Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Royal enfield forum High Level Pipes

Recently Unclechop posted a photo of a J2 which has high level pipes:


My 1938 JF has these same high level pipes, and although (because?) they are the originals, they would do well to be replaced.

Does anyone know of a maker who is reproducing these pipes, or one who would be willing to use my pipes as patterns for making reproductions?

...gREgg

HI Greg,
Im going to attempt to make a set but....
They will be limited to the radii that are available from the supplier.
And being 1 3/4 and I will make mine out of ss mandrel bends
Im not sure if they will look as good as the ones on the JF
Im in love with these

Those are the pipes all right. They look great, especially with fish tail silencers.

...gREgg

Uncle Chop,I don't know what experience you have with fabbing using U bends but I've done a few sets and you can achieve multiple radius bends pretty easily by carefully cutting and trimming at different parts of the U and straight sections .I use SS mandrel bends myself but the nicest looking set I have seen were fabbed from repurposed dairy farm tubing . They were virtually flawless and nicely polished , a couple seasons later they had a very nice patina . My best work so far has been left with a satin sheen as there are possibly a flaw or two on them.....I'm considering trying my hand with the high level pipes on my twin project but that keeps getting pushed back .There is a guy posting here who is the process of doing this with good results so far.

FWIW-BONZO

Hi Bonzo,
I have a little experience in the food manufacturing industry as a fitter and turner(15yrs) but i would probably make and tack them together and get a pro to weld(boilermakers) who do all the purge welding(argon gas up the guts of the tube while welding) at our plant.
I figure using 2 90's as it bends on two planes looking at the pictures.
I have to get the bike back together first tho......

I look fwd to your results .If you have a crew at hand there might be a market for this sorta thing ,,,,Ol' Gadgetguy who posts here infrequently does that sorta stuff( Roush Racing etc..) but he doesn't have any spare time to do such stuff . He's an old friend and gives me some pointers here and there , wish he had room on his plate to fab me up some pipes ...

FWIW-BONZO

The secret with a successful butt joint in stainless is as Uncle Chop says: the purge the bore with Argon while welding. Otherwise, its a major pain keeping the weld clean.

... Gregg

We use Solar Flux on stainless tubes now. Not all boiler tubes can be purged completely and this saves fooling around with extra flow meters, hose and basketball needles. We will still block the draft inside tubes with rice paper but anything to cap the end of your pipes will work. frank coleman