Tsukigi Buell Racing Pipe
Tsukigi Buell Racing Pipe
CW EVALUATIONS
More boom for your XB
FIT YOUR XB-SERIES BUELL WITH A Tsukigi Racing exhaust system, blip the throttle and most assuredly you'll set off every car alarm within a block. Other motorists will cringe, pedestrians will duck into nearby shops seeking cover. Not cool.
New to the U.S., the Japanese pipe-bender claims its big-tube stainless-steel design unleashes 10 more horsepower than stock on an XB9 (they hadn’t yet dyno'ed an XB12) and weighs substantially less. This, in addition to a trick titanium coating that gives the pipe its wild rainbow coloring.
Okay, but we had issues. Installation on our long-term XB 12S required a substantial time investment. We had to remove various plastic body pieces, disconnect the oil lines that run from the swingarm through the lower header pipe’s mounting bracket, and remove the forward engine-mounting bolts so the motor could be lowered enough to gain access to the hardware holding the rear header in place. Once the system was mounted,
the engine was jacked back up into position, hardware re-in stalled, oil lines re-plumbed and plastic re-fitted. Not a 20-minute job. Leakage around the slip-fit junctures was remedied by warming up the motor, then tapping on the pipe with a rubber mallet to help seat the various pieces.
On the CW dynamometer, Tsukigi’s horsepower claims proved optimisticat least on our bike. Below 3500 rpm, output dropped (unlike the stock XB12 pipe, Tsukigi’s has no exhaust powervalve), rebounded nicely with gains of 5 hp and 5 footpounds
of torque through the midrange, then fell off again. So in the case of the XB12, there’s horse-trading going on, but no low-end or peak improvements.
Impressively, the system is a full 16 pounds lighter than stock, but because of the power losses and deci¿ bel overdose, the pipe is off the bike, in a box and headed back to Tsukigi. □
DETAILS Tsukigi Racing USA 2111 W. 169th P1. Torrance, CA 90504 310/328-3224 www.tsukigi.com Price.. .$1007 A Colorful Ti coating wows citizens A Next-to-nothing weight Wowns v Deafening noise wows v Low-end torque loss V H-h-how rn-rn-much9'
