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1250 Bandit headers

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ywgbandit said:
Very disappointed! I just sent back the second set of headers to Delkevic. They were a much worse fit than the first ones. Spring is coming and I probably won't wait for them to iron out the kinks. Looks like I'll buy a set of Dale's from Holeshot. Pricey, but least I know they will fit!
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What about Arrow?
I have them. Top quality!
 
They are as much money here as the Holeshot set. The Holeshot is welded and dyne tested. I was looking at Delkevic for the price.
 
FYI. I have just bought the latest set of Delkevic headers from the UK branch. Took 7 days to deliver from payment and a lot cheaper than the US branch.
I did have a hiccup in that the packaging opened up, or was opened up and 3 springs did a runner. Ron at Delkevic UK replaced with a full set and I had them a week later.
These headers are now designed to fit the faired model (GSX) Bandit according to Delkevic.
I have only last night done a dummy install to check the fit of the pipes and there does appear to be a slight mis-alignment of the pipes, but looking at it, (although I didn't think so in the beginning), I don't think I will have too much problem bolting it up.
$330.00 Australian delivered.
Was going to be $295.00 US before postage from the US branch.
 
I sure would like to know if you get them to fit ok. There was no way the ones they sent me would bolt up. 3 were good, but one was way out and no way I could force it. Maybe they finally have the bugs ironed out?
 
I'll post up the results.
atm all four down pipes are inserted about 5mm into the collector. I can see by eye that 1 pipe is slightly off on the angle required to insert all the way.
What I have done is marked each with a marker pen for alignment, then I will remove from the motor, push the pipes all the way in, then offer it up again.
Fingers crossed it will not be too painful.
 
Not good news.
I can get three of the down pipes in no problem, but the fourth is a no go :(.
Looks to be made too long.
A couple of yanks on it may do the trick, but am waiting for a reply from Delkevic first.
 
Broncsrule21 said:
Hard to believe they cant make these right......
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How does that old adage go, oh ya now I remember, you get what you pay for.

I've personally have been to the shop many times where Dales brother in law Paul welds up his headers, and it not's not rocket science, but it does require a common sense approach to proper fixturing of the tubing and a good knowledge of welding, which Paul has down to a tee, and his welds are some of the nicest you'll ever see.
 
It would be a no-brainer for Delkevic to make a final check gage to run all their parts through, 4 holes and a couple pins for the alignment of the pipes. Since they are sending out sub-assemblies this is kind of hard to do! Saves on shipping cost I guess?
Seems like they have the 'ship and hope' philosophy?!
 
Pacodog said:
It would be a no-brainer for Delkevic to make a final check gage to run all their parts through, 4 holes and a couple pins for the alignment of the pipes. Since they are sending out sub-assemblies this is kind of hard to do! Saves on shipping cost I guess?
Seems like they have the 'ship and hope' philosophy?!
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The simplest fitment gauge is a complete bike, or in the case of headers at least a frame and engine, which if I were building something like headers or anything else for that matter is something that I would keep on hand to use for making sure that everything fits together as it should, and again it's not freaking rocket science, and one has to wonder why Delkevic is allowing this to happen.

The bottom line is Delkevic obviously doesn't care what they put out, for if they did they would be test fitting their headers onto an actual bike to make sure that they fit properly before shipping them out, and which from which all of the problems I have read about them tells me that they are not doing this, or else they have a bunch of incompetant boobs working on the headers, and I wonder if the people who designed the headers even own or ride a motorcycle.

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten. Caveat Emptor!
 
And this is why I am gonna order the Holeshot set on thursday. More money, but the fittment, looks, and dyno numbers are not a question.
 
Broncsrule21 said:
And this is why I am gonna order the Holeshot set on thursday. More money, but the fittment, looks, and dyno numbers are not a question.
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It is common practice for any company concerned about their product quality to periodically pull a part from production and test it to make sure that it meets design specifications, and that it also fits and installs as intended, which would be especially so on something like a set of headers.

Now once you have designed the headers and made up a proper welding jig, you would still want to check the fit of the pipes on the actual bike that they are supposed to fit, and again it's not rocket science to do this. :trust:









.
 
the collector is prolly made by one vendor, the downpipes another.and the tailpiece(if applicable) by yet another. then boxed and shipped by an entirely different firm. its how stuff is made these days. if it all works its great if not theres 3 or 4 levels to go thru to fix the problem, takes time to do all that.

I do agree however, someone in engineering or quality control has goofed if its that badly out of alignment. a mm here or there I can see but to be where it wont align at all has to be 4-6mm or more out. Ive done lots of stainless tubing professionally(hydraulics and instrumentation for industrial systems)
you can sometimes persuade a slightly out of spec piece with a little pressure and a big rubber hammer;-). I can move 30mm thinwall 2-3 mm to make a piece fit and have done so many times. to be far enough out that no amount of force or tweaking means bad specs or bad quality control,not a good reflection on delkevic at all. it will be fixed eventually but their reputation will suffer in the meantime.
its prolly something silly like a worn block on a cnc bender somewhere throwing that last piece out just enough that combined with the tolerances on the other 3 tubes and engine mounting and frame every other part that touches the exhaust you are just outside the margins.
with a single piece its not such a big deal, when it has to be arranged as a multi-part system it gets really important that the tolerances be kept in check, thats what I think has happened here. itll be repaired/made good eventually tho I hope they throw yall a bone for being used as unwitting engineering mules.
 
Even Sig Sauer did the same thing with their frames and slides and oddly enough a lot of NEW pistols had more wear at 100 rounds then older ones at 10k rounds so lets not all get bent out shape clearly they are rushing and need more QC! I still have their slip on and ZERO issues 3 years and 16k later! ;)
 
I finally got the headers mounted today. The problem was that during the manufacturing process of the collector pipe itself the inside of two of the pipes had broken welding wire stuck inside. It looks like the tubing was welded from the inside and a piece of welding wire was partially fused to the inside seam, but was broken and left a little tab inside. That stopped the down pipe from penetrating all the way in. I made up a bob by cutting a slot with a hacksaw in a 3/8" bolt length wise about 2" long. I then cut off the bolt head so I could put the bob into the drill chuck. I put the bob in a drill and used an old piece of course sanding belt and spun it in side each opening of the collector to remove all the burrs and wire. Then using the supplied high temp silicone (at least thats what I think it was because there were no instructions) I was able to slip the collector onto downpipes that I had loosely mounted in the exhaust ports. Then I beat on them with a hard rubber mallet until they were inserted all the way up to the lines I had marked on the downpipes, which indicated full penetration of the downpipes into the collector.
 
Cool. I finally managed to make mine fit after three attempts. A nightmare I would not like to repeat.
One of the down pipes still does not align correctly to the point where the spring cannot be installed because the anchor points are too far apart.
Glad you got yours sorted :)


Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2
 
One of the things I notice on the 3rd set they sent me was they had 4 anchor points for the springs, so that 2 springs don't have to share an anchor point anymore. This is a good thing as the tension on the springs was very high until I was able to beat the downpipes into the collector. The spring tension actually helped to seat the down pipes all the way into the collector. These are by no means Holeshot headers quality wise. Mine have lots of small tool marks and you really shouldn't have to beat on them to get them to fit. They will be a big improvement over the very restrictive factory pipe performance wise. My only concern is that the pipes don't leak where they go into the exhaust port,. The pipes being under tension might create a problem, but they look like they are fully inserted into the exhaust port. When I installed them i had the bolts all finger tight so that they were sitting square in the ports before I installed the collector. I will leave mine overnight and re-torque them in the morning. I would like to run the engine and re-torque after a heat cool cycle, but I took the rad and hoses off to make access easier.
 
I just removed the rad mount bolts and tied the rad back out of the way.
I had my header bolts tight before installing the springs.
Use a copper based anti-seize on the header bolts too.
I checked my header bolts after a couple of rides and got another third of a turn out of them using new oem gaskets.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2
 
ywgbandit said:
One of the things I notice on the 3rd set they sent me was they had 4 anchor points for the springs, so that 2 springs don't have to share an anchor point anymore. This is a good thing as the tension on the springs was very high until I was able to beat the downpipes into the collector. The spring tension actually helped to seat the down pipes all the way into the collector. These are by no means Holeshot headers quality wise. Mine have lots of small tool marks and you really shouldn't have to beat on them to get them to fit. They will be a big improvement over the very restrictive factory pipe performance wise. My only concern is that the pipes don't leak where they go into the exhaust port,. The pipes being under tension might create a problem, but they look like they are fully inserted into the exhaust port. When I installed them i had the bolts all finger tight so that they were sitting square in the ports before I installed the collector. I will leave mine overnight and re-torque them in the morning. I would like to run the engine and re-torque after a heat cool cycle, but I took the rad and hoses off to make access easier.
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I think after they heat they should relax a bit, its stainless, not carbon so its not going to anneal soft or anything, but a few heat cycles under stress and they will give a bit plus the vibration of the motor/frame will let them find the most natural position. sux you had to go thru that much effort. are in contact with delkevic telling them whats right or wrong with each set?
when this finally gets settled and the good production runs(as opposed to what has to be pre-production or engineering samples that you have been dealing with) start I think several somebodies owe you a beer, like everyone who buys a set after youve gotten the factory to make them right.
 
ywgbandit said:
One of the things I notice on the 3rd set they sent me was they had 4 anchor points for the springs, so that 2 springs don't have to share an anchor point anymore.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you got the same 'upgrade' set that I got.
These are meant to fit the GSX model with the full fairing.
IMO they need to concentrate on getting all 4 downpipes correct first.
 
Just did a 3K mile road trip with a buddy and I have to say the headers really make a difference. It took some time on a Dyno to dial in the TFI, but it was worth it. I was expecting HP gains (and got about 30 over stock with Stage 2 and the headers), but what surprised me was the torque gains (about 20 lb/ft at 4K rpm.) What doesn't show on the Dyno is how quickly the engine spools up...it is a dramatic improvement over stock. With the factory gearing it pulls hard to 80 mph in second gear very quickly. Low rpm passing is even easier than stock, it pulls hard from as low as 2500 rpm. I'm actually looking at having a touring set up with the sprockets at 18T/40T, to drop the rpm about 10% and get better mileage and range out of a tank. (My one complaint about the Bandit is the small 5 gal tank....should have been 6 gal.) I am very confident the engine will pull this gearing easily and be a better set up for long distance.
Anyway in conclusion, the Delkevic headers do work well, if you don't mind the screwing around to get them to fit. You need to clean up the inside of the collector pipe with a flap wheel or a home made abrasive bob of some sort, so the pipes will slide together easily. You need to have the down pipes loosely bolted in place, then fit the collector to the downpipes. If you try to bolt it all together and fit it, it probably won't work. These are no Holeshot headers for sure, but they don't cost as much either. They also get a nice gold'ish patina, which I think looks good. With the Delkevic 18" oval muffler the sound is nice and throaty until you really get on the throttle, then it sounds like an Indy car!
 
Thanks for the update on the header, sounds like pretty big gains in HP and torque.
 
Oh yea....you can definitely feel it. it's like 2 engines. It pulls hard from 2500 rpm up, and you could ride it under 4K rpm all day if you wanted. But it really wakes up at about 4500. From 4500 to redline, happens very quickly.
The ride-ability is still there and on my 3000 mile trip I averaged 42 mpg...(with a corrected speedo). Lots of 70-75 mph cruising too.
It also did not burn any oil....it all came back but 1 tbsp!! (lets see if anyone remembers that commercial)
 
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