed just wanted to cover that before you or someone else brought it up. The spacers would also be hard to deal with, welded or not. The best solution is to make a baffle that fits.

Clearly if you understood anything I was talking about you would not still be saying what you are as it completely obviates the point - I'm not trying to baffle anyone but clearly have managed it with you - if it fitted round the edge the gas could not seep through the packing which is what it needs to do to work - simple

the only one baffled is you since you clearly don't understand what I have been saying. I tried to put it as simply as I could so that everyone on the board could understand. There is no excuse for the ill fitting baffle. Quite simple if you need seepage around the outside you make it fit correctly and put a series of holes around the outside edge, as many and as large as needed, simple.

Ah - I see - so as we used one big round hole all the way round we have done as you suggest -:)

Dog - I'm can't be bothered to argue this if you don't like it don't buy it - everyone who has seems very happy and we've already sold out the first batch of 100 we made in March and have orders waiting for the next batch due next week. And I've not had one single complaint so I'm happy too

If you need one big hole all the way around then you didn't allow enough room for the gases to escape through the baffle.

And I've just wasted an hour trying to teach you about reversion waves in gas dynamics... Why did I bother??

I never said what have done doesn't work, what I am saying is I think it is the lazy mans way to arrive there. You can make the baffle fit the pipe nicely and address the rest of the issues such as exhaust pulses , wave dynamics, noise, scavenging, etc...many other manufactures have. I wasn't calling your knowledge into question until you called mine and it really was just a ****** for tat I shouldn't have allowed myself to fall into.I have no doubt you are knowledgeable as am I. I just feel there is a flaw in the way you achieved your goal. I have yet to see any hard evidence to back up the claims of your exhaust, don't take that as saying your exhaust isn't what you say it is but at this point we are all just taking you at your word for it.

As for saying you sold out so they must be good is lame. Yugo sold lots of cars and those things aren't even good for a boat anchor. Your pipes look good from the outside and stainless is great too so I have no issue with that aspect of your pipe , although again haven't seen them in person but others seem to be happy that have.

find the ill fitting baffle.

Nice looking pipes, sounds great I read and if I didn´t already have long TORs and Thunderbikes I would consider those.

P.S. Can´t get my mind right on one thing; If it works and everyones satisfied, why try to harm someones business? Jealousy or something, it´s our national disease and never learned to understand it...

I never tried to hurt business I nicely said that they should fit better and the guy was unable to take constructive criticism.I posted " I think you should increase the baffle dia. so it is a snug fit in the pipe. " and that is all and would have left it at that. The he came back with a smart a$$ post and got me going.I have nothing against him or his business and other than the baffle fitment the pipes seem OK.