As the VHT paint chipped a bit and was scratched from stones, etc - I decided to remove it and leave the pipe in the actual pure metal color, like they have on racing bikes and also 790 proto.
It took almost full day to remove all the paint and polish the exhaust. However I also smoothed-ported out the edges inside some of the pipes and the main weld on the header pipe that potentially also now flows a bit better. As the header was already off, cleaned the O2 sensor as well. I checked the Catalyst - it was in really good shape, basically like new. I decided to cover the exhaust pipes with VHT Satin clear coat - its just clear coat, therefore will not really paint your pipe, rather just make them a bit matte, so do great preparations before coating if you want them all to look a like.
Once assembled, I did some heat cycles with hot airgun and then idle one for 15min. They smoked as usual at first, but its normal with VHT. They also state that it will completely dry within 7 days, so avoid riding in the rain, dirt, etc.
Also still waiting for racing clutch set and one more special part from Italy. With clutch its clear that there will be months of delay as suddenly there is a lack of sintered metal as they state and if you look around - many sites are out of stock of metal clutch plates for Dukes for months as well.
With header pipe, I have some ideas to try, but most probably not anytime soon as would like to establish the current setting dyno results to have some reference point. Additionally also we will raise the fuel pressure and then make new ECU map related to it as it seems we still have lean spots in some rpms that is already maxed out from ECU side. If that does not help, we will test bigger injectors as well. But this part of development I love the most. I think we have come a long way from stock bike and it will be interesting to test the new 2024 one next year. Forward we go >>>
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