Delkevic Slip on Review

[Ed Ramberger]

2 summers ago I bought Delkevic slip n's for my 1989 FJ1200.  The pipes they used to connect the mufflers to the FJ collector were not bent at the correct angles and the mufflers were impossible to mount.  Also the natal was VERY thin.  Delvevic was awesome about refunding my money and I have no complaints about their service.  THis makes me wonder if I just got a bad set or if they have changed something.

I think you'll find there are many members who have Delkevic slip ons that are very happy with them, myself included. This very topic has just been discussed again recently. The mid pipes do require a bit of fiddling though but can be made to work. My solution wast to swap the L&R pipes over.

Yes, the casing is thin, but it's SS, it doesn't need to be thick because it's strong and it won't rust. Unless you plan on hitting something with them, it shouldn't matter. It's not an indicator of poor quality.

Mine have around 60k-70k on them now and still look as good as the day I fitted them and I love the exhaust note. They have hit the road a number of times with no loosening or distortion and I have dropped it on both sides without dents or scratches.

I reckon they're great and particularly good value for the money.

Noel

Thanks - I swapped the pipes side to side, rotated them, rotated the mufflers - about the only thing I didn't do was rub them with a bloody chicken food while reciting voodoo chants.  Something was absolutely wrong.  Like I said they were great about the return.  I sent them an email tonight to see about trying this once more. 

[ribbert]

2 summers ago I bought Delkevic slip n's for my 1989 FJ1200.  The pipes they used to connect the mufflers to the FJ collector were not bent at the correct angles and the mufflers were impossible to mount.  Also the natal was VERY thin.  Delvevic was awesome about refunding my money and I have no complaints about their service.  THis makes me wonder if I just got a bad set or if they have changed something.

I think you'll find there are many members who have Delkevic slip ons that are very happy with them, myself included. This very topic has just been discussed again recently. The mid pipes do require a bit of fiddling though but can be made to work. My solution wast to swap the L&R pipes over.

Yes, the casing is thin, but it's SS, it doesn't need to be thick because it's strong and it won't rust. Unless you plan on hitting something with them, it shouldn't matter. It's not an indicator of poor quality.

Mine have around 60k-70k on them now and still look as good as the day I fitted them and I love the exhaust note. They have hit the road a number of times with no loosening or distortion and I have dropped it on both sides without dents or scratches.

I reckon they're great and particularly good value for the money.

Noel

Thanks - I swapped the pipes side to side, rotated them, rotated the mufflers - about the only thing I didn't do was rub them with a bloody chicken food while reciting voodoo chants.  Something was absolutely wrong.  Like I said they were great about the return.  I sent them an email tonight to see about trying this once more. 

You'd reckon with the users just on this forum they would make mid pipes to suit the FJ, they wouldn't have to sell too many to break even.

I bought mine about a 1 month old on ebay. They came with mid pipes the guy had made up at an exhaust shop. Perfect fit, leave the centre stand on (even had the stand stop on the LH pipe.
Being impatient, I fitted the system with the FJR/XJR (whatever pipes Delkevic send with them) while I had the custom pipes chromed.
That was 4 or 5 year ago and I've never seen those pipes since, they disappeared into a black hole somewhere in my garage.

Hope you get it sorted, they look great and you'll love the sound.

Noel

[aussiefj]

I bought a full Delkevic system about 12 months ago for my '93 FJ from ebay Australia, they were advertised as fitting '92 to '96 models (I see they still are) i.e. the rubber-mounted engine models. I also had fitting problems due to the connector pipes. The down pipes and collector box were fine, but the connector pipes were too long and I couldn't get the mufflers to mount up to the mounting point behind the footrest plate even with every thing pushed as far forward as it would go. I didn't want to use the footrest mount because I thought there might be vibration issues. I emailed the seller and to be fair he tried to do as much as he could including offering a full refund and passing photos between me and the factory, the ones that are posted here. The factory were supposed to be looking into the problem but apparently couldn't find a late model FJ to take measurements. I was told I would be sent new connector pipes as soon as the problem was solved, which hasn't happened yet 12 months later. As they are still being advertised for these models either the problem still exists or it has been fixed and I was never sent the new connector pipes.
Anyway I decided to play with what I had and cut the pipes down about 20mm either end, as much as I could take off while still leaving enough straight section to mount the mufflers and collector box to, and re-cut the slots in the collector end so they would still clamp up tight, this was all done with an angle grinder so isn't very pretty. This moves the mufflers forward enough to be able to use the original mounting point, another 15mm shorter would have been ideal that would have brought the end of the muffler just under the angle in the footrest plate and I think would look a bit better and moved the muffler bracket a bit further along the muffler. I thought there might be a problem with the mufflers over hanging the brackets as much as they do but I think because they are quite light this hasn't been issue at all.
I couldn't get the cover plates to fit on the collector box because the chin fairing brackets interfere as someone has already said and the plates also now foul on the shortened collector pipes because they bend straight out of the collector box. These are not really needed on the FJ if the chin fairing is fitted anyway and are only a cosmetic feature to tidy up the collector box, which I think points to the fact this system was designed for the XJR not the FJ, and nobody at the factory has bothered to try fitting it up to a late model FJ. Unfortunately my chin fairing has cracked and needs major repairs, so this area looks a bit messy on mine.
Another clue that this system has never been fitted to an FJ at the factory is that the centre stand stop is nowhere near where it should. Others have also had issues with the centre stand, mine retracts fully, again maybe due to the modified pipes, but I have had to wrap rubber around the stand so that the bottom of the dogbone acts as the stop, the best solution I've come up with so far anyway. I could get a new one welded on and cut the original one off but I still live in hope that on day the factory will send me the proper pipes. WTF,  that was either a very large bird or a pig just went past the window.
So all in all, it would be a first class system at a very good price if only the factory would listen to it's customers and fix the link pipes to suit the FJ, not a great expense I would have thought, but I guess there are too few of us overall to matter.

John

[ribbert]

So all in all, it would be a first class system at a very good price if only the factory would listen to it's customers and fix the link pipes to suit the FJ, not a great expense I would have thought, but I guess there are too few of us overall to matter.

John

I feel your pain John and as I said earlier, it would not be much of an investment on their part to make intermediate pipes to suit the FJ. I didn't realise they were advertising them as suitable for the FJ.
4000 members on this forum alone, goodness knows how many worldwide. I would have thought it was worth their while to tap that market. The silly part is, they make headers and collectors already which are FJ specific.

I wouldn't worry too much about the overhang aft of the bracket, mine have been like this for years, corrugations, dirt roads, roads with pot holes that knock the breath out you. I have had no problem with the bracket there. I originally had the same concern but it's not an issue.



These are mine with about 60,000kms on them

I also prefer where the muffler sits in relation to the bike with the bracket there.

It's a shame they can't/won't fix it up, they are very good value for money and there's a lot of FJ's out there.

Noel

[aussiefj]

Hi Noel, looks good for 60,000 k's mate, there are definitely no issues with quality. I emailed the company last night re the problem mentioning this thread to try and stir the pot a bit so we will see if they respond.

John

[Ed Ramberger]

2 summers ago I bought Delkevic slip n's for my 1989 FJ1200.  The pipes they used to connect the mufflers to the FJ collector were not bent at the correct angles and the mufflers were impossible to mount.  Also the natal was VERY thin.  Delvevic was awesome about refunding my money and I have no complaints about their service.  THis makes me wonder if I just got a bad set or if they have changed something.

I think you'll find there are many members who have Delkevic slip ons that are very happy with them, myself included. This very topic has just been discussed again recently. The mid pipes do require a bit of fiddling though but can be made to work. My solution wast to swap the L&R pipes over.

Yes, the casing is thin, but it's SS, it doesn't need to be thick because it's strong and it won't rust. Unless you plan on hitting something with them, it shouldn't matter. It's not an indicator of poor quality.

Mine have around 60k-70k on them now and still look as good as the day I fitted them and I love the exhaust note. They have hit the road a number of times with no loosening or distortion and I have dropped it on both sides without dents or scratches.

I reckon they're great and particularly good value for the money.

Noel

Well I sent Delkevic customer service a nice note saying I would again like to try their mufflers. I gave them my old info and explained I had never received info on why it didn't fit. I never heard a peep back. Perhaps they are so buyt they don't need my $400.00

[aussiefj]

Hi Ed,
I've found the same thing I emailed Delkevic 10 days ago, as I said in my earlier post, and have heard nothing back obviously they don't give a crap about customer service, which is a pity because their agent in Oz (Delkevic.au) has bent over backwards to try and help out. When I first had the problem he offered a full refund etc. straight away, but I decided to play around with them and send him photos to pass onto the factory to see if we could sort it out. After about 3 weeks the best Delkevic could come up with is that they couldn't find a late model FJ to have a look at. By that time I had managed to to get it to fit, although the centre stand stop is useless, as shown in my photos.
When this topic came up and I emailed Delkevic I also emailed their Aussie agent at the same time to see if he had heard anything from the factory, he hasn't but he sent me another set of link pipes to see if they were any better, 3CV ones, the centre stand stop was closer but still not correct.
If Delkevic would put in the same effort as their agents they would have a first class product, as it is it's let down by seemingly non existent after sales service from the company itself. It's obviously not worth their time to reply to a member of a forum that has over 4000 potential customers.
I should have been a bit more patient in the first place and waited till Randy at RPM had his system on the market, but it's easy to be wise after the fact.

John.

[bikemad]

At the end of this discussion I'm unsure if a set of Delkevic slip-ons is a straight fit on a 88 model 3cv?

Can anybody set me right?

Cheers Ian.

[Bozo]

At the end of this discussion I'm unsure if a set of Delkevic slip-ons is a straight fit on a 88 model 3cv?

Can anybody set me right?

Cheers Ian.

Ian my Delkevic collector did not fit well, on my 3CV 1989 model when I tried it two years ago, the heat shields would not fit as well. I did use it eventually but later I decided a new pipe was the way to go and to be honest that was the best decision. I still have the collector if you want to see if it works before you buy one, I'm in Perth, PM me.
John

[billwest]

I have the collector and the mid-size mufflers on mine ('92 3XW), fit without a hitch.  Look and sound excellent.  I find it runs better with the db killers in.
The collector fitting point, where it hangs off the engine, broke, and I had to re-weld it.

Bill.

[Troyskie]

Most of the posts re this seem to be based the fit to a 1200.
Here's a quick summary of fitting off to an 84 1100.
I contacted Delkevic about it and was advised the mid pipes would need modification, but collector and headers should be ok.
This was true, header & collector fitted without a problem.
Mid pipes did require adjustment. I'm crap at that, so off to the local (car) muffler mob for them to do it nice & neat.
Fit off was super easy.
I needed to make a bracket to extend from the proper footpeg muffler mounting point to the strapping bracket on the mufflers.
All very simple.
The next part has been quite interesting.
Below is a chart of several dyno runs combined. This was with Yamaha OEM mufflers on, then Delkevics with DB bungs out, and Finally with DB bungs in.
The bike is essentially mechanically unmodified with factory standard jetting, gearing, etc and with either 70k or 170k on the clock.
First run with OEM mufflers we got to just over 100 horses with just over 65 foot pounds on the torque.
Second run with Delkevic mufflers on, but the DB bungs removed, we made 108 horses and just under 70 foot pounds of torque.
Third run with the DB bungs in, was almost the same with fractionally better torque.
To conclude, the Delkevics weigh far less than the OEM. They do add about 8% power. DB bungs in or out your choice, they make no performance difference. Downside is extra effort/cost/hassle getting the mid pipes to fit.
Overall, probably worth doing & pretty good value for money.
One last point, off the Delkevic topic, the mysterious rev limiter....as you can see in the chart mine kicks in at 10k, but, quite interestingly, the tacho on the bike kept moving up to 12k on every run. None of the other bikes had a rev limiter (we've done about 5 other FJ's on this particular dyno now).

[bikemad]

Lots of good info there and 8bhp and 5ft lbs of torque are not to be sneezed at(and probably half the weight)!!
Was it a lot louder with the db killers removed?

I know with a Yoshi pipe I had fitted to a Yamaha FZ1(2003 model that was jetted up to suit) that it ran better with the db killer fitted.
The bike did not surge on part throttle.

Cheers Ian.

[Troyskie]

G'day Ian, not much change from my ear. A little nicer note perhaps, sure a tad louder, but not much. One comment was (without the bungs) it sounded a little 'droney', but that was in the dyno booth.
My personal preference is bungs in, seems to sound a bit throatier (I love deep throats ). But my opinion varies by day.
The bungs are so easy to remove that you can likely suit your mood.

[ribbert]

G'day Ian, not much change from my ear. A little nicer note perhaps, sure a tad louder, but not much. One comment was (without the bungs) it sounded a little 'droney', but that was in the dyno booth.
My personal preference is bungs in, seems to sound a bit throatier (I love deep throats ). But my opinion varies by day.
The bungs are so easy to remove that you can likely suit your mood.

Troy, it takes quite a while for them to "find their voice"  Having done so, the noise level then remains consistent. My note changed in tone (better) and got a little louder probably up to the first 10k then remained the same ever since.

I also couldn't decide on baffles in/out and kept changing them but over time the decision was made for me with it becoming too loud with them out. Full throttle and high revs was just plain too noisy, and attracted too much attention.

I love the sound of them now, perfect!

I also like the period look of them, no muffler on the LHS never looks quite right to me.

Noel

[MOTOMYSZOR]

My 350 mm Delkevic arrived today.  
Now I have to wait for better weather. For whole week pouring rain outside....