Talk about a catastrophic failure! I must confess I am baffled (pun intended) it does not seem so hard to modify that part of the exhaust design to prevent that problem from happening. I guess FMF is indeed no longer what they used to be. The behavior of their customer support definitely tends to confirm that.

We are now keeping a very close eye on both our FMF exhausts, newer and older generation and will probably get them welded as soon as we come across a TIG. We'll see how that works.

Otherwise, what would be a better alternative? It seems all the aftermarket exhausts for DRs are designed the same way, maybe with the exception of the very expensive Staintune.

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wolfandzebra.com

It's really good to know you guys are NOT wasting your time scouring the BIG DR thread over on ADV Rider!

Here's the thing with the FMF: That pipe is designed to allow re-packing. So it comes apart. But because of that ... it is sort of weak and the rivets loosen up and eventually fail. I've seen this not only on my bike (and on Jay's shown in pic above) but on several riding buddies bikes. (Big KTM 950's) All those guys have seriously sworn off FMF.

Have it welded up! You don't need the internal packing .. does nothing anyway! (useless!) So get a good MIG or TIG guy to do a neat job on it. Should be fine after that and last the trip.

Alternative pipes? there is ONE good alternative available:
It's the Titanium Can from a Suzuki GSXR 1000. Couple it with a mid pipe from Jesse (Keintech) and now you've got a an OEM quality Ti Can that will out last the bike! DR forum threads have lots of info on this GSXR can. I bought one for $50 .(more expensive now) but can still be found cheap. The Mid pipe is the part that hurts ... it goes for about $225 from Jesse.
DR650ProdList.htm

The GSXR can is a lot lighter weight than stock muffler ... but not as light as you FMF. No big deal really. It's also fairly quiet. (quieter than FMF Q4)

GSXR Titanium can on DR650

For future reference: Pro Cycle has an ALL NEW pipe in development. Looks to be very nice. Should be for sale in 6 months or less. He is Beta testing now ... and who knows? If you ask, he may send you a FREE pipe to test on your trip! (it's long term testing that he needs to do!)

New 'maintenance free' exhaust from ProCycle - no repacking : General DR650 Discussion

Good luck, hope you get things welded up before the whole thing falls apart!

Good luck!!! We just finished riding from Inuvik to Ushuaia and back up to La falda currently. We will be in Vancouver June to November, but we will be back in Argentina and Brazil after that. If you want any info or advice give us a shout.

Daniel & Sara

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Sara

Those who say something is impossible should not hinder those who are achieving it!





www.worldwideride.ca

HU RR Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride

Wow, that's an impressive ride, congrats! Thanks for offering help, at this point our biggest challenge is to find trails fun enough for the Wolf and easy enough for the Zebra. We are considering the road to Tolatongo via Nicolas Flores in Mexico, or the Tikal / Uaxactun / El Zotz / Cruce Dos Aguagas in Guatemala.

Would love to get more ideas, tracks like these.

Thanks!

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wolfandzebra.com

Hey Folks,

We are finally getting ahead of the ball and have found time to plan a bit better our next few weeks of riding.
Overall there seems to be several long stretch of boring highway that can't really be avoided. We would however like the get your feedback on the following itinerary:
- San Miguel de Allende / Tolantongo
we found a seemingly interesting detour thru Nuevo Rancho lake and Nicolas Flores, a tiny town in the mountains. Any thoughts

- Tolantongo - Mexico City
Just trying to get into town quickly

- Mexico City - Puebla
We might try to shoot past Puebla in order to cover a bit more ground. We are told Puebla is not really worth a stop after Mexico City

- Puebla - Oaxaca
Oaxaca is apparently not to be missed. We are considering a detour via Tuxtepec to the north just to drive thru the mountains.

- Oaxaca - Salina Cruz
Heading to famous San Christobal de Las Casas, taking a break midway for a bit of camping on the beach near Salina Cruz. Playa Brazil seems like a good spot.

- Salina Cruz - Canyon de Sumidero
Nice views from the park before San Chritobal

- San Christobal - Palenque
Visit of the ruins before heading into Guatemala via El Ceibo.

Love to hear your guys thoughts? Any bit of Off-road we should give a shot to on our way?

Cheers

http://goo.gl/maps/p0bok

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wolfandzebra.com

LOL, right, there are those who read threads and those who ride bikes in South America Joke aside we did spent time collecting info but there is just so much out there. We knew about the Kientech mid-pipe + gix muffler but shied away from it just because of the size of the gix muffler. The funny thing is we used to own a couple of gix and ended up giving away the stock muffler after we sold the bikes.
The procycle model looks very promising, we'll keep it in mind if our FMF completely crap out...if they ship to Panama or wherever we are when that happens
Thanks for the all the info, we really appreciate you would condense 50 pages of thread for us

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wolfandzebra.com