Interesting Finds

As a part of the top-end service, I am dropping the engine out of the frame. This is by no means necessary -- the 999 series is known for its service friendly design... its just that in a few weeks, it will get bloody cold in the garage, and I wanted to take my time and work on the engine inside! Was able to remove the engine in pretty quick order, once I had a way to prop up the rear part of the main frame. A support base I originally built to steady a bike on a trailer was pressed into service, with the frame being steadied by bolts threaded into the rearset mounting holes. Put a jack under the engine and the unit dropped out. Hey, presto, and Robert is your father's brother! (Bob's your uncle...) Looking at the paint on the frame has got me thinking I might make a trip to the powdercoater's while I have it all apart... would look pretty cool in a gloss black.

On to the DRZ -- while I patiently wait for my cams to arrive, so I can send the heads off to Eddie Sinseros, I stumbled across an article in the most recent CycleWorld that talked about a DRZ400 built by Yoshimura for Kevin Shwantz. Of particular interest was the under-engine exhaust system...

Note how "short" the exhaust headers are -- not nearly as long as on other supermono designs. The muffler itself starts just aft of the rear part of the engine -- a tapered cone that extends onto the carbon-fibre bit. Interestingly, Yoshimura designed a 1-2 design -- there is a matching muffler exiting on the other side of the bike (just visible above the rear wheel) -- anyway, this proves that there is some merit to a shorter header design.

Detail shot of the LHS muffler. Very tasty looking, and eyeball engineering indicates these could be fitted to my 'mono without a lot of fuss. Then I looked at the price... $1100 'murican. Yikes! I think I can get a piece of stainless bent into the shape I want for a bit less than that!