peashooters

I tried asking this on someone else's thread, but didn't seem to get a response so I figure I 'll try a separate thread. In my recent off, I damaged one of my Toga brand silencers and can't find where toga's are offered anymore. Given that, I will need to replace both silencers so they match, but want good quality plus I want a good commando sound nothing too loud or cheap sounding if you know what I mean. I am looking for a smooth finish and since my headers are chrome, I imagine chrome silencers are in order.

I forget if you have 750 or 850, but britcycle has them listed for 850's
www.jhmotorcycles.co.uk just list commando peashooter

You might check with Phil Radford at Fair Spares America www.fairsparesamerica.com
Believe Phil at least used to carry Toga.

Commando Specialties in Plymouth, MA, great price excellent attendant quality

RS

I wouldn't mind trying stainless mufflers, but would be a bit concerned that the finish would change and not match the head pipes. Now if I could get stainless head pipes to match the mufflers I'd be in on that. Isn't there also some issue of stainless cracking?

All peashooters are not the same. The internal dimensions and even diesign appear to vary quite a bit.

Has anyone made a study of the inside diameters, at the base of the louvers and again at the tips, or the louver count, or their spacing?

So what current brand gives the same performance as what the originals would have given, sound, power and of course good quality? I know there are plenty of people on here that remember original sound and performance so I need your input.

"So what current brand gives the same performance as what the originals would have given, sound, power and of course good quality? "

In around 1975 I bought a new set of Peashooters for my '71 from the Norton Dealer in Memphis, TN. They were HORRIBLE. They "squeaked" at idle, were rather quiet, and ended up causing me to drop the main jet size or it ran wayy to rich. So don't necessarily think that you want to duplicate the originals. I think it would depend on what the "originals" were for. The Norton peashooters that were on my 71 were very different than the Norton peashooters I bought FOR that same 71 and which were sold by the dealer as replacement muffs.

However, I suspect that most peashooters today are based on the earlier versions that you could look through from one end of the muffler to the other - like my 71 came with from Norton. I bought my current set (for my 850) from Old Britts I don't recall what specific brand they are but they are seamless and look just like the original pipes on my 71. I'm very pleased with them.

Old Britts used to sell Toga, but I see they've discontinued them.

Stay away from Domi Racer silencers - they're terribly restrictive. That's the only brand I've used that I definitely didn't like.

The eBay vendors mostly sell Emgo, which are low price and kinda ugly but sound OK. I don't like mufflers with the welds visible.

Commando Specialties (eBay) sells some smooth mufflers that are very nice. My brother put a set on his 750 and says the engine "woke up". Very reasonable price.

I have Wassel's on my 850 - pricey but beautiful with great sound and performance.

I have Wassells on my 750, purchased from Phil Radford about six years ago. They look good and sound good, not too loud, not too quiet. They rattle though. It sounds like a weld broke inside and the baffle tube is rattling around. Other than that they're great!

The "Norton" logo muffs that AN sells look good and are quite a bit louder than my Wassells, so if you like loud that's a good choice. The EMGO peashooters I've heard are the loudest of all. But the seamless EMGO mufflers that came on my bike were very quiet. They had an internal baffle plate, the new ones do not. The reason I replaced those was the peeling chrome.

I have EMGO Dunstall replica muffs on my 850. They're a bit quieter than the Wassell peashooters, even though they're straight through. They sound pretty good but not as good as the Wassells. Hopefully the chrome is better quality than the old ones.

hth,
Debby

RoadScholar said:

Commando Specialties in Plymouth, MA, great price excellent attendant quality

RS

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+1 on the Commando Specialties peashooters....great price, fast shipping, peashooters are high-quality, seamless, excellent qualilty & sound.

Ok, I think I've got some good choices. If I could afford it I'd go with viking, but at 350 bucks each that is a rich mans proposition. I like the idea of the stainless commando specialties mufflers. IS there a place that has stainless headers with a good bend to them?

I'm not a big fan of stainless pipes anymore . I had a stainless Supertrapp on my Sportster . They turn gold
and tarnish over time . Depending upon how much you ride and whether or not you get caught in the rain it can happen pretty quickly . I have stainless head pipes on my BMW R90S and just spent 3 hours polishing them back to a
shiny state with a die grinder and buff pad . It had been 2 years and 5,000 miles since I last did it . I
had forgotten how laborious a process that is . Norton pipes without the crossover could probably be done
pretty quickly if you had access to a real buffer but you would still have to mess with removing
and reinstalling the head pipes which doesn't help the failure prone exhaust port threads .

Ron

britbike220 said:

IS there a place that has stainless headers with a good bend to them?[/b]

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epco - I can't remember how much they were but I'm going to say between $250-$300 for a pair

For some reason, at the same inside diameter, the louvered design seems to make better power/sound than the perforated tube design. The factory came up with a good compromise; early 70's OEM is good, later re-pops have to be scrutinized.

How to measure the ID is the question though. Some of the louvered peashooters have a smaller ID than others. It depends on the ID of the tube they started with before they cut and bent the louvers. The ID of the good ones, measured in the trough between the louvers, is nearly 1.75", slightly greater than 1.675" while the ID at the narrowest point, measured louver tip to louver tip, being about 1.375"

Measuring the end opening on my current mufflers is 1.375 as stated. I haven't taken them off yet so I can't inspect the rest of the muffler. I do know I have been absolutely pleased with the ones I have now for 10 years and they show no signs of wear or bad spots in the chrome. Too bad for road rash.