Fitting an Arrow Full Exhaust System to a Multistrada 1200

Almost 12 months on……how times change! 🙂 …..see also:

Multistrada 1200 Exhausts, Exhaust Systems & Exhaust Modifications including videos of various after market exhaust systems for comparison (and the full Termignoni system of course!)

Of course there is also the full Termignoni system for the Multistrada 1200 which is the route I went as there were no after market alternatives at the time. Expensive but the Ducati / Termignoni system price includes a replacement ECU…….I’m VERY happy with my full Termi! 😀

Multistrada 1200 full Termignoni exhaust system

….although I’m seriously tempted to cut down the can!! :-0

Update 01Jan2011 – Thanks to Ducati.MS member Mike (aka Goat_Locker or emptyg5000) for sharing this video…

Update 16Jan2011 – Full Arrow exhaust system: I asked Steve to comment on any fuelling issues (commonly referred to as ‘surging’) before and after the install…

My bike was “almost” surgeless before (on the stock exhaust). It was a million times better than the demo Multistrada 1200 that I tried resulting in my well documented reluctance to commit to buy.
However, since fitting the Arrow, it is a lot more noticeable – presumably the more free flowing nature of the new system shows up the issue more. Not a disaster, but definitely more obvious than with the OE system.
I’m not worried about it at all, as I expect the fuelling upgrade (Ducati ECU flash update) to fix the problem anyway.
If it doesn’t then I’ll have a bit of an issue to sort out 🙁
Steve

Ducati Multistrada 1200 – How to fit an Arrow full system
By www.DucatiForum.co.uk member StevePL 29Dec2010

Spent a bit of time on this over the holidays and took some pictures and notes as I was going along. Turns out that a lot of what I was writing down is covered in the instructions that Arrow provide with the exhaust (shame they were not in my box of goodies).

Decided I’d post this guide up anyhow, as there’s a few bits that I think would be easier to do if you go at things in a slightly differently order to the Arrows instructions and it allows anyone thinking of buying the system to decide ahead of time if they think they can fit it themselves. To be honest, I think anyone with the right tools and a bit of patience could do this – it’s not that hard.

You probably need to allow 4 hours to do this (on a relatively new bike that hasn’t got any corroded fasteners to deal with). As always, this guide is just my own experience and isn’t intended to replace your own common sense or following the Arrows instructions – you are big boys and responsible for your own actions! 😉

Tools that you will need are:

Paddock Stand
Allen Keys; 0.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6mm
Spanners; 10, 12, & 13mm
Philips Screwdriver
Snips
Zip Ties
Spring Puller (supplied with exhaust)
Rubber Mallet (optional)Torch (again optional, but helps you see the fixings inside the rear wheel arch)

Arrow full system available on eBay and the slip-on still available here.

OK – first step – remove the bash plate / belly pan parts consisting of 3 separate pieces. The left and right side pieces are secured by 2 x 3mm and 1 x 4mm Allen bolts on each side. The central piece (under the sump) is held on by 2 x 6 mm Allen Bolts, 1 x 3mm Allen (also holds breather pipes bracket) and 1 x 12mm nut underneath.

Right side of the bike after the belly pan has been removed.

Left side, including the pipe bracket mentioned above

The next step is to remove the black cover from the silencer so that you can see the exhaust butterfly valve and cable. The cover is held on by 3 x 4mm black Allen bolts and, once these are removed, it needs to be slid forward (away from the silver silencer covers) to free up the tabs that sit under the silver parts.

…the exhaust valve once the cover is removed

If you rotate the valve by hand you can create enough slack in the cable to ease out the connection. Then use a 10mm open ended spanner to remove the retaining nut from the bracket and ease the cable loose from the fitting.

With the cable disconnected, the next step is to remove the various fixings so that the OE exhaust system can be dropped off the bike.

First thing to do is remove the two springs that connect the part of the exhaust that you want to keep from the massive CAT that we’re looking to ditch. See the two pictures below of the front and rear cylinder link pipes.

At this point I make my first deviation from the Arrow instructions.

I found it impossible to get the CAT section off the bike with both the short OE link pipes still attached to the cylinder heads. It is a hell of a lot easier if you remove the link pipe from the front cylinder (which only requires the removal of 3 x 10mm nuts from their studs) and drop this off the bike with the CAT box.

There are 2 further fixings that you have to take off – both 5mm Allen bolts, one on either side of the bike.

Once you have removed these, you can wiggle the system free, and it will drop down from under the sump.

Wiggle the front link pipe free, and remove the CAT & Silencer out of your way.

The OE dustbin and the sleek new Arrows pipework side by side…

Now comes the second deviation from the instructions.

I reckon it would be a hell of a lot easier to get at the butterfly valve motor while there is no exhaust on the bike. I’d fitted the new system before I tackled the butterfly motor (because I didn’t have the instructions until another member of this forum kindly scanned and sent them to me), and there is sod all space to work when getting to the motor.

I think anyone following after me would find it much easier to work without the pipework from the rear cylinder or the pillion footrest hanger fitted…

To get at the valve motor, you need to strip a few bits out of the way:

Remove the right side under seat panel – 4 x 3mm and 2 x 4mm Allen bolts.
Be careful not to lose any of the little plastic washers that are fitted to each bolt to stop it marking the plastics.

With the side panel out of the way, you can now see the rectifier block, which you need to remove by taking out the 2 x 4mm Allen bolts that hold it to its carrier.

With the rectifier out of the way, you can remove the 2 x 4mm Allen bolts that hold the carrier in place and move the carrier out of the way.

You can now see the valve motor that you need to get to…

You also need to remove the 5mm Allen bolt that holds the rear brake reservoir onto the valve box so that the box can be pulled out later.

This is where things get a little interesting…

First of all, remove the Phillips screw that holds the valve housing into its carrier.
You will find this by looking up under the rear wheel arch towards the rear cylinder.

Next you need to remove the 4mm Allen bolt that holds the valve carrier to the frame.

This is a real bugger to get to, and it is held in good and proper with a large dollop of thread lock. Because of the awkward angle it took me almost 1/2 hour to get this one fastener undone!

You will also need to snip the cable tie that holds the 2 cables to the back of the valve carrier that you can see in the picture above and carefully ease them out of the way so you can drop the carrier down to get at the valve motor.

I’m hoping that by doing this step without the exhaust pipework in your way, you will find the job a little easier. You might also want to remove the pillion footrest hanger at this point to give a little extra access (you will have to do this anyway to fit the Arrow exhaust hanger bracket later).

Once you get the Allen screw out from the carrier, you need to ease this down and backward so that you can get to work on the valve motor. You will need to snip a couple more cable ties to give yourself enough movement but you should be able to wiggle it out and then pull the valve motor free.

The valve motor sits on rubber mounts on two studs that you can see at the bottom of the holder (one of which had the phillips screw through it that you undid earlier), and is also held in place by the cable that runs down to the butterfly valve on the exhaust itself. The earlier you can wiggle the butterfly cable off the white pulley on the valve motor, the easier it will be to get the motor pulled out of the carrier.

Once you get this done, you can see the valve motor more clearly as shown below.

Now is the time to pull the butterfly valve cable free from the bike and put it to one side for when you refit the stock exhaust.

Next you need to get the white pulley off the top of the valve motor, which involves removing the 2mm Allen bolt that goes through the centre of the pulley shaft.

Now you can attach the Arrows plate that fools the valve motor into thinking it is still working the cable. You might need to gently tap this to get it seated properly (I used a socket to keep things square and lightly tapped it with a pin hammer).

When the plate is seated on the shaft, you can screw in the 2 * 0.5mm Allen bolts provided in the Arrows kit. These seat up against each other, so you only want to screw the 1st one in about 1/2 way down its length.

At this stage, I put the ignition on to test that the valve works correctly and that you don’t get an error on the dash.

Now “all you have to do” is put the valve motor back into the carrier and refit the carrier to the bike!

Don’t forget that the arrow’s plate should be pointing toward the front of the bike when the motor is back in the carrier. It is easy to seat the motor on the carrier lugs back to front (as I did initially) and you won’t have a cat in hells chance of getting the carrier back into position behind the battery box.

Replace any zip ties that you had to cut so that the cables are routed correctly, then refit the rectifier carrier, rectifier, brake reservoir, and the side panel.

Now back to the pipework;

Seat the arrow pipework into the OE link pipes, and reattach the front link pipe to the cylinder head. You may need to tap the pipes lightly with a rubber mallet to get them to seat properly into the OE pipework.

When they are seated home correctly, it will be easy to attach the springs again.

Only the right side 5mm Allen fixing bolts from the OE system is used when the arrow pipes are fitted. The OE bolt is replaced by the supplied Arrow bolt with 2 washers and a 10mm nut.

The unused fixing (near the side stand) is shown…

…and just a gratuitous shot of the nice big bore pipework 🙂

Using a 6mm Allen Key, remove the passenger footrest hanger (if you have not already done so). Place the Arrow exhaust hanger behind the footrest hanger and thread through the 2 longer 6mm Allen bolts supplied with the exhaust kit bolting the whole lot back onto the frame.

Nearly there!!
Now we need to fit the silencer, which will probably need to be knocked home with the rubber mallet again, and connect it to the pipework with the spring provided by Arrow.

It’s important to make sure you get the silencer on square as there is very little clearance to the rear tyre and, if you have it skewed, it is too close for comfort.

Once you have everything square, then carefully slide the hanger strap over the silencer (making sure you don’t dislodge the rubber inner) and then tighten up the strap to the exhaust hanger using a 6mm Allen Key and a 13mm spanner.

I put both halves of the strap on the outside of the hanger just to give an extra mm of clearance to the tyre.

All you have left to do is to start the bike to admire the new noise and check for any gas leaks at the joints, then refit the belly pan and step back and admire your work.

So that’s it – job done!
See – not that difficult to do – and a nice improvement in noise that makes it sound like a “proper” twin.

I’m very happy with the result even though I’ve not been able to get out for a proper ride due to the crappy weather we’re still putting up with. Haven’t even tried it with the baffle out yet – but there’s a definite improvement in sound even with baffle in place.

Plus the discarded OE CAT box weighs a tonne!!

You won’t regret it I’m sure…….Go on – you know you want to!

Cheers Steve

Here’s some additional images I [AndyW] nabbed from the Arrow website…

Titanium silencer / can…

Arrow exhausts are available from SportsBikeShop (and other retailers:-)

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