ADA Racing Pipe Review

As always, many thanks have to go out to our performance parts providers. In this case, it’s ADA Racing. Brooks, the owner of ADA Racing, was kind enough to send us his ADA Race Pipe (throughout the remainder of this review, the ADA Racing Pipe will be referred to as “ADA RP”) for the air cooled Cagllari. Thanks Brooks!

Review:

The first words that came out of my mouth when I opened up the shipping box was, “WOW!” The exhaust build quality, top to bottom, is unparalleled. From the beautiful chrome casing, to the nice welds at their respective areas, this pipe is one to behold. It belongs in a trophy case, not on a pocketbike. J I will break down the ADA RP’s review compared to a stock pipe, to three parts. Part 1 will consist of the difference in header diameter. Part 2 will describe the difference between the diameter of the divergent cone and the length of the belly. Part 3 will detail the diameter of the convergent cone and stinger craftsmanship. Attached below is a picture that details the different sections of the pipe I will be covering.


Test tools:

1. Air Cooled Cagllari, equipped with a stock big bore kit, stock carburetor with 70 main jet, and K&N filter. Everything else was stock on the bike.

2. GPT Tachometer

3. Rialto Race Track – Conditions were great. Temperature at the track was in the high 60’s, low 70’s. For more information on the track, go to

http://********.com/home/index.php?topic=tracks

Also, many thanks go out to ******** for letting me test out Project Cagllari on their track.

Part 1.

In comparison to a stock pipe (Picture 1), one can see how much “fatter” the header is. The ADA RP’s header is at least 1.5 times the size of the stock header, and the metal used on the ADA RP is noticeably thicker compared to the stock metal. As far as performance wise, a bigger header diameter should equal to greater acceleration throughout the powerband, and in this case, it does.

Picture 1

Part 2.

As the ADA RP’s header connects to the divergent cone, the diameter is consistent. Its similar to a race exhaust on a car, where you want Mandrel Bending throughout the entire exhaust. At the beginning of the divergent cone, the diameter is definitely larger, approximately ¼” diameter, in comparison to stock. As the divergent cone expands, it connects to the “belly.” The belly of the ADA RP is about 0.5” longer than stock. So what does all this equate to as far as performance? Not only greater power and acceleration compared to stock, but all those complaints about having an exhaust that isn’t that great in the low end but great top end, or vice versa, has been solved. The ADA RP has been proven to have great low-end power, as well as top end. The extended belly compared to the stock pipe, guarantees that you will have better top end power

Picture 2

Part 3.

At the end of the belly, is the start of the convergent cone. In comparison to the stock pipe, ADA’s RP is larger in diameter throughout the entire convergent cone. The stinger is also longer, and the build quality is amazing. The cleanest welds you will ever see on an exhaust pipe.

Picture 3


With everything up and running on the bike, I took the bike out to Rialto Airport Speedway to do some test runs on the bike. On the first practice run, the test went well. On the straightaway, I pulled WOT, and the bike pulled harder than ever before. Acceleration was great, and top end screamed. Simply amazing. I was not able to read the tach on the track while riding for safety reasons of course, but I did do a tach run with no load. The tach registered a max RPM of 12,400. I also have an IP2 pipe, which I installed on this same bike, and it also registered a max RPM of 12,400 but the ADA Racing Pipe actually has better low-end power. The ADA Racing Pipe produced a lot of power coming out of the corners.

In conclusion, the pipe is definitely worth the money. It produces power throughout all RPM ranges, and most importantly, it gives greater acceleration. Would I recommend this pipe…YES!

Installation:

Installation of the ADA Racing Pipe is fairly easy and straightforward. You’ll need a few tools available before attempting the installation. The tools you’ll need is listed below. All of the tools you should have from the tool kit that was given to you, with your bike. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the free tools aren’t that great, so I would suggest investing on a few good sets of tools.

• Allen head wrenches
• 8mm open end wrench

First thing I like to do is take off the front fairings (you probably don’t need to do this if you have a HF cagllari). This is done by taking off the two side allen bolts that hold the fairings to the frame. One screw needs to be taken off on each side, and one that holds the front nose to the steel bar (some FF cagllaris do not need this, and can just be popped off).

Next, take off the two bolts that hold down the exhaust header to the head. ADA Racing provides two new high quality, allen head bolts. Use the two bolts you just took off and keep them as spares.

There’s one more bolt that holds the rear of the stock exhaust to the frame. An allen head screw and 8mm wrench is needed to take this off. Keep this nut and bolt as you will use them to secure the rear of the ADA Race Pipe.

Now that the stock exhaust is off, remove the exhaust through the front.

An easy way to install this pipe, is the install it through the front of the cagllari. Slide the silencer in first. Attach the header bolts to the head.

Picture 4 & 5

Use your stock rear bolt to bolt up the rear of the ADA Racing Pipe to the frame. If you need to space it out, utilize the washers that came with the ADA Racing Pipe.

Picture 6, 7, & 8

Install your fairings, make sure there’s gas in your tank, and start her up. Enjoy!

Here’s a picture of my polini and the cagllari at Rialto Speedway.

Picture 9

If you have problems with bogging or hitting a flat spot on the top end after installing this pipe, and never experienced this with your stock pipe, you may need to move your needle position to the 5th slot. You can find out more about this and rejetting, by doing a search on PBP.

Typical gains are 700-1000 RPMs up top, and better acceleration throughout the powerband.

PBP and ADA Racing will not be responsible for any damages to yourself or your pocketbike resulting from these modifications. Perform these modifications at your own risk.