After reading so many encouraging comments from others, especially on Kevin's SV650 site I decided to take the plunge and booked my baby in at Renegade. 

I went for the twin, low-level, oval, titanium system. This seemed the best option for someone who often carries soft panniers and I didn't want the system to look too obviously 'aftermarket'. 

I spent a very enjoyable day with Jorge and the rest of the Renegade crew. They truly love their work and know that they have an unbeatable product. I chatted to staff, other customers, helped Jorge with his PC and even took customer phone calls when Jorge felt they needed to hear about the product from 'the horses mouth'! 

I finally left at around 5pm, the proud owner of the very first twin low-level system for a Suzuki SV650SY. I can only echo what everyone else has been saying for ages. Forget the rest, get a Renegade system and do it NOW - you won't regret it!! 

<non-Renegade comment snipped from original email>

Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4      Image 5      Image 6

Just thought I'd like to share my experiences with the rest of the SV community.

I've not been very happy with the SV standard exhaust note since my mate Chris wheeled out his TL1000 from winter hibernation. Its got Yoshimura race exhausts and it sounds like THUNDER!

The SV is so quiet. When I'm on my own its less of an involving experience than it should be, and when I was out with Chris, all I can hear is his TL...and that's when he is behind me!

Meanwhile, I became a regular visitor to SV.org and read with interest the comments and experiences of others...well that's what its there for. Taking these factors into account I decided I was going to get a louder can. So I decided to take a logical approach and put together a spread sheet of about 8 manufacturers showing prices and options they gave. In the end I narrowed the selection further to just oval in Stainless, as they are in my view discretely different, as Carbon is a more overtly performance 
part. The list was refined still further to a single, at low level as it showed less exposed pipework than high level, and costs less than a double!

I then Emailed 3 suppliers , and phoned two who offered three solutions between them. The two I phoned didn't inspire the confidence that they knew what they were talking about. Both quoted about 4 weeks delivery with payment upfront, two out of the three have not replied to my emails! It was also important to me to get this sorted sooner than later, four weeks was just too long.

The remaining potential supplier was Renegade. I Emailed them on Sunday to check availability for the following week. By 8:08 Monday I had an Email reply confirming the deal. It was looking good for Renegade. They were on the face of it the most expensive. However Renegade would fit, removing some of the risk in me undertaking surgery, and make my old can reusable and post it back to me. I read somewhere that if you trade in your bike in the UK the dealer must sell it with an approved can. Keeping the original should help the deal. I don't know if its true but this was another factor in the decision process. For me Renegade was 150 miles away so two hours
each way. Renegade said one hour to fit, they opened at 8 o'clock. So... leave early, back home for lunch.

So this is what I did.

I got to Renegade at 7.45, the bike was taken straight in, I was given coffee and magazines. At 8.45 I was told the job was done! Jorge kindly showed me around and showed me the way Renegade goes about things. He also showed me the jig used for SV pipe modifications and the final modified pipe. So no problems with mail orders there then. Jorge also showed me his Dyno machine and results from a previous SV test.

So what were the first impressions? Well I guess the sound is a personal preference thing. But to me it sounded like a bike ought to, and was frankly brilliant. Within a couple of miles I did a manoeuvre in traffic, I can't remember what, but thought "oh that was different" and glanced down at the tacho which was reading 5k rpm. I think the flat spot has been reduced as a result of the change. The power on rollups sounds great. I also feel happier when passing between stationary traffic as they stand a better chance of hearing you coming!

All in all Renegade did what they said they would, when they said they would, and in my opinion provided good value and an interesting visit. What more can I say? If you are thinking of changing your pipe you would do well to go to Renegade..do it now..you will not be disappointed!

Oh! I nearly forgot. Want to hear what it sounds like, and see what the sound looks like? Click the attachments. The sound file has had the quality reduced to get it into a manageable size, and should only be taken as representative rather than accurate. The other attachment shows a plot of the sound clip between Standard and Renegade. This is expanded out to show just 5 power strokes. I'm not a sound expert, but I don't think you need to be to spot the difference!

Download sound file (.wav 119k) - (remeber this is for a single low level can)        Download image file  

If you want to see a Renegade Exhaust go to their web site at http://www.renegade-products.com/ , or better still get one!

Finally, the bike used the same amount of fuel each way, averaging 57mpg which is good. You can work out the average speed for yourself!

Thank you Kevin for such a good site and for putting me onto Renegade. My pleasure, I'm not saying I told you so but...

Have been to renegade today on my 650s just up the road and would like to tell everybody considering buying an after market exhaust forget the rest, Go get a renegade. 

I arrived at about 2 o'clock (they close at 12) to have a look through the window. The door opened and i was invited in. We had a chat and i came away with coffee in my belly some sound advice in my head a very large smile on my face and growling in my ears. I was now the very proud owner of a pair of high level round titanium exhausts.

They sound awesome they look awesome in fact they are awesome. The time and effort the guys put in to make sure everything was spot on was unreal. I am one very very happy customer....one bit of advice stop thinking about changing the exhaust (I umed and ard for about 2 months), just do it its worth every penny. I've read the other emails about how friendly renegade were and I agree with them all..

THEY ARE WICKED 

Great to see that other sv owners have had the pleasure of meeting MAD JORGE! Boy is this guy radio rental on anything with two wheels as well as anything with two.......

Anyway this is just a big plug for all the staff as well as Jorge (George to you and me) down near Brands. After having my twin high level carbons fitted in Nov99 I have been back countless times for other adjustments and fittings as well as just to see what bikes are undergoing surgery. Your always made to feel welcome whatever the time (after 8pm is not unusual) and you come away with that long forgotten feeling of personal customer service.

The reason behind this plug ?......getting fed up with people stopping me in petrol stations , car parks and traffic lights asking "f*****g great pipes where ja get 'em from". 

Get yourself down there and check out the man with a '90 degree twin between his ears ! Cheers George.......Big Jon

A good example of the sort of feedback I'm looking for when you're happy/unhappy with the service you've received...

Thought you might be interested in the following:

Yesterday I spent the whole day with Renegade exhausts, and I must admit, they made me feel really welcome and looked after me throughout the day. And that was the first thing to hit me; the friendly atmosphere and hospitality. Where else can you go to get an exhaust fitted, who serve bacon and sausage sandwiches in the morning then supply you with coffee and chocolate biscuits throughout the day?

The second thing to hit me was the sv650s parked outside the unit, sporting it's high level twin cans, knowing that only hours away my bike too would be sporting that sexy look. Then I met Jorge, the owner, and I can tell you this guy knows his stuff about the Sv. In fact he knows his stuff about any bike but it seemed to me that he was out to prove something with the Sv. He loaded it onto the Dyna before the cans were fitted so he could get an idea of performance with the standard system. Then, he took me through the process of building the can itself and it was like watching an artist at work. Fitting the new cans didn't take too long and I was kept occupied 
by the bacon sandwiches and coffee. Just keep 'em coming.

After the new cans were fitted we did another couple of dyna runs which showed a great increase in performance then I took it out for a spin and wow, what an improvement. The difference was apparent immediately; the acceleration was much smoother and the extra torque was noticeably better. But best of all, was that sexy 
grunt and the head-turns I got out on the road. The other thing is it's not too loud., measuring at about 93db compared to 104db for the Micron, meaning that you're less likely to draw the attention of the fuzz (police).

The standard system measures at about 71hp on the crank and 75.1hp with the Renegade system. The most improvment is at about 5000rpm where the standard 
system would dip suddenly but with the Renegade it just kept on climbing. I took the bike out for a 100 mile run today and I must admit that it's now like riding a completely different bike and it scores 10/10 for the grin factor, making the ride though town centers such a joy and catching the attention of passers by.

When leaving Renegade, Jorge came running up to me and asked me to stay to do some more tests. He took the new cans off and replaced them with bigger ones then ran it on the Dyna one more time to see if he could get it over 76bhp. He also tried raising the tank on spacers but the most we could get was 75.8bhp. He assured me that even with a Dynajet kit and air filters, you still wouldn't get it over 75bhp so that's worth bearing in mind before you splash out on a Dynajet kit.

Overall, it was a really fun day. I met some other Sv riders there who were considering the high level system and we stood together in the sweltering heat to exchange stories. I also met Ozzy, who owns the amazing custom Sv (photos attached) and drooled again for the second time that day. The service that Renegade offer is incredible and I must admit that I've never experienced such a service like this before. I've never been to a place that make you feel like a member of the family and I'd recommend anyone to use them. Forget Micron, splash out the extra cash for the high level twins and make your bike look and sound like a TL1000. Believe me, you'll be picking the flies from your teeth months afterwards.

(photos of my black sv with polished twin cans coming soon). Here they are -->  Image 1      Image 2      Image 3      Image 4      Image 5         

Image 1      Image 2      Dyno Chart