KZ650 Modify pipes?

I have poked around a little, and seen some attempts, and a lot of warnings about changing the pipes from stock. What I would like to do is make them shorter, and straighter. I have seen clamp-ons that look like they would do the trick, but all the warnings about loss of back pressure have put me off.

Any advice would be welcome.

I'm on my 4th incarnation of different exhaust set ups on my 77 650b1 and I've not had any issues with bad back pressure (including running a no baffle 4-1 MAC system). The only issue you'll come across is having to re-jet the carbs to accomodate whatever pipe set up you go with.

way cool, and very good news. are there any guidelines for the re-jetting part?

I did my upgrade not too long ago, here , and haven't rejetted yet.

I might, but I don't think I will find a need to.

I think a baffled muffler is a baffled muffler, and as such creates backpressure no matter who manufactures it.

An open pipe would be a different situation.