To expansion pipe or not?

[rd400canuck]

I can't speak on actual experience on chambers vs stock exhaust on a RD350 but John who did my top end bore and porting for my R5 talked to me at length on plus or minus of chambers for my build.
The big question for him was intentions of use. I will be using this bike for town and country riding along with a bit of highway use.
He recommended me staying with stock pipes and did his work accordingly.. his reasoning was as to having a better broad torque band and good low speed response vs a more high strung experience.  I wanted a little better performance but long term reliability is my biggest factor in this particular build. He advised me on some minor carb work, for me to install a Vape ignition and take time to get the jetting correct.
I'm hoping come spring to be on the road here with my R5 and be able to report on whether it all works out.
I have my other R5 I will be building for track days and will be a bit more aggressive in the build..and of course be using chambers.
At that point I'll have a bit more experience and knowledge to share.

I 100% agree... I have an RD400 and all I use it for is bombing around town and relaxed sunday rides. Stock pipes and complete stock airbox is a must for me for a bike to be used this way. I'm far more interested in low-mid power and torque. I rarely rev past 6000rpm (there's just no need when most of the power is before that) and most of the time I find im around 3000-4500rpm. I had 2 into 1 air intake on it at one time and the intake drone drove me nuts and also moved the powerband up higher. Found a stock airbox on fleabay, rejetted and the bike became much more of a joy to ride. having said that I love aftermarket chambers but I just can't have that much noise and lack of lower grunt.

[Czakky]

I definitely appreciate the merits of a stocker and would love to hear more about Mark's LC "estate". On the other hand you can have a somewhat (if noisy) Dr Jekyll and mr Hyde bike with pipes. After a bunch of tuning and messing around my RD is super smooth below the powerband, makes enough power to get ahead of traffic and is a riot on the pipe. Not saying there's no trade off but it's atleast okay in town now that it idles.

[bheezy27403]

I can't speak on actual experience on chambers vs stock exhaust on a RD350 but John who did my top end bore and porting for my R5 talked to me at length on plus or minus of chambers for my build.
The big question for him was intentions of use. I will be using this bike for town and country riding along with a bit of highway use.
He recommended me staying with stock pipes and did his work accordingly.. his reasoning was as to having a better broad torque band and good low speed response vs a more high strung experience.  I wanted a little better performance but long term reliability is my biggest factor in this particular build. He advised me on some minor carb work, for me to install a Vape ignition and take time to get the jetting correct.
I'm hoping come spring to be on the road here with my R5 and be able to report on whether it all works out.
I have my other R5 I will be building for track days and will be a bit more aggressive in the build..and of course be using chambers.
At that point I'll have a bit more experience and knowledge to share.

I 100% agree... I have an RD400 and all I use it for is bombing around town and relaxed sunday rides. Stock pipes and complete stock airbox is a must for me for a bike to be used this way. I'm far more interested in low-mid power and torque. I rarely rev past 6000rpm (there's just no need when most of the power is before that) and most of the time I find im around 3000-4500rpm. I had 2 into 1 air intake on it at one time and the intake drone drove me nuts and also moved the powerband up higher. Found a stock airbox on fleabay, rejetted and the bike became much more of a joy to ride. having said that I love aftermarket chambers but I just can't have that much noise and lack of lower grunt.

I'm starting to think along your lines. You even got me thinking about adding the airbox back (never ridden this bike with it) just to see if it has any lower end torque. I love riding in the mountains but I wonder just how often I'm gonna take a 47 year old bike up to wring it's neck in the twisties? I have other bikes that handle that well and won't be worried about breakdowns or running out of gas even. I assume I can get this thing leaned over pretty good even with the stockers on? I have an electric ignition to add and I'll see what that does to the curve when complete. I'm gonna ride as is for a bit and enjoy it, maybe the pipes come down the road a ways. If I could trust myself to get the tuning right it'd be a mark in the "pro" column for chambers but it just runs so good now I'll give it some more time and thought.

[soonerbillz]

I'll have the stock airbox on my R5 but it will have the factory recommended box lid modification. The factory admitted it was too suffocating of air intake and they issued a tsa showing how to do the mod.
I posted a copy of in the tech area on this forum.

[m in sc]

you're in the triad, right? always welcome to haul it down 77 we can go over a few things if you want one weekend.

to be honest, stock pipes and a k&n and y boot work just as well as a stock airbox down low, they have the runner length & that's what matters. i've done back to back.  But, any well tuned rd can be ok down low with chambers as well. 

[bheezy27403]

you're in the triad, right? always welcome to haul it down 77 we can go over a few things if you want one weekend.

to be honest, stock pipes and a k&n and y boot work just as well as a stock airbox down low, they have the runner length & that's what matters. i've done back to back.  But, any well tuned rd can be ok down low with chambers as well. 

Yeah I'm in the 'Boro. I may take you up on that sometime. It'd be nice to have a set of pro eyes on it. I do have the y pipe and K&N and I think the curve is pretty decent.  I buy the beer you slap on my Newtronic ignition?

[m in sc]

You come down i'll coach and help.

newtronic. yikes. welcome to 1992  .

[bheezy27403]

You come down i'll coach and help.

newtronic. yikes. welcome to 1992  .

Ha! Yeah, I got it for cheap in the for sale here.  you should see the box, very retro. I was gonna buy the hpi during the sale but passed.  I figure this thing is enough to get the job done and, for now, I don't need any bells or whistles just a piece that works. I'll shoot you a pm to see what weekend is good for you. I may drag the camper down that way and make a weekend of it since I'll be there anyway.