Exhaust Pipes

As detailed earlier, I suspected a crack in one of the Hard Krome 3” Res-Tec exhaust pipes I purchased in August 2011 and installed in September.

Arriving at Mather – after cutting out my planned rides in the national parks – Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite – I bought the new Casita caravan and on Sunday I took the offending pipe off the bike.

The crack was barely visible, but there.

On Monday afternoon I called Hard Krome and started the process of a warranty claim.

Can you say run-around?  Shuffled from here to there – person to person and no one would make any TIMELY decision. 

After this shuffle game got to the point of ridiculousness, I contacted a company in Washington to purchase some Vance and Hines replacement pipes.  

A minor shipping incident delayed delivery by 3 working days, but the pipes and quiet baffles arrived late in the afternoon on Tuesday June 26^th.

It took about 3 hours on Wednesday to install them.  And yes, they are nice sounding – still a bit louder than I would like, but I’ll live with it.

In August 2011 I was buying accessories for the bike from different vendors.  In preparation for the recent sale and move I cleaned my email and deleted all the “receipts” and other correspondence relating to the purchase of all these accessories.

I emailed and then called the vendor Phat Performance Parts I thought I had purchased the pipes from – unfortunately it was not those folks.  However they were very responsive in their efforts to verify my purchase.  When I called I talked to a man that told me that Hard Krome pipes frequently cracked and they had to cut them apart and repair the cracks.

Ironically, Hard Krome no longer makes the 3” Res-Tec pipes.  Ken Davie replied – “I see a significant issue should the warranty claim be accepted.  We no longer produce these pipes.  The current pipes may be viewed at the following URL: http://hardkrome.com/models.php?modelID=130

Please note that these pipes are much louder than the Res-Tech pipes.”  My emphasis.  

And that was the problem I had with the HK's - they were too loud regardless of what mitigation I attempted.

Later Ken did offer to repair the pipes – shipping to them at my expense – but I made the choice to forego any further contact with Hard Krome and as detailed above – purchased Vance and Hines replacements.

Now… On with the planed Summer Vacation