The Hodaka Club Forum

Anyone build or know someone who actually builds expansion chambers????????

LBM

The only ones that I know of are Jemco or Circle F. A friend of mine had Jemco make one up for his PE400,but I think he took the bike to them for that.

Thanks - I'll look them up.

LBM

I've read on this site that some of the industrious type will re-make expansion chambers for their bikes. What they do is get a pipe from another brand or model bike with spec's close to what they want/need and redo it to fit their project. As an example, I have heard of people putting Yamaha 125 pipes on their Super Combats and one person told me that the early 1980's Honda CR 80 pipes work well on the Hodaka Super Rat's. If you Google it, you can probably find reputable shops that can build you a pipe to whatever spec's you want. Strictly Hodaka has a pipe builder that makes all the Harry Taylor pipes, you might want to contact Paul and see who builds them for him.

Good Ideas - Thanks.

LBM

Starting line builds the pipes for Paul they are mainly into snowmobile stuff , Harry Taylor was employed by them as a consultant until he passed. I would count on them to do a one off single pipe since they are into production , that's why Paul take pre orders before he get pipes made .

Rich

I mean would not count on them to build one.

Rich

Thanks Rich and thanks for the measurement for the screw on slip fit adapter. 45mm overall, 36mm to the threads looks close enough to work.

I sent an email through the Circle F Pipe site - they listed pipes for Hodaka 100/125's. I'll wait awhile and if I don't get a response I'll call them and see what they have.

LBM

Not so good news about Circle T Pipes. Kevin from Circle T answered me and told me he had to shut the pipe building down due to fighting Colon Cancer.

If anyone knows him or even if you don't might be a good thing to send him some positive thoughts and a prayer or two .

LBM

Check my post "Need help identifying parts-please" and the are pictures of a Torque Engineering pipe on there. I still haven't
made time to see if it fits my Dirt Squirt. I'm reasonably sure it fits a Hodaka of some sort and could be made to fit most with
the pipe down the right side of the bike.

Doug

My Mistake - Kevins shop is Circle F pipes in Texas not Circle T.

There are some blueprints for building chambers here on SH and on HPI taken from legit PABATCO bulletins titled something like "Modifying the Ace 90 for MX, trals, road racing, etc. I discussed having one built for me by a local metal fabricating shop but went instead with a Torque Engineering pipe I had in the stash Hodaka Dave modified for me into a high right-side mount. I was under the impression that fabricating the pipe was no major undertaking for them. Now that you have me thinking about it again, I may have them build me one so that I can diddle around with different stinger lengths and head pipe lengths.

If you decide to do the new pipe I'd be interested in TE pipe especially if it is the Whispering smith pipe.
LBM

It is a TE "competition only" pipe and the exhaust note coming out of that reeded SR will peel the enamel right off your teeth if you are running behind me. Its my best chance of keeping the lead if I get the hole-shot . The only time that pipe leaves the bike is when I have to mount a chopped flame thrower with a Turbine Core II when it gets flagged at tech. I've had a few Whisperin Smith pipes over the years. I can check to see it I still have any in the stash. I'm always swapping this for that so I can't remember off the top what I still have. I know I have a Hooker high pipe as I just saw it a while back. I'll let you know if you are interested.

Yes - I'd be interested. If you do might be good idea to send me a PM.

Thanks -

LBM

For sure. The good news is that TE dirt bike pipes are fairly common - Whisperin Smith much more so that the Competition Only. As I understand it, the reason is two-fold. First, the Competition Only pipes were made of thinner material to save weight and so were more prone to crash damage as they were used almost exclusively for racing. They were also more likely to rust out. The Whisperin Smith was heavier, and had the more and more required USFS approved spark arrestor and were much quieter which was also an increasingly encountered tech requirement. Ergo, more Whisperin Smith pipes were make and more survived. I ran one on a Yamaha 100 and remember it as a good performance pipe.

Many years ago we had a handy guy who hung around the shop. He was an Autobody guy and laced wheels and built pipes for our racing effort. He also went to the races to pit and change tires or modify things on the spot. Extra talented fab-wise. We would design the pipes from known formulas and a local sheet metal shop would cut and roll the cones. He would then weld and fit all of this. Amazing, but not impossible.

During the building of the Day One project I mocked up a weird header pipe and took it all to a local Hot Rod/Exhaust guy who whipped it all together. After observing this guys work I think my next project is to design and mock up, perhaps just with tape and card stock, a new pipe. My point here is that this is all possible not by me but by competent local trade people. Even though this would be a challenging project I see no reason it can't be done. My armchair optimism aside at least it's something to consider. Sounds easy, huh?

Max

We in the day had a local high school kid that built chambers for every one. I have many old chambers including a left side pipe and a low pipe with twin stingers. -------Clarence

Right-o fellas. I recontacted my local metal shop friend for a more in depth discussion and this type of work is right up his alley. "You design it, I'll fab it" was the final response. Ya gotta love real craftsmen (and women - his daughter runs rings around him by report).