Stucchi / Staintune

[Guest philbo]

I've got a quick question - after much scrimping and saving, I finally got a new Staintune exhaust, a Stucchi crossover and FBF air box mod. I spent about 4 hours last Saturday getting the Stucchi installed with the stock exhaust. I’ve heard that it takes a bit to get it installed so I wasn’t too bothered but yesterday when I went to install the Staintunes (another hour and a half) I had a hell of a time getting them on. Now that its al hooked up, the pipes are at different heights looking from the back.

 

To say I’m a little disappointed would be an understatement after spending ~$1200 on this. It sounds great, runs well but looks like crap.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar problems or do I just have a malformed Stucchi?

 

Thanks

[Guest ratchethack]

Phil, here's my reply post to Søren from a few months back on this. Looks like you may have missed it:

 

Jan 18 2005, 07:54 PM Post #17

 

Søren, a few comments on the Stucchi crossover. Sorry in advance for the long-winded post, but if I were you, I think I'd be interested in all the details.

 

I have 11K miles on mine. I chose the Stucchi because of the credibility of the dyno run comparo's available at the time I bought it. They were done by Doug Lofgren, as Dave noted above. Stucchi provides their own dyno chart, which of course looks impressive. But as always, you gotta trust, but verify! In my case, my seat-of-the-pants evaluation lined up well with both Doug's dyno pulls and the Stucchi torque chart, and I was very happy with the midrange torque gain. It smooths-over the infamous "hole" in the "as delivered" stock torque curve that starts about 4500 RPM, and gives a few smaller improvements higher and lower in the rev range. VERY nice with a PC III and FBF oval carbons!

 

Now here comes the trade-off. The pipe I received appeared to be of high quality stainless, and the welds were impeccable. However, their QC evidently doesn't include a check of the finished piece in one semi-critical dimension. In my case, the pipe would not sit flat on my workbench, having a significant "twist" about it's longitudinal axis. From reading other posts on this, this can be (but evidently is not always) typical with the Stucchi crossovers. It could have been a problem with the fabricator's setup jig, and for all I know they've fixed this by now. But at least in my case, it threw a significant hitch into what would have been and should have been a fairly straightforward installation. Of course, having my exhaust apart at the time (in perfect riding weather!), and not wanting to wait for a 2-way shipping cycle and take another chance on another mis-aligned pipe, I went to work with my angle grinder, sawzall, and files, and made it fit. I considered "straightening" it, but decided the risks involved with attempting this more than offset the potential gain.

 

You expect some tweaking to fit any aftermarket pipe, but I considered this over the top. I wound up having to shorten the right-hand stock header by about 15mm (as I recall), grinding reliefs in both sides of the crossover hanger bracket, and fabricating all-new muffler plate brackets on both sides to get everything to line up properly without undue stress, while at the same time allowing enough clearance everywhere for heat expansion so there would be no contact with the sump, the hanger bracket, and the brake linkage. It took about a dozen re-fits with grinding in between to get it so that the exits to the mufflers ended up in the same horizontal plane. It's not immediately noticeable, but if you take a close look at my bike from a certain angle, you can see that the mufflers themselves are angled slightly differently. There was a small side benefit to all the finagling - the mufflers now appear to be more equally spaced from centerline than as shipped in stock trim from Mandello.

 

So yeah, in the end, because of the performance gains, I'm actually very pleased with the overall result, and it has stood up well for 11K miles now. But I'm unable to give a recommendation for the Stucchi without a significant caveat - unless you get a "straight" one, fitting one can be an unplanned test of both your patience and your prowess with a pile of tools that you may not have access to.

 

If you decide to go forward with the Stucchi, I'd recommend that you ask your supplier to check it for you before shipping. If this isn't possible, allow enough lead-time so you can reject anything they send you that measures over ~10mm under the "free" corner of the pipe when laid upside-down on a flat surface. If you get one within an acceptable range, I think you'd be very pleased.

 

Good luck!

[jrt]

I had a similar experience (albeit with Mistral pipes). I used a spacer and longer bolt on one side of the exhaust hangers- moved the exhaust out about 1/2 inch. It allowed the exhaust to be more level, and frankly I can't tell that there is a spacer there. Not much help, but it's what I did.

J

[Guest DanielCooper]

The Stucchi/Staintune set up on mine was not nearly so difficult--maybe they have gotten better on QC. It took some twisting and banging, but everything eventually lined up. One of the cans has a slight twist when viewed from the rear, but unless someone pointed it out, it would be very difficult to notice. And the bike does seem to run better.

[Guest philbo]

The Stucchi/Staintune set up on mine was not nearly so difficult--maybe they have gotten better on QC. It took some twisting and banging, but everything eventually lined up. One of the cans has a slight twist when viewed from the rear, but unless someone pointed it out, it would be very difficult to notice. And the bike does seem to run better.

51528[/snapback]

 

I just spoke to MG Cycle and they said they'd send me another one - the guy was great so I'll see what happens ...

[rossoct]

I just spoke to MG Cycle and they said they'd send me another one - the guy was great so I'll see what happens ...

51539[/snapback]

THE GUYS AT MG CYCLE ARE REALLY GREAT TO DEAL WITH. THE STUCCHI X-OVER I GOT FIT FINE ON THE LEFT SIDE BUT THE GUYS AT STUCCHI MUST HAVE GONE OUT FOR THE THREE MARTINI LUNCH! THE RIGHT SIDE ANGLED OUT THREE OR MORE INCHES FROM THE EXHAUST BRACKET,A LITTLE MUSCLE AND I GOT IT TO FIT .IN THE YEAR SINCE INSTALLING THE HEAT FROM THE PIPES BASICALLY STRESS RELEIVED THE X-OVER.GOOD LUCK,I WOULD HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU SEE JOHN T @ DYNO SOLUTIONS AND TWEAK WITH A POWER COMMANDER.HE MADE MY ROSSO RUN LIKE A BEAR! THAT DIP @ 4K GONE WITH A SIX HORSEPOWER GAIN THERE,THE BIKE IS MUCH MORE RIDEABLE NO HESITATION OR ANY HICCUPS AT ALL JUST A FLAT OUT RUNNER. YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED!SEE YOU @ MARCUS

[Guest philbo]

THE GUYS AT MG CYCLE ARE REALLY GREAT TO DEAL WITH. THE STUCCHI X-OVER I GOT FIT FINE ON THE LEFT SIDE BUT THE GUYS AT STUCCHI MUST HAVE GONE OUT FOR THE THREE MARTINI LUNCH! THE RIGHT SIDE ANGLED OUT THREE OR MORE INCHES FROM THE EXHAUST BRACKET,A LITTLE MUSCLE AND I GOT IT TO FIT .IN THE YEAR SINCE INSTALLING THE HEAT FROM THE PIPES BASICALLY STRESS RELEIVED THE X-OVER.GOOD LUCK,I WOULD HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU SEE JOHN T @ DYNO SOLUTIONS AND TWEAK WITH A POWER COMMANDER.HE MADE MY ROSSO RUN LIKE A BEAR! THAT DIP @ 4K GONE WITH A SIX HORSEPOWER GAIN THERE,THE BIKE IS MUCH MORE RIDEABLE NO HESITATION OR ANY HICCUPS AT ALL JUST A FLAT OUT RUNNER. YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED!SEE YOU @ MARCUS

51586[/snapback]

 

John has a track day at Laconia Monday but I plan on seeing him during the week. I'll see you at Marcus tommorow.

 

Cheers

[Guest ckamin]

I must've gotten lucky with the crossover, as my M4 oval mufler tips were on the same parrallel plane. However, the oval mufflers themselves were not perpendicular to the ground. As viewed from behind, the ovals were not straight up and down. Instead of using washers/spacers to "twist" the muflers and make it look right, I just took the brackets off and bent them (with the help of a torch!) and it lined everything up right.

 

Good luck!

[stormsedge]

My Stucchi didn't fit very well either...used the stock cans, and have held off buying FbF cans for fear of a worse fit. k

[belfastguzzi]

 

I've just got the bke together again, with new (slightly shortened!) Stucchi and the MG Ti cans. The sound is a LOT different and I consider it quite loud. I thought people were saying that the MG Ti cans weren't really much louder than stock? I guess they're not so loud with the stock x-over, but with the big open Stucchi (and half-lidless airbox K&N) the sound really thumps.

 

BTW I have the silencer straps 4 inches along the can and the set-up is quite solid like that, not wobbly as was reported a short while ago. I guess the wobbly silencers have the bands fitted closer to the front of the cans?

[al_roethlisberger]

I just made sure to request from MG Cycle that they check their stock for the "straightest" Stucchi they had, by placing on a flat surface.... before sending me one.

 

The one I received was pretty darned good

 

al

[Guest philbo]

I just made sure to request from MG Cycle that they check their stock for the "straightest" Stucchi they had, by placing on a flat surface.... before sending me one.

 

The one I received was pretty darned good 

 

al

51776[/snapback]

 

After another six hours work on Saturday (and a quick trip to the local muffler shop), I finally got it starightened out but looking at the bike from the back, the left pipe is 3/4" lower than the right - just enough to be annoying when you look at it. I can see why the QUAT D might be a better option. I guess I'll just keep working on it until I get it right - every day is an adventure and every pay check is a fortune.

 

What do you want to trade for the stock cans? ... I know you mentioned once before that you'd like some to chop up.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

[Baldini]

...I wound up having to shorten the right-hand stock header by about 15mm (as I recall), grinding reliefs in both sides of the crossover hanger bracket, and fabricating all-new muffler plate brackets on both sides to get everything to line up properly without undue stress, while at the same time allowing enough clearance everywhere for heat expansion so there...

 

Ratchethack,

 

I'm having same problems. Sounds like you solved it by fitting the xover slightly skewed from the bike centreline...you pushed the right front of crossover further up the header, left front further back so bringing rear of xover over to right. Hence you move right can further out & left can in. Correct? Left can will then be further back than right - did you also shorten left xover exit pipe to push can further on to it?

 

Thanks, KB

[belfastguzzi]

Ratchethack,

 

I'm having same problems. Sounds like you solved it by fitting the xover slightly skewed from the bike centreline...you pushed the right front of crossover further up the header, left front further back so bringing rear of xover over to right. Hence you move right can further out & left can in. Correct? Left can will then be further back than right - did you also shorten left xover exit pipe to push can further on to it?

 

Thanks, KB

52250[/snapback]

And of course the right can, while aligned with the left, ends up a lot futher out from the bike than the left does. I don't think that there's a perfect answer.

[Guest ratchethack]

Ratchethack,

 

I'm having same problems. Sounds like you solved it by fitting the xover slightly skewed from the bike centreline...you pushed the right front of crossover further up the header, left front further back so bringing rear of xover over to right. Hence you move right can further out & left can in. Correct? Left can will then be further back than right - did you also shorten left xover exit pipe to push can further on to it?

 

Thanks, KB

52250[/snapback]

Keith, that's right. Or should I head off any confusion at the pass here and say, "correct"! But to your question on the left can being further back - I think I did wind up shortening the left-hand exit end of my crossover. But considering the number of trade-offs I was juggling to get everything firmly hung and solid as designed - AND looking correct at the same time, the fore-aft position of the cans got trumped. Getting the exits to the cans in the same horizontal plane and equidistant from centerline were at the top of the priority list.

 

Belfast's comment is spot-on. There's no perfection to be chased after too closely in this little excursion. But mostly I think because I fabricated all-new muffler plates to custom-locate each can, in my case it would take a very critical eye and a pretty close examination to see that the whole thing isn't exactly right.

 

I'd say just take your time, make a few more piles of stainless filings if you have to, and use your best 3-D imagination and balancing ability. Unless you got a very bad pipe (I'd say mine was only moderately bad) you should wind up with a good result - just keep after it, and don't cut until you're certain first!

 

Good luck!

 

Ratchethack