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I set out to make a new H pipe to replace the cats (for off road racing use only of course). My goal was to make a simple bolt-on piece made out of 1.5" stainless exhaust tubing with a straight design (no funky loops ) and include the cross-over balancing tube and make it for under $150.00.
It turned out to be a longer project than I had intended. Trying to fabricate, cut, bend and weld all the parts together at fab shops while my bike was home in the garage made it almost impossible to get everything to fit up correctly. I ended up cutting the pieces apart and connecting them with flex exhaust pipe and clamping the parts together. I expected to have leaks everywhere and have to start over. I used exhaust sealant putty on all the connections and to my surprise there were no leaks. It sounds deeper and only slightly louder than stock. It shaved about 8 pounds of weight (the cats weight 11 pounds). And it should flow better without the cats and even better than something that loops around with no cross-over pipe.
I ended up with about $195 invested plus many hours of my time. In the end, it's not a project I can really recommend unless you just want to enjoy the challenge. I would have no plans to make more on them. But I'm pleased with the final results so far. From what I learned, it would be possible for someone to make a nice bolt-on set as per my goal if they were set up to to do so.


It turned out to be a longer project than I had intended. Trying to fabricate, cut, bend and weld all the parts together at fab shops while my bike was home in the garage made it almost impossible to get everything to fit up correctly. I ended up cutting the pieces apart and connecting them with flex exhaust pipe and clamping the parts together. I expected to have leaks everywhere and have to start over. I used exhaust sealant putty on all the connections and to my surprise there were no leaks. It sounds deeper and only slightly louder than stock. It shaved about 8 pounds of weight (the cats weight 11 pounds). And it should flow better without the cats and even better than something that loops around with no cross-over pipe.
I ended up with about $195 invested plus many hours of my time. In the end, it's not a project I can really recommend unless you just want to enjoy the challenge. I would have no plans to make more on them. But I'm pleased with the final results so far. From what I learned, it would be possible for someone to make a nice bolt-on set as per my goal if they were set up to to do so.

