Time to add personal touches.

Voodooo

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Time to add personal touches.
Time to add personal touches.
After seeing this bikes fairing on iwilsons post, I really wanna try to add some personal touches to my commando.
I want to definitely add a front nose fairing but also a long exhaust.
Question is, who makes the best long exhaust and yet keeps the same sound as a decat short exhaust like my short decat Motads?

Also what’s your guys thoughts on a aluminum nose fairing in polished aluminum to match the tank?
 

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Voodooo said:
I want to definitely add a front nose fairing but also a long exhaust.
Click to expand...

Long exhaust?!!
Wait for Nigel's reply

Voodooo said:
Also what’s your guys thoughts on a aluminum nose fairing in polished aluminum to match the tank?
Click to expand...

Why not a fiberglass, or ABS plastic unit painted with chrome paint?
If you ever have a high side with an aluminum fairing, and I hope you never do, it could be a serious matter. Better to have a plastic fairing break off or shatter if your body hits it.
 
And what’s wrong with the long exhausts!! Ok, let’s pretend I did’nt go there! I suspect that the Norton open longs may sound somewhat similar to the decat shorts? I had an exhaust specialist remove the cats and exhaust inards from my standard longs so I could retain the original look. They are beutiful and throaty without being obnoxious. I cannot reconcile myself to the look of the shorties. Just don’t work for me from an originality perspective - looking at the 750/850 original pipes. The longs for me just look right, with the shorts upsetting the balance and flow of that beutiful rear end. Definitely in the eye of the beholder though so hold the hate mail!

Polished ally look fairing similar to the one above would be awesome. I am very keen to do something similar (not colour). Not sure how this would look/work with your flat bars though. This would usually be a clip-on type setup? If you went for the polished fairing (getting it mounted could be a nightmare) the bike may look way more balanced if you painted the tail section polished ally also, just within the bounds of the pin striping. My thoughts only.

Anyway if you could just do all of the research, design work, spend all the money and time getting it right, that would be great! Then I could step in and just blatantly copy it! Can’t say fairer than that. Glad I live on a different continent!

Steve
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
And what’s wrong with the long exhausts!! Ok, let’s pretend I did’nt go there! I suspect that the Norton open longs may sound somewhat similar to the decat shorts? I had an exhaust specialist remove the cats and exhaust inards from my standard longs so I could retain the original look. They are beutiful and throaty without being obnoxious. I cannot reconcile myself to the look of the shorties. Just don’t work for me from an originality perspective - looking at the 750/850 original pipes. The longs for me just look right, with the shorts upsetting the balance and flow of that beutiful rear end. Definitely in the eye of the beholder though so hold the hate mail!

Steve
Click to expand...

The Norton open longs are nice, but the Theil reverse cones are even closer to the original slim RC's of the 750/850.
According to Fast Eddie they are loud, but tone is really great.
Craftsmanship is excellent, and oh yeah, they are expensive too.
 
Stephen_Spencer said:
And what’s wrong with the long exhausts!! Ok, let’s pretend I did’nt go there! I suspect that the Norton open longs may sound somewhat similar to the decat shorts? I had an exhaust specialist remove the cats and exhaust inards from my standard longs so I could retain the original look. They are beutiful and throaty without being obnoxious. I cannot reconcile myself to the look of the shorties. Just don’t work for me from an originality perspective - looking at the 750/850 original pipes. The longs for me just look right, with the shorts upsetting the balance and flow of that beutiful rear end. Definitely in the eye of the beholder though so hold the hate mail!

Steve
Click to expand...

The Norton open longs are nice, but the Theil reverse cones are even closer to the original slim RC's of the 750/850.
According to Fast Eddie they are loud, but tone is really great.
Craftsmanship is excellent, and oh yeah, they are expensive too.
 
Time to add personal touches.
Stephen_Spencer said:
And what’s wrong with the long exhausts!! Ok, let’s pretend I did’nt go there! I suspect that the Norton open longs may sound somewhat similar to the decat shorts? I had an exhaust specialist remove the cats and exhaust inards from my standard longs so I could retain the original look. They are beutiful and throaty without being obnoxious. I cannot reconcile myself to the look of the shorties. Just don’t work for me from an originality perspective - looking at the 750/850 original pipes. The longs for me just look right, with the shorts upsetting the balance and flow of that beutiful rear end. Definitely in the eye of the beholder though so hold the hate mail!

Polished ally look fairing similar to the one above would be awesome. I am very keen to do something similar (not colour). Not sure how this would look/work with your flat bars though. This would usually be a clip-on type setup? If you went for the polished fairing (getting it mounted could be a nightmare) the bike may look way more balanced if you painted the tail section polished ally also, just within the bounds of the pin striping. My thoughts only.

Anyway if you could just do all of the research, design work, spend all the money and time getting it right, that would be great! Then I could step in and just blatantly copy it! Can’t say fairer than that. Glad I live on a different continent!

Steve
Click to expand...
I’m with you on the long exhaust. That’s the route I’d go if I added a fairing. The more I look at the long exhaust the more I like it. I just want it to sound similar to my short pipes.

I totally forgot about the clip ons. I also have a Dominator Naked. I’m not sure I want two bikes with clip ons.

What if I put a fairing on my Dominator?
Would that look wrong?

I couldn’t bring myself to put long pipes on my Dominator.
 
The Naked might use a tail tidy and a flyscreen. That's about it , perfect as it is !
 
He doesn’t mean LONG pipes as in those that need a warning sign hanging from them to warn traffic that’s behind them... he just means longer, like the Thiel pipes (more on this in the other post).

As for fairings, personally, I haven’t yet seen a fairing that looks ‘right’ on a 961. I suggest you need to proceed with extreme caution as getting a fairing to look right on a 961 ain’t gonna be easy. The 961 is a very interesting retro / modern styling job. Fitting an actual old style faring won’t look right, fitting modern fairing won’t look right. Triumph did a brilliant job with the Thruxton, but that’s designed to blend in with the Triumph tank etc and I doubt it would look right on a 961.

I had a Paul Smart replica a while back, they didn’t get it right either.

IMHO, a full fairing on a 961 would be a huge mistake as you’d be hiding the bikes best part... that engine.

But even with a top half faring, you’re gonna have to be extremely careful, otherwise you’re gonna spoil want is an extremely nice looking bike you got there.

All only IMHO of course.
 
Has anyone considered getting a silencer fabricator to take out the baffles on the standard longs, cut off say 100mm to a more reasonable length and refit reverse cones? Seems a waste to have them lying unused in a box...
 
Time to add personal touches.
Time to add personal touches.
Time to add personal touches.
Time to add personal touches.
Time to add personal touches.
Fast Eddie said:
He doesn’t mean LONG pipes as in those that need a warning sign hanging from them to warn traffic that’s behind them... he just means longer, like the Thiel pipes (more on this in the other post).

As for fairings, personally, I haven’t yet seen a fairing that looks ‘right’ on a 961. I suggest you need to proceed with extreme caution as getting a fairing to look right on a 961 ain’t gonna be easy. The 961 is a very interesting retro / modern styling job. Fitting an actual old style faring won’t look right, fitting modern fairing won’t look right. Triumph did a brilliant job with the Thruxton, but that’s designed to blend in with the Triumph tank etc and I doubt it would look right on a 961.

I had a Paul Smart replica a while back, they didn’t get it right either.

IMHO, a full fairing on a 961 would be a huge mistake as you’d be hiding the bikes best part... that engine.

But even with a top half faring, you’re gonna have to be extremely careful, otherwise you’re gonna spoil want is an extremely nice looking bike you got there.

All only IMHO of course.
Click to expand...
What are your thoughts on the fairing on the R9T?
 
Voodooo said:
What are your thoughts on the fairing on the R9T?
Click to expand...

Dunno really, it looks too small to me, the screen etc is doing nothing, zero functionality, but a fairing is supposed to be functional...

Therefore, to my eye at least, it just looks phoney, form over function masquerading as function over form.

Then again, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that I could be over thinking it a tad...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc.
 
Voodooo said:
What are your thoughts on the fairing on the R9T?
Click to expand...

Time to add personal touches.


I think the basic shape of the Beemer fairing is good.
Not sure how it will blend in with the side of the 961 tank though.
But it should provide some nice wind protection at speed on the road.
 
Would you consider a bikini fairing.
Easier to mount or remove and still provides good wind blast deflection

Time to add personal touches.


The old Guzzi Lemans bikini fairing is a nice minimalists choice.
 
Fast Eddie said:
Dunno really, it looks too small to me, the screen etc is doing nothing, zero functionality, but a fairing is supposed to be functional...

Therefore, to my eye at least, it just looks phoney, form over function masquerading as function over form.

Then again, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that I could be over thinking it a tad...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder etc.
Click to expand...
I agree. All the ones i see are ugly or not fitting to the 961 lines.
Better to leave well enough alone. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
 
Glenn Harman said:
Seems a waste to have them lying unused in a box...
Click to expand...

You won't say that at MOT time.....

Best longs are the factory open longs with the 'Clive' mod hem hem....

Front section perforated pipe replaced with straight through. A recent poll showed a massive preference in sound and look to the short opens. And the noise scared his guide dog off....
 
In the past 30 years I've never had to change silencers on a bike to pass MOT. Its all bull**** imo.

I'm running the straight through centre pipe with short opens. I just don't really like the look of them and prefer traditional long pipes with reverse cones. When I asked the question the preference was more like 50-50. The std long pipes are a bit too long (also in imo), so its either Thiels or modify the restricted longs.
 
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