Graves exhaust for Suzuki GSX-R1000
This titanium Graves exhaust for our GSX-R1000 sat in its box while we conducted our literbike shootout and continued to gather dust when the big Suzuki was needed for Bike of the Year duty. But now that we've finally had a chance to mount up the beautiful pipe, we're kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner-it's a seriously nice piece.
The Graves pipe consists of an all-titanium 4-into-2-into-1 header section (that mounts with billet aluminum flanges) along with a small carbon-fiber canister. Weighing in at a paltry 7.8 pounds, the new system saves a whopping 20 pounds compared with the stock setup. While the aftermarket header weighs only slightly less than the stock titanium header section, past that point is where the big savings are. The stock underengine catalytic converter/boom box scales in at 7.2 pounds, while the left and right canisters are 6.9 and 8.4 pounds, respectively. All that is replaced with a straight pipe and single canister that weighs just a couple of pounds.
Installing the Graves exhaust was something of a chore, as the new GSX-R is quite cramped between the engine and radiator. Some tweaking was needed for everything to line up properly, and a couple of the springs gave out and lost their springiness when pulled for assembly. Finally, the provided instructions made no mention of the FI code caused by disconnecting the stock SET valve-as with most GSX-R models, a wire at the ECU must be snipped to disable the fault code.
Other than those details, however, the pipe is a work of art with clean welds, solid construction and a nice finish. It's a quality system when it comes to performance, too. On the dyno the new exhaust bumped our test bike's peak power by almost seven horsepower and peak torque by 2.5 ft-lb, with smoother curves than stock. Those hard numbers are backed up by performance on the track as well. The GSX-R has smoother power, pulls harder and runs nicer practically everywhere-and that's with no remapping of the ECU. As you'd expect from such a tiny canister, the pipe is plenty loud and will definitely put you in your neighbors' bad books should you ride on the street with it.
At $1899 the Graves exhaust is not cheap, but this is the full-on race-spec system with performance that easily matches the lofty price tag.
Graves Motorsports
(818) 902-1942
http://www.gravesport.com
RS Taichi Coolfit 2-Piece Inner Suit
Keeping yourself cool and dry beneath racing leathers or leather jacket/pants street gear during summer months, even with ventilated leather, is a tough task. Especially when you're riding hard-all that physical energy and concentration masks the amount of sweat your body generates until you slow down and find yourself in your own portable sauna. Many years ago wearing cotton garments underneath was the solution, because of cotton's ability to absorb perspiration. The only problem is that its evaporation rate isn't all that great. Then a little over a decade ago several Japanese racing-leather companies began equipping their riders with polyester-weave inner suits that were a major improvement for two reasons: The particular polyester weave's evaporation rate was far higher than cotton, and it allowed the riders to move even more freely inside their leathers. These nylon inner suits soon caught on everywhere, and now you see nearly every racer in World Championship Road Racing competition wearing an inner suit underneath his leathers.
RS Taichi is continually looking to develop and improve its products and has now released its latest-generation inner suit made from Technofine fabric. Technofine is a polyester yarn with a cross section shaped like a W rather than the single ropelike strand of conventional polyester. This multifaceted surface allows the Technofine fabric to hold far more water droplets, thereby contributing to the greater and quicker absorption of sweat. The additional surface gaps also allow more airflow than regular polyester, which increases its evaporative abilities. This means Technofine not only is able to wick moisture away from your body quicker to help keep you dry, but it also keeps you cooler and more comfortable.
The new NXU908 CoolFit inner suit is made up of two pieces (upper and lower) instead of the usual one-piece full suit. This is primarily because of the Technofine fabric's elasticity, which allows it to form and cling closely to your body so that it can work at its best; a one-piece suit would be too labor-intensive to remove. Nonetheless, a bit more care is required to get in and out of the suit's top and bottom so that you don't rip the fabric because of the close fit and elasticity. The separate upper portion allows you to wear it with a leather jacket on the street if desired.
Ordinarily you'd think that having polyester fabric so close to your skin would cause you to sweat more, but with the CoolFit suit the opposite is true: Once you start sweating you immediately begin feeling its cooling effects. We thought that the previous conventional polyester inner suits like RS Taichi's NXU903 Mawus worked very well at keeping you dry and cool, but the CoolFit takes it one step further, with a noticeably improved cooling/drying effect over the course of a race. We wore them in 90 degrees F and high humidity at Daytona recently and found the CoolFit to be highly effective at keeping our body temps in check while riding for 50-minute stints. Mobility underneath the leathers was just as easy as with conventional polyester inner suits.
The CoolFit retails for $127.95 and is available only in black in sizes S-XXL. Log onto http://www.rs-taichi.com to find your nearest dealer.
RS Taichi Inc.
http://www.rs-taichi.com