With all the questions going around as to what the best pipe for a midbikes are,I decided to find out for myself. I picked the two biggest contenders on the market.The Pacsales(bazooka,fatty pipe) and the Proline.I wish I had the funds to test the Jetpro and the sikk toys pipes, but I didn't,so I will leave it up to one of you fellow midbikers. This test wasn't done in any shop,on any dyno,or with the help of pro 2 stroke mechanics. This is not a biased review,due to I payed for both pipes out of my own pocket.This is a typical seat of your pants review on gains,which is how the average every day Joe tunes these bikes to the best of their ability. The only equipment used to compare other than good old fasioned feel of it,was a shwinn speedo,and about a block and a half of running room.
To start off I will give you a little history of the test mule. The test were done on my X1 w/o CVT,with a 220lb rider(me).Stock gearing,Redline synthetic gear oil in the tranny,50-1 Belray MC1 premix. Stock out of the box,this bike ran at 20mph top speed via stock speedo.It is highly posible that this bike came with a 43cc motor,so you should see better results from 49cc. My first mod was a conical airfilter and velocity stack.With this mod the top speed jumped to 25mph(after richening up the mix to compensate for the extra air) via stock speedo,and acceleration was gained considerably.My next mod was a walbro butterfly carb,after alot of tuning and redoing the intake with jb weld to plug the pulse hole leak,I got good performance gains like throttle response and better accel but not more top speed.Then I stepped up to the shwinn speedo, to find out what my mid was really doing. After measuring the tire,and doing the conversions,I came up with 1017 as my speedo setting. I hit the test run and came out to about 24mph,every time(shwinn speedo). Truth was I was dissapointed in the speed of my bike,my original plans were to get it to do 35 honest mph,but it was starting to look grim for my heavy arse. So naturaly my next mod was going to be a pipe,but which one?
This is when I decided to buy both pipes,I was looking for the biggest performance available from a pipe,and this is how I chose to do it. I figured I could sell the slower pipe to one of my buddies anyways so in the end I wouldn't be out any money by buying more pipes then I need. I ordered two Pacsales pipes from DDM,one for me and one for my buddies X2, pipes come with free shipping( or any order over $100 dollars I think) and when you total it up its still cheaper than Ebay,and you just can't beat the technical support that comes from DDM (Davesmotors.com).The pipes came from DDM within one and a half to a couple days,it was fast to say the least.I ordered one Proline pipe for myself through Kirk at Proline on our board here,you can now order through him or off his site.The Proline came within a couple days also. I ordered the pacsales a day earlier so it arived first,so naturaly it was the first on my bike.
THE PACSALES
The Pacsales pipes came well packed,each pipe is bagged up with its hardware,mounting bracket,springs,instructions, and replacement header.There was also a DDM sticker included.I must say I really like the looks of this pipe.The works finish(unfinshed look),and the way the silencer meets the expansion chamber,is sweeeeet. The quality of the pipe is very good.This pipe ditches the stock header piece and is replaced with a new short slip fitting header.I found this pipe to be a tite fit and can see how manufacturing tolerances on the bikes might come into play,but wasn't an issue with me or my buddies X2.The pipe did not bolt right up,on my bike or my buddies bike.On my bike I had to use a combination of the stock exhaust mount and the new supplied mount to get it to mount up.On my buddies bike we had to extend the slot on the pipe about a half an inch to get it to mount up like the instructions say to do.It was no biggie, just don't get discouraged if it doesn't line up right.It would be imposible to make a pipe fit every bike with the manufacturing tolerences coming from china.Another issue was with the supplied spring,it is way too short to reach from one hook to the other. So a quick trip to the local Yard Birds and it was taken care of.Next was to start her up!
The daily temps in my area were in the 90's,so I had to wait till the evening to do my testing,and it was still pretty warm out.I feel with lower temps you could get even more performance than the performance I got.It took a little work to get the bike to fire but this is normal for my bike,upon firing I could barely tell it was running it was so quit at idle. I was very surprized with the sound level of this pipe. It totaly changes the sound of the bike,it sounds alot more like a small 2 stroke dirtbike with the pipe. The bike was running overly rich now,smoke was pooring out of the exhaust,and within minutes there was black oil dripping from the tip.So I started to gradualy lean out the low end needle and the high till it became crisp enough to handle a load. Off to the test spot,the bike instantly fired up and idled but was still showing a rich condition. I took it for a run and it started to rev up nicley to about 20mph on the shwinn and started burping and farting so I brought it back for some adjustments. Back out running again and it still seamed rich but was getting up to speed in about half the time previous to the pipe,burping and farting at 25.So back to lean it out more and then another run,it got up to speed and sounded way different than stock,it sounded meaner.I'm off rippin and was very happy with the pull of the bike now.In half the distance the bike was up to 25mph and it kept gaining till I hit 29mph and ran out of room. I feel this pipe with enough stretch could pull 30+ with my 220lbs of meat. With lots of tuning time,and good weather I feel this pipe is capable of a little more,but all in all I was already very happy with gains on bottom ,mid, and top. If you are looking for great performance with a bit of stealthness this is the pipe to have.
THE PROLINE
The Proline pipe came a day or two after the Pacsales.It came in a much smaller box and was kinda surprizing after the big box that came from DDM. As soon as I opened the box I realized that it was smaller due to no silencer and it uses the stock header. Right off the bat I noticed the Proline was much lighter than the Pacsales. I was really impressed with the quality of the Proline. The welds were good and it had a nice crome finish,not to mention the nice billet header adapter. The Proline also came with a company sticker(stickers are alway a plus in my book).So once I felt I got the most out of the Pacsales from minor tuning,off it came and on goes the Proline.The proline went on with ease and mounted right up to the stock bracket with the supplied bracket.This pipe was a True bolt on for me,everything lined up perfect.The only concern I had was with the fact that the Proline system came under the frame tube, instead of over like the Pacsales, so it came closer to the swing arm brace/fender. It does contact the pipe at full squat of the suspension but just barely,and shouldn't be a problem. I must say the Proline is the only pipe of its kind and it retains a very exotic look to it. It's one of those things that either you like it at first sight,you hate it,or it grows on you over time.Me being big on originality,I loved the pipe when Kirk first started posting pics of it on his Proline cateyes.And off to test this one out.
At first I was concered about having to retune for the new pipe again,but to my surprize the bike started up after a little effort,and seemed to be very in tune just how the pacsales was left off.Originaly under speculation I kinda figured the Proline would sound more like stock due to no silencer. To my surprize the pipe had very different sound,much different. It kinda sounds like a high compresion race motor with this pipe.The sound is very snappy,especialy when you crack the throttle. Once I determined that it was decently tuned,off to the testing grounds I went. With zero tuning changes I started and warmed up the bike,and went for a run. The bike took off the line with good bottom end power,and started to rev up very smoothly,hardly any vibration.People know when you are coming with this pipe,it is definatly not nieghbor friendly. I was instantly up to into the 20's at half the stretch of room,this pipe was pulling hard and smooth.I let off at 26 mph about 3/4 of the run and turned back to put fuel in the bike because I forgot it was low and didn't want to go lean at top rpm. One thing I noticed with the Proline is when I pulled up a small grade where I usualy walk my bike,with this pipe it had enuff low end to pull right up with ease. So I topped off the fuel and back to another speed run.Man this pipe is responsive,As soon as you crack the gas this thing is on the powerband, I made the wot run and managed to break the 30 mark on my speedo. I know this pipe has more top speed in it than I had room to find out.
FINAL WORD
All in all I was happy with the performance of both the pipes,and I'm sure bigger gain can be found with tuning and lighter riders.Since I plan to run my bike on the track,the Proline is the pipe I'm going to stick with.I feel it had low end and top end over the Pacsales,though not by much.I couldn't get over how smooth the bike ran all the way through the powerband with the Proline.Sound Isn't a concern for me,but If it was, I would definatly use the Pacsales.This pipe can't be beat on how quiet it is yet how much power it produces. On both pipes,there is some area where the flanges meet that can be smoothed out,to yield more gains.I'm going to go back through and do this on both pipes.I am also going to go to another location to find a top speed for my bike now.I finally ran out of room to top out my bike,I guess thats a good thing lol.I figure now with some porting and more tuning I should be able to hit the 35mph mark which was my initial goal when I purchased this bike.I hope this review will help people that are unsure of what pipe they want.I'm going to put the pacsales on my brothers Boreem X2 and see what kind of gains can be made on a cvt version.
i fell like i understand the pro line pipe better now....i own the pacsales pipe , and i couldnt agree more w/ it's neighbor friendly qualities....but , if you drill out the rivets, unscrew the silencer counter clockwise and take out the packing , its still quiet ,and bears simular results as described w/ the pro line,,,,,,,,
i fell like i understand the pro line pipe better now....i own the pacsales pipe , and i couldnt agree more w/ it's neighbor friendly qualities....but , if you drill out the rivets, unscrew the silencer counter clockwise and take out the packing , its still quiet ,and bears simular results as described w/ the pro line,,,,,,,,
Did you drill all the rivets or did you just have to do ! end, I would like to take the packing out of mine, espcially if you say it helps a lil. Thanx!
Did you drill all the rivets or did you just have to do ! end, I would like to take the packing out of mine, espcially if you say it helps a lil. Thanx!
you can drill only the rivets where the bag and silencer meet , then twist pipe counter clock wise pull out insulater and replace silencer
D-A-N
What kind of gain s are we talking about in the pacsales pipe? Just by Removing the packing we should see more gains? Just wanted to know because I gots me a pacsales pipe and wanted to max it out!!!Just hit 37 in scwinn speedo!!!
actualy ..you drill out the center of the rivets closest to the bag pipe then twist the silencer off counter clock wise..expect a slightly noticable gain ..much like the proline pipe...explained by out law 50
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