well.. thats the van booked for the road trip to Newcastle on Friday.. still to work out how the hell i'm going to get the bike into (and off) the van as yet.. Wife very understanding considering i'm still happier than a pig in shit after buying an HM GP shifter from Arthur last week
PS.. phoned B&C Express (Arrow dealer) today about ordering new can decals as the ones on the can I bought off fleabay are a little past their best. Ended up spending £85 quid! Chaz at B&C was very knowledgeable and great to talk to. As you can see from the photo I've sent him, he picked out that the stickers in the can are slightly "burned" showing most likely that the packing inside the can is probably past their best. So I ordered new packings, water / gas proof rivets / new banding straps for the can. Will be looking bling once all sorted
Well thats the bike in the rental van ready for my road trip to Newcastle at 3am.. hope to get there for 8am from Aberdeen.. the adventure begins! Got the Ti headers and can on last night.. left the fairings off as I'll be fitting my HM GP (super chuffed) at some point next week updates to follow tomorrow Must remember that the van has a lower speed limit!
Just seen this thread! Awesome and top marks for perseverance Hope it all goes well. Will be amazing once sorted
Just back to Aberdeen.. shattered. Will write up and post some pics and a wee video tomorrow. couple of pics.. I have to take my hat off to all the guys that do LD driving for a living, its not easy! We have a full Titanium system! teaser pic: pic from the rental van - 10hrs driving to the min!
Looks the business and sounds it too. Kudos for the roadtrip to get it sorted. Now get out and enjoy it!
Earl Grey...lol PG tips here mate! Blimey how the other half live hay...lol Come on my days on hold until I see some bling...lol
Long day yesterday.. but nothing ventured eh! Started Thursday night with getting the bike into the van..I had to bite the bullet and go buy a bike ramp.. J&S had one for £99 aggrhh oh well, I have one now for future! Set my alarm for 2:45am (after golfing at Trump Thursday afternoon, still never managed to get bed till 11:30pm.. was already knackered). Up and out the door on the road for 3:10am. Wasn't hungry when I first got going, but couldn't resist popping into McDonalds at Forfar for a quick bite - never knew that the breakfast menu doesn't start till 5am! gutted! So carried on down to Newcastle - avoided the A1 like the plague and after the Edinburgh by-pass, I took the A68 - bit of a windy road but was deserted at silly-o'clock in the morning. Managed to reach AAS Exhausts in Newcastle at 7:50am.. so made good time from Aberdeen. First impression of Stuart's workshop were wow! lots of american hot rods in various state of repair, CNC machines, water jet machines (sorry don't know the fancy name for these), pipe bending machines haha you get the just! Stuart and I unloaded the bike into the workshop and had a bit of a chin-wag. He reckoned that about 4-5 hours should do it as setting up the machines took the time to make the various bends in the Titanium. They were to mock-up the "missing link pipe" in Stainless first, then essentially copy this in the Titanium. I decided that I was a bit knackered, so I went for a sleep in the van from around 8:20-11am! Woke up and had a sneak look back in the workshop and they were well on making the parts in the Ti. An old pal of mine had moved to Newcastle with his Doctor wife just a month ago - he used to work for me in Malaysia and hadn't seen him since I left Malaysia in 2007.. so I proceeded to head off to the Metro centre and meet him for lunch! Brilliant - the trip gets better haha.. (by the way.. that shopping centre is enormous!) Back from lunch about 2pm, and the guys were finished. One Titanium link pipe made and its a work of art! We fired her up and it sounded epic in the workshop.. can't wait to hear what she sounds like on the road. An interesting twist is that Stuart also is a distributor for an American Oil company - Royal Purple oils. I've personally never heard of them, but he is convinced that this brand are the real deal and that my bike would benefit from some of their products.. so you'll never guess, he only went and gave me (for free) a box with oil, filter and chain lube to take back up the road! what a super nice guy! Left Newcastle around 2:45pm, and made it home about 8pm. Slower going home (its uphill after all haha) mainly because of traffic I guess. Got the bike unloaded with the the Wife's help, then re-fuelled the van and dropped it off. Finally sat on my ass with a cuppa at 8:40pm - day done.. another adventure in the life of Kevin Giles hahaha...Brilliant! Some pics of the day, and a wee video of the sound this morning: Met Shukri for Lunch (his 'beard' is awesome haha) Freebies! Sunlight through the Garage side door! Bike photos (Excuse my wee bracket that holds the carbon exhaust cover on - its normally hidden): So the pipe goes from 50mm at the headers, to 60mm at the can.. its so well made you really have to look to see this! More photo's and the video to follow..
GREAT job that, respect to them, Ti can be a bitch to deal with and some make a big deal over it, looks like these people just get the job done, love the work, very tidy and as good as any factory would do! Nice! You've gone to the trouble and have come out with a special exhaust system that I know I'd be over the moon with! Worthy of a tweet too (hope thats ok)
