TECH INSPECTION
Runnin’ With the Devil!
Author: K3 Chris Onwiler
We install a Devil titanium full-race exhaust
 In the sportbike world, gold and platinum are passé. The jewelry that we crave is crafted from titanium and carbon fiber. These exotic materials save weight, which is the enemy of low lap times. If our high-tech adornments can add horsepower as well, so much the better!
Devil is a French company that manufactures slip-ons and full exhaust systems for sportbikes. While Devil has been in business since 1966, they have only recently begun exporting their products to America. Devil pipes have graced racing machines in the European, World and GP arenas, as well as many a project bike in the European mags. Now American Devil worshipers can at last possess these wicked instruments of infernal… um, internal combustion. Puns aside, we were blown away when our test system arrived. Raw titanium has a very distinct smell, which is metallic but at the same time reminiscent of plain, unscented lye soap. This odor wafted from the boxes as we opened them, priming our anticipation before we’d even seen the parts. Lifting away the protective foam, we glimpsed a tangle of grey metal snakes, ringed with beautifully laid rainbows of color at every weld. Removing each piece from the boxes, we marveled at how exquisitely light they were. Next, we unpacked the carbon fiber silencer, which was as perfectly formed as any C/F part we’ve ever seen. Finally, we found the bag of springs and bolts that hold the system together. This crude but necessary hardware was made from lowly steel and seemed vile to the touch after handling the magic tubes and muffler. According to our totally trustworthy Wal-Mart bathroom scale, the stock exhaust system from our 2006 GSXR600 test bike weighed over 26 pounds. The svelte Devil weighed in at just over nine pounds, with the hardware kit accounting for almost a quarter of the total! The shipping weight of the three packages we’d received was twenty pounds, so we can actually say that the exhaust weighs less than the boxes it came in. Devil doesn’t make an exhaust for the 2006-2007 GSXR600, so the system that we were installing was intended for the 2008-2009 bike. When the 08 models were first released, no one was making exhausts for them yet and racers quickly figured out that the 06-07 system fit perfectly. By reverse logic, we figured that this meant the later system would work on the earlier bike as well. Devil researched and confirmed this, so we headed to the shop for some wrench bending.
|