TSPicsPage

Drilling 2
Many thanks go to Ann and others who didn't stop
bugging / helpfully suggesting - that I do the drilling!

Please Note: I tried to document the whole process with pictures every so often for the record.

Day 1	Ok... After reading and reading about people drilling out their pipes and loving it, the peer pressure was getting to be too much... and I wanted a bigger, fatter, badder sound... Without it costing me an arm and a leg... It almost cost me an arm... but that's another story... Now...
	Lets start with a moody pic... I started a-la TracyK - Drilling around the backing plate. Trying to pry the outside end cover loose with a pair of pliers (as we see him do in his pictures).
	Here is a better picture, with the flash, I'll use that from now on. It was pretty dark in the garage at drilling time... I'm trying to pry loose that backing plate... Not doing too well at this point...
	OOOFF! After drilling till my arm was kinda worn out... The damn "outer cover" snapped off! It was welded onto the back of the pipe.
	Now... Here we see that Suzuki has made the pipe one solid piece... That backing plate was just welded on to make it look better. It's probably some anti heat/rust thing... We are never told these things are we? - Now you also can see the holes I drilled before... Drilling was so hard on my hand that I stopped drilling any more holes after making it through "outer cover". Even viking arms have their limits!
	Ok... Now I had no choice... I had to continue drilling into these holes... and keep drilling all around the pipe - or - until the middle section was loose. Phew! My poor arm! You might as well know that what kept me going was the thought that others had already done this... and I knew it could be done... So, thanks to you all!
	DAMMIT! That was DAMN hard... but somehow I had to persist! I'm a biker, man! In the words of my countryman, host of that show: Mastermind "I've started so I'll finish"... I bet his wife likes those words! - Ok, back to reality... FINALLY the damn inner core was loose. Now, using pliers it was time to see if I could get it out!
	... come on... just a little bit further... come on, you can do it... just a little bit further... The damn thing was a bit hard to pry loose... but twisting it a bit, and pulling, I was able to edge it out...
	...here she comes...
	... and out! Hey, it's pregnant! There's like a bulge around the perforated pipe inside. Now... I wonder what it's like INSIDE the pipe???
	...oh... It's a bit like that space ship, way back... You know the one I mean? ... What? You mean you were never abducted? No? Oh well... Nevermind then.
	...ok... It's like some kind of compartment... I wonder if the USA models are like this, too? This is the European model, after all... Anyway... I'm not going any further into the bottom pipe... I heard others had done it... but I'm playing it safe for now... Now I need to do the other one (the upper pipe)... but I'm not putting my arm through THAT again! No way! ;-)
Day 2	Right! I decided to get some pro toolz... speed up the process and save my arm... (elbow grease, etc. You get the general idea).
	Ok... Since I already had the holes, it was ideal for a "sting saw" (what do they call these things in English?) a "cross saw"? It's an electric saw normally used to cut wood in patterns... You can fit it with a metal cutting blade too... So that's what I did...
	Ok... I'm not going to claim to be a pro at doing this stuff... I even had the neighbours knocking on the garage door asking if I was ok, after hearing shouting and loud metal scraping and breaking noises... (basically me cursing and swearing!)... I broke a few blades in the process of sawing... and had to knock the blades back with a hammer, after they bent out of shape in all directions a few times...
	Wow... Getting this far only took me a few minutes! MAN, this is great... I was a whole evening getting this far with the other pipe... and even that was rather shabbily done by comparison! This one was going to be a neat little hole... Reminds me of... eh... No I better not go into what happened on my first date...
	bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ! Iron filing flying everywhere... Into my beard, into my hair... Sawing away without a care... ... and I put it here for you to share!
	... ok, now don't let this picture fool you... It took me HOURS of twisting and turning the damn thing, as well as sawing some more along the sides before this picture! The damn thing just wouldn't come out... Yeah, those would be the same hours I took to drill the thing out before... Still, my arm wasn't as badly abused as the previous day...
	Here she comes... Here she comes again... (Who is that by again?)
	Ok... I admit it doesn't look too good at this point... but the polishing and painting is left...
	Dum dee dum.. hmmm... Yep, it's looking better all the time... Man, it's a tough pipe on TheStone... TheStone! Hehe... Get it? ... Ok, enough with the jokes already! Anyway... After some polishing, the holes were round and smooth enough to paint... I vaccuum cleaded the pipes (to get the iron filings and stone dust out) before painting.
	Ok... All done cleaning... FOR NOW... You must understand... It was riding weather outside... and I hadn't ridden since last AUTUMN, man! I also couldn't WAIT to hear / see / ride the beast... I promise to polish off the rest later... but now I have to PAINT! I don't want no rusty pipe, man!
	... ok... ok... You can tell can't you? The garage door was open... The wind was calling my name... I didn't have time to paint the damn thing properly! So I slapped on some black high temperature paint... and I was OFF... Along the roads of the land... over the hills and far away... With badly painted pipe ends... Like anyone noticed!!! I'll do it later, man... :-)

+	The sound from the pipes is deeper. Especially in idle and slow rides. At fast rides you don't really notice it that much.
-	When I decelerate, now, I get that infamous backfire! It was present before I drilled... but much less loud... Now when I decelerate using the engine to break... I get a definite backfire... Not as loud as I used to get on my slashcut piped Honda Shadow... but a backfire all the same.