Ok. There's been a lot of talk and conjecture flying around regarding Rinehart. Based on that and my desire to put Rinehart's on a new bike I'm planning, I emailed them asking for an explanation of what was going on. That was on Tuesday. Today, I received a phone call that very much surprised me. It was Kyle Rinehart.

Kyle called because, as he put it, there is a lot of rumor going around, much of which is untrue, so he wanted to address it himself. So here it is.

Drag Specialties was their sole distributor. Drag was the one that selected Bub for manufacture of the pipes. Rinehart has been doing well and is not in trouble. They have actually left Drag of their own desire to not be hampered on what designs and technologies they want. Basically they feel they've been limited as of late, so they decided to not renew with Drag and part ways. That also means parting with Bub. As you can imagine, in a separation like this there are some hurt feelings. Hence rumors that have been coming from the Drag direction.

In short, Kyle wanted to express that as a company they are healthy and at the tail end of this transition. They are not going anywhere. They're also going to be offering customer and dealer direct purchasing. Pipes will be available mid November with new stuff coming including improved numbers from the `07 / `08 versions.

I asked about the fact that while they'd be working from an exact spec or recipe as it were, it would be a new manufacturer and what would be the potential for a pipe that didn't quite sound like Rineharts do now or maybe performed a little different. Kyle said they had gone through an extraordinary amount of effort to insure that would not happen and he was confident that the pipes would be as expected. He wasn't ready to name the manufacturer yet, but said after all they'd been through getting things ready he was confident they'd get it right.

I also asked about the end caps turning purple. He said he had been assured that it had been remedied, but of course if there was ever an issue it would be taken care of quickly.

Another thing I asked about was performance differences between the cross-back and the 2 into 1's. My issue is that I like the looks and sound of the cross-back's but know that in general the 2 into 1's make better bottom end and mid range torque. Kyle said that he didn't have the numbers in front of him, but would get back with me to show me specifics. Nice. BTW, he told me Cross Back's are what he runs on his bike. I wasn't expecting anything other than an email maybe next week or something. Well, Kyle called me back 5 minutes later. LOL. Tells me he spoke with his Dad (uh, you know his Dad, Gerald Rinehart...the founder) who is also the designer of the cross-backs. Says his Dad stated that the torque curve between those two was very close. And that is on an essentially stock 96. They stepped up the headers a bit more in the cross-back to help them perform closer to a 2 into 1. So in short it's about the same in low to mid range, but will open up more on the high end. Cool. Decision made.

At any rate, I wanted to pass all this along because there is so much going around about these guys right now that I figured folks would like some concrete info.

 

Impressive to get a response that quick and from someone that high up the food chain. Thanks for the info on the crossbacks. That is interesting as all we ever hear is that a 2 into 1 is always going to give far more power.

 

Great info. Thanks for sharing. I like hearing about a manufacturer that is willing to take the time to call customers like this.

 

WOW.

I was looking at rineharts. When I read, on this forum, about the going-on's with them. I was worried. After reading your post, Kyle I want rineharts cross backs on my streetbob. Now.Just kidding, looks like I will continue to set aside the funds to put crossbacks on my bike.

 

Drag Specialties also stopped selling BUB last year but they had kept Rinehart, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

 

I've also heard from other sources that the Crossbacks are excellent performers for a 2-2 system.

 

Finally,.................the truth! Very nice for a change.

 

I was about to cancel my order and get my money back. I wasn't willing to wait as long as I've been hearing that it would take but I think Ill stick it out for now.

Thanks BD for the info, great story.

 

hopefully leaving drag they will drop their prices substantially! motorcycle riders have been taken advantage for a long time on overpriced parts and harley parts are even more ridiculous.

$500+ for two mufflers is an absolute joke and if they had indeed gone out of business with such an incredible mark up then good. don't get me started on plug wires, pushrods, pistons, etc...

 

I know Gerald and Kyle and they are great guys, Kyle was in college awhile back but I assume he will be working close to dad in the family biz, custom chrome will be handling the sales for now and they are some new designs that they are putting out, he made a new 2 in 1 and it's on his brother in laws bike (Eddie) and Eddie says it sounds alot better than the old one, I to think Drag was holding Gearld back from putting different things out in the market and I know they were raising the price out of the poor mans hand, I wish them the best in all they do because they work hard for what they got.