Posted by George on May 17, 2000 at 21:42:26:
The Raask drag pipe arrived from Sweden on Monday, about a week after Raask received my money. The pipe has a straight-cut end and attaches to the Savage's frame by one bolt which you put through the frame and into the pipe -- from the installer's perspective, a much better design than the stock or SuperTrapp pipes use. At the cylinder, the fit was different from that of the stock headpipe because of the weld just inside the Raask pipe; it wouldn't go into the opening as far as the stock pipe did. I carefully tightened the two bolts on the holding bracket, and the connection seems good.
There's a removable baffle inside the pipe. It's made of three perforated disks, a few inches apart, attached to a metal rod. A screw holds the baffle. The only instructions that come with the pipe warn that the screw has been set with LockTite and that if you remove the screw, you must reset it. Of course, to get the holding bracket over the pipe, you must remove the screw, so have some LockTite handy. I haven't bought any yet, so I have to tighten that screw every morning until I get the stuff.
The pipe looks great and sounds good, too. I had been running a SuperTrapp with five discs installed; the Raask pipe is definitely louder than that was, but only when the throttle is not closed. Unlike the SuperTrapp, the Raask allows very little sound to escape when the bike is decelerating. Another difference is that the Raask pipe has a deeper sound. I prefer this sound to that of the SuperTrapp.
There is a small metallic rattle in the pipe after it heats up, but maybe I've created that by too much tightening of the baffle screw -- perhaps I broke the connector loose inside. Whatever the reason for it, the rattle is not bothersome; in fact, this pipe rattles less than the SuperTrapp, which somehow didn't have enough packing around the core, did.
As for performance, there's been quite a change -- most of it welcome. The motor seems not to work as hard now. I can wind the gears out so far that I'm thinking of getting a tach to be safe. Some torque is lost in the low and middle ranges, and backfiring, which is quite loud now, has increased. This weekend, my dealer will be making the carb modifications described in Bruce Clark's review, so I expect the low and middle range performance, as well as the backfiring problem, to improve after that. I'll try to report on the effects of the carb mods next week.
As I reported earlier, Sivert Raask told me that he has only about four of these pipes in stock. If you buy one after reading this, tell him I sent you!