ast
issue we had a good look at everything SuperTrapp has available
for the hottest market in motorcycling right now—Harley-Davidsons.
It’s impressive. The re-designed step-header Mean Mothers
IIs, all new ceramic-finishes for the Paul Yaffe-designed “Road
Legends,” pure performance 2-into-1 systems from both SuperTrapp
and Kerker, 2-into-2 megaphones, race-inspired Sportster pipes,
cross-over systems for baggers and a brand-new 2-into-1 for the
V-Rod all illustrate SuperTrapp’s Harley-Davidson commitment.
And that doesn’t take into account a whole assortment of
slip-on mufflers and megaphones and end-caps designed and developed
just for Harley-Davidsons. But you know all about that. What you
might not know, however, is what’s really behind all those
Harley exhausts, the quality beneath the beauty.
“There are three things important to every exhaust system that
carries our name,” says Kevin Berger, SuperTrapp’s president. “One
is power, two is sound and three is style, and we won’t make
any exhaust product that doesn’t improve performance.” How
SuperTrapp goes about achieving those triple goals explains a lot,
and it’s an explanation customers will immediately understand.
There’s real quality with SuperTrapp, and it starts with the
raw tubing.
FLH/FLT
owners can mount a set of Mean Mothers that reach all the way to
the back of the bag.
SuperTrapp’s
Crack Pipes are now available in a black ceramic finish.
For the vast majority of its exhaust systems, beginning with those
Road Legends pipes as an example, SuperTrapp uses only USA-produced
.065 wall carbon steel tubing. It’s CNC mandrel bent, in one
piece. Generally, SuperTrapp heat shields are made from .049-wall
carbon steel, also mandrel bent, “And we actually use two processes
to produce them,” Berger explains. “Some heat shields
are laser cut on a five-axis CNC machine, some are plasma cut. It
depends on the product.” The emphasis on the finish of the
final product begins right here, too. That high-quality raw material
is carefully stored and handled so no dents, dings or scratches occur,
and that care carries through to the tooling and bending processes.
No tooling marks are left on the pipes as they’re produced,
and just to make sure every SuperTrapp exhaust is as good-looking
as it can possibly be every pipe is polished to a mirror finish before
it’s triple-chrome plated. “We 100-percent inspect everything
before it goes to chrome plating,” Kevin Berger goes on to
say, “and then re-inspect everything after chroming.” You
know how important it is that a set of pipes appear perfect
when they come out of the box, and these are. Most systems
are shipped in two-part polyurethane foam to keep that factory-fresh
luster, packaging that itself has been put through a whole
series of tests.
You and SuperTrapp also know the importance of performance. Looks
and sound only take you so far. Assuring that performance, every
SuperTrapp product is extensively dyno tested, and before a prototype
exhaust makes it to the dyno the pipe shapes and sizes and muffler
designs have been flow tested. “We’ll do baseline testing
on stock bikes,” Berger explains, “comparing that with
our products. And we won’t release anything that doesn’t
improve performance.”
Getting those pipes to the dyno is an involved, state-of-the-art
procedure. While some design are done directly in Computer Aided
Design (CAD), often some very special high-tech portable Coordinate
Measuring Machines (CMM) equipment will be employed. CMM allows a
prototype exhaust that’s been hand-crafted piece by piece,
built exactly as a custom shop would do it, to be precisely traced
with that information directly downloaded into the computer-controlled
bending machines. Examples of this are those Yaffe-designed Road
Legends. With Yaffe given a free hand in the design, the pipes he
came up with were definitely stylish, “And we certainly pushed
the envelope there,” says Berger, referring to the manufacturing
process that followed. The Crack Pipes and the X-Pipes are actually
bent in one piece. “We had to design some pretty intricate
tooling to accomplish that. It wasn’t easy.” There’s
an understatement.
But SuperTrapp’s never taken the easy route. In its 30-plus
years in business the name SuperTrapp, and Kerker—since the
acquisition of that company in the early ’90s—has become
synonymous with quality and performance. There’s no quick
and easy way to attain that kind of reputation.
Quality, performance and those triple goals that Kevin Berger lays
out for everything SuperTrapp makes: power, sound and style—it’s
all in the FatBook. The FatBook is the only place you’ll find
some of the most popular SuperTrapp Harley-Davidson pipes, too, like
those Mean Mothers. They’re available exclusively through Drag
Specialties. That’s another kind of commitment. Call your rep,
he’ll tell you. And tell your customers what’s beneath
the beauty at SuperTrapp, it’ll make a difference. Your Drag
Specialties rep’ll tell you that, too. 
