New pipes and silencers-recommendations

I fitted a pair of Keihan stainless steel reverse cone silencers  to my 750 commando in 2006 and they are still looking like new. Stainless silencers don't look quite the same as new chrome silencers, not quite as "silvery" but the long term benefits are enormous and they cost less than top quality chrome plate silencers. I used Keihan silencers on both my ultimately high mileage BMW flat twins with every satisfaction. Keihan also supply downpipes and interstate silencers but I have no experience of these.

Pete

Are the internals the same as the originals? Just a straight-through pipe with three lines of flutes along its length. It makes a great difference to the sound! The original sound is superb! I suppose I could and would ask Keihan … But since you have a pair, Peter …!

I had a complete exhaust pipes and silencers made in stainless steel by Alldens Exhaust. They are as per the originals, but the expense may put many owners off. I am very happy with the ones on my 1970 Commando Roadster.

I took off one of my Keihan silencers this afternoon to peer through it (you can all buy me thankyou beers when the lockdown finishes). The pipes are straight through with no baffles BUT they do not have the three rows of flutes. Rather than try to describe the interior, have a look at the Feked website for stainless commando silencers. Scroll sideways through the pics and you will find an "end on" view. It appears as longitudinal rows of tiny slits. The Feked silencers appear to be Keihan, right down to the 10 year guarantee. I fired the bike up today to clear the sump and the noise is fine, certainly not quiet but not excessive either. Not sure how the sound compares with the original, when I bought the bike in 1980 the silencers were aftermarket items. Keihan claim that their systems are made to the original specifications, clearly not true as Norton would have been suicidal to guarantee their silencers for 10 years. AN and Mick Hemmings claim that the 3 rows of flutes give the ultimate in power, when I rebuilt my commando I had the opportunity to go down the big valve head/PW3 cam route -definitely not warranted by my current style of riding or the overtaxed/under engineered gearbox. My ambition during the rebuild was for longevity and the silencers certainly tick that box.

Pete

Interesting, the Feked chrome has 3 rows of flutes which I remember as on the Campbell's I ran a long time ago, but the stainless do not. I would be inclined to go with the Feked chome and pay extra for heavy duty chrome. 

I've had both original-style but heavily clogged old peashooters on my Commando, and Viking Exhaust items that replicated a factory original that was sacrificed for the purpose. Whereas the clogged old pipes appear to give a satisfying doof-doof and bark, by comparison the replicas are almost musical, and sound just fantastic to me, unlike anything I'd heard before, much more fruity and lively. Unfortunately the Viking peashooters, which I bought around 14 years ago, were barely chromed, and after a few attempts to rescue them they're about to be scrapped. I'm very interested to see that Keihan's stainless peashooters are quite a bit cheaper than at least one other supplier's chromed items …

 Campbell's given a very nice sound and I have them more than 15 year's on the bike and still good, but they where taken over by somebody who closed down some 2-3 years ago again. 

Sometimes stainless gives to me the impression of a more metallic and agressive sound.

What is the opinion of those, having it?

What no one has mentioned in the current thread is that the original peashooters provided a most distinctive whistle/twitter on the over-run (like a Gold Star but different, if that makes sense).

It was just one of many things that I liked about the '71 Fastback that I owned through the '70s.

The Campbells on my current Fastback are fine, but I'd like to get the twitter back …

Interesting, I picked up a pair of stainless peashooters around Christmas time on ebay, they have 'inbuilt' clamps & no weld ridge on the cone, thus a nice line - they have a bit of a whistle & twitter on the over run.

They are also much louder than the ones i took off, both sets are completely empty of baffling - I'll have to pull one off & have a look inside!

Agree the  sound of a Norton on full chat & on overrun is one of the finer things in life.

Hmm, the original question was about pipes & exhausts. Anybody put any new exhaust pipes on recently that they were pleased with.

Gary, keeping a thread on track is like herding cats! (& they're often more interesting as a result of  the whimsy :-)  

Norton stamp on peashooters - when and on what models? I been told by car park experts that my Mk1 850 balanced pipes aren't original because they lack the Norton stamp . Ticks me off - or are they right? 

Cheers Ian

I thought the 'Norton' stamp came in later when Andover Norton/Regal added it for branding purposes and on the silencers only. It was never on the original pipes or silencers I had when I bought my bike in the early 80's, only on replacement silencers in the 90's onwards or later but that bit is hazy. Never seen pipes with Norton stamped on them.

Andover Norton have peashooters with an optional Norton logo.

They say these are built as original with the baffles.

Has anyone tried these? Do they have the canary Twitter on the over run?

Steve

When new my 1974 850 Commando came with pea shooters which had the fluted tube insert and were packed with sound deadening material between this and the silencer shell.

If Andover's are the same original spec then you will probably have the 'canary twitter' on over run.

Only problem with this design for me was that the sound deadening material absorbed dampness and the silencer shell then rotted through from the inside, splitting and bulging the chrome. 

I seem to remember replacing them every few years, but they were only about 15 quid each in them days!  

In recent times I've never been able to find replacement balanced front pipes that fit perfectly so I had my originals repaired and re-chromed at considerable cost.

They exit the cylinder head rose nuts centrally and both peashooters align at the same height as they should do.

Good luck with your exhaust search.

I have the balance pipes in chrome [I don't know who made them] and Keihan silencers in stainless steel on my Mk.III.  After 10 years the silencers still look brand new, just like the ones on my BMW R80 which are now 30 years old.  One of my friends who also owns a Commando took his silencers back to have a weld replaced which Keihan did free of charge, this after owning them for 25 years, and they even polished them before handing them back.  They sound great too!  A great British company and I am very proud to use their parts. 

I see greedy councils are trying to soak motorists with fines for noise over 74 decibels. Good luck with that as it is only a current limit under laboraty conditions for EU Type Approval for new vehicles. Original tyres for Jaguar XJ6's exceeded that. How about a run through Chelsea with a dozen bikes fitted with Goldies? Concerning original silencers, I believe Triumph and Norton used the same parts for a while in the seventies. I have some new 850 pipes, and they fit. I was looking at using Hinkley Bonny silencers on my Commando when I get it together.