Kawasaki W800

[BlackCatPhotography]

No they dont run very well without them, you can fool the ecu with a resistor but its not a good thing to do. Im going down the road you originally were, to start with im lopping of the factory mufflers and just fixing on the shorty reverse megaphones, but im trying a set of triumph headers, and that failing having some made up. Can i ask why you stopped with that one? It will be a bit of a job to tune the bike (power commander, or maybe a wiseco fuel controller among other things) back to all work like out of the box (i wont settle for less than a complete, bug free no hassle perfectly working setup) but i think its a first step to some better power, just want to avoid moving it too high in the rev range.When the crossover pipe goes i will weld an 02 sensor bung into the new header pipe and fit it into the left side.
Glad to see your pipes have worked out, bit of a shame that drilling out the baffles didnt for you, but the stock sausages look a bit naff anyhow.
Cool on the front cowling, cant wait to see how it looks! Yep, there are folks out there in the u-s-of-a bobbing, chopping and also cafe-ing sportsters. The spare cowl i have here came off a v-rod would you believe. No accounting for taste... ah well.

[pley3r]

Why I stopped with what? Soz may be misreading your post lol
Yeah drilling the stock pipes out is a big no no haha. The sound they create is soooo bad words can't begin to describe it
As for the cowling I'll see how it works out black, but even getting it painted its still going to be a saving of many hundreds of $$ ha
Plus its has a tinted screen

[Twigs]

Yay for tinted screen!
The sound was a bit loud..... ok...allot loud. I jumped and went "Oh God! WTF have they done?!" But it sounds sooo good now.
It's an ear-gasm...

[BlackCatPhotography]

Haha sorry im going from a much earlier post when you said you were having someone make up new headers for your bike? Thats what i was asking, what happened with plan A? If there was a reason, or prohibitively expensive or just this worked out fine etc. The cutaway images i have of the stock w800 sausage mufflers looks like drilling it out would make it a straight through non baffled pipe, that would probably be quite loud haha megaphones look good and sounds good, baffles should be removable and can change them a bit for a different not if desired. Only question left for me is the headers, and if i angle the mufflers up a little... damn i wish i had the bike in front of me to play with, jelous much! All i have are boxes of parts waiting waiting...

Most def. save a bundle of cash with the headlight cowl, and if you have it painted you could maybe even have a pair of helmets colour matched at the same time or something haha would be cool. Should cut the wind drag a bit, take a bit of load off the front suspension at speed, and the tinted screen will take the glare off your speedo, nice one

[BlackCatPhotography]

I knew id seen it somewhere. Tracked down genuine accessory and non genuine accessory cafe cowls for the w650, from japan, they were 35000 yen in gelcoat black, and 39500 for painted, looks exactly like the ebay universal ones but with brackets to suit the bike. And their non genuine ones still with brackets were 18500 yen. So $400-450 aussie for genuine, and $220ish for non genuine. I think you have come out a little in front of that with yours!! Those were before shipping too. And, not that it should matter much but the w650 had inch bars instead of 7/8ths, and some other minor differences, so may have had to throw those brackets out or at least modify, who knows.

Might cost you a few beers and some cursing but you will get yours on and sorted well in front of genuine costs

(edit: Yes, im bored and until my bike arrives, bored means surfing the net looking at bike bits and dreaming of taking my holesaw to the bevel gear drive cover...)

[pley3r]

I abandoned the front pipes as it was just too hard for the place I was getting it done at to get someone to bend it. The two places in WA that do mandral bending and rolling wanted rediculouse amounts of $$..

It was just getting to be too much stuffing around for everyone involved.
The Stock pipes only have 1 plug and removing it does make them straight through, but they have the quality of a milo tin in sound. It makes baby jesus cry
I had thought about angling them a bit but it was thrown into the too hard basket I simply used a bit of 38mm pipe as a join between muffler and header.
I have no doubt that custom brackets will be needed for the cowling, but its all good thats the easy bit

[BlackCatPhotography]

No worries, i was just wondering... so long as the inner exhaust pipe diameter isnt that of a mcdonalds straw, shouldnt matter too much for the headers, but some of us like that blueing effect on our pipes

Good you will have no trouble making the brackets, it shouldnt be a hard job but im wary of calling things like that easy on the forums, as some people get offended if their skillset extends to knowing which end of a screwdriver to hold. If i had access to a mandrel bender still knocking up a new set of headers is easy, but i dont anymore I digress.
Im planning on lowering my headlight and if possible bringing it backwards a little too, there are a number of universal headlight brackets on ebay, quite cheap, and a bunch of them extend a little further to allow fitting front cowls to them with ease. A nice simple plan B for ya if there is no practical/easy/neat way to mount it

[pley3r]

Cool cheers Yeah I have some brackets like that on my sr500. Can move them up or down the forks.
I like the blueing to, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out right lol.
The headers are reasonable size inside. If you were going to work the engine I would go bigger but as it is they are suficient. I reckon ditching the airbox would gain some power with the correct tuning as the intake hole is tiny as. Side effect would probably be moving the torque up the rev range however.

[Twigs]

Can't wait for you to get your bike black cat...I want to see photos of these mods your doing... I bet they are going to look sweet!
You'll have to add them to the cafe racer thread.... I'm sure the rest of the blokes off PSB will drool and maybe have a fap

[BlackCatPhotography]

Haha for sure it's a good looking bike anyhow. It will all happen pretty fast but I'm keeping a spare camera at the workshop fir the big day, from off the truck to assembly to chopping it lol I will start a thread when I do, as a how to or a project I suppose, but will link back here too

[Twigs]

Cheers, love to keep an eye on how things go

[BlackCatPhotography]

Looking forward to the headlight cowl
On pley3rs bike, I'm guessing your on camera and beer duty twigs? when we all go for that ride will get the wife to take a bunch of photos and give everyone a disc of them afterwards too

[Twigs]

Yep.....just not beer
Maybe your wife can show me a thing or two about cameras (I'm pretty crapola...)
I looked at your website too- and are very jealous of the cuteness of your cats.... they are adorable!
*Ahem- back on topic*

[BlackCatPhotography]

Haha cheers, they are just a little bit. And im sure Michelle would be happy to if your interested, always loves talking shop as it were. And i think she gets bored a little when i talk bikes with people for ages, i cant imagine why though... haha (wouldnt mind seeing that sr500 either...) Back on topic then, Thanks for the info Pley3r, as near as i can tell you (and soon me too mwahahahaaa) are a pioneer in modifying the W800, too new for there to be much or any info on the net so its good to chat to someone who has done anything with it so far. I will be taking lots of pics when i modify mine, might help someone else out one day.
Agreed if the ID of the exhaust is reasonable then it wouldnt need changing until the engine is worked. When i have an excuse i might bump the compression up a little, its only 8.4:1 on our bikes, and iv heard rumours of a w900, weather its a bigbore kit or another model, bit of a unicorn at the moment, but will see. But for now exhaust, airbox and retune to start with. Also agree that the airbox is hugely restrictive, but changing it will move the torque up in the rev range. A pair of trumpets off the throttle bodies might fix that though, good old fashioned velocity stacks. Will need access to a dyno im thinking! So it might just be exhaust and modify the stock airbox a little until i put some miles on the bike.

[pley3r]

Ok braided line arrived
Much better feel to the brakes. Plus its shiney :O lol
So yer recomended

[Rex Havoc]

Nice thread pley3r, it'll be good to see what you can do with it. Are you going for a traditional look?

[pley3r]

ha no idea. I don't start with a overall vision for my bikes, I just start doing things and end up at a point where I like the result

[perdition]

a good happy thread

[BlackCatPhotography]

Absolutely a happy thread

Cool on the braided line, good going. Nice big foam keyring there too :p

[pley3r]

ha lol its the keepsake from my ninja