We started with a blue Special Edition Yamaha Rhino. A 50th anniversary Yamaha R1 gave us the pattern we needed. We also traced the pattern on a sheet of paper and figured out all the angles from there to give the painte ustom pipes – no pun here – are as hot as they’ve ever been. With Harleys of all models flying out of the showrooms in record numbers the first thing that most new owners of those Softails, ‘Glides, Dynas, Sportsters and V-Rods change, almost immediately, are the pipes. A shiny new set of high-flow, good looking and great sounding pipes or slip-ons is just about mandatory equipment. Besides looking and sounding the part a new exhaust will wake up the performance of a stock bike like nothing else, too. For three decades now the pipes and mufflers from Samson have been popular choices to accomplish all of the above. Samson has the styles riders want, all the years and models are covered, the sound is unmistakable and the fit, finish and manufacturing quality is top-shelf. Best of all, all this comes at a price that just about can’t be beat. Samson pipes are all backed by one of the strongest warranties in the industry, too.      Keeping up with the demand for all of this hasn’t been easy on Samson. Sure, Samson’s known for maintaining an almost 100-percent fill rate in the Drag Specialties’ warehouses; call up for a set of Samsons and they’re coming your way pronto, no back orders, no waiting. And that’s the way Samson aims to keep things. So once again – and for more times than he cares to think about – Kenny Price, the man behind this company and the one man most responsible for all those custom pipes and mufflers, is packing up and moving the company. He must be used to it by now. Since first going nationwide with Samson back in September of ‘91 Price has overseen company moves like this before. As Samson Exhaust grew, and then grew again to become the aftermarket giant it is, and as subsidiary companies like Shogun Exhaust for the metrics and Caliber Exhaust for the Harley performance seekers were added, Samson M/C Products moved to bigger and better facilities seemingly every few years. It’s no different this time. This latest move to Brea, California, and to a new home and manufacturing plant for Samson/Shogun/Caliber was all about necessity. The address is now 655 Tamarack Ave., Brea, California 92821. The phone numbers and e-mail contacts all stay the same.      The new Brea manufacturing plant/R&D center/corporate headquarters will be something special. Looking at this move as an opportunity to rethink, rework, streamline and specialize everything from how the raw pipe gets delivered and stored to how it becomes a new set of Samson Big Guns 3 or Fishtails or True Duals to how it gets packaged and shipped out has been laid out to make sure that all those custom exhausts get made right, get made fast and then get to the warehouses and dealer shelves without a hitch or hiccup in the process. The layout at 655 Tamarack Ave. centers on a new open-floor shop design to maximize the workflow start to finish. The layout allows lots more production flexibility – work teams can change direction on a dime and switch production as needed – and it generally updates, upgrades and improves things overall. Those warehouse fill rates, already ranked right at the top of the industry, will undoubtedly climb even higher. There’s a brand-new R&D center here, as well. It’s a state-of-the-art test lab designed to let Kenny Price do what he does best, think up, design, prototype and test some pretty exciting stuff. The new plant even has modern pollution-control air scrubbers everywhere to improve the work environment and keep everyone healthy and happy. And to upgrade an already high Quality Control Department there’s a big, new, area with natural lighting for a much better and real-world assessment of those pipes and mufflers before they go out the door.      Top to bottom, from the front door to the loading dock, Samson’s new plant in Brea is aimed at efficiency. Along with that open-floor shop layout everything will now be manufactured in a “production cell” format. Technicians and fabricators in each “cell” will produce a complete set of pipes or mufflers start to finish. Cell manufacturing like this will greatly increase that production flexibility guaranteeing that fill rates stay high and lead times drop to get something brand-new to market. Cell manufacturing is an efficient use of time and space. And with individual “teams” responsible for all production on a particular set of pipes start to finish product quality will skyrocket, as well. Plenty good right now, Samson/Shogun/Caliber pipes are only going to get better.      Take a look at Samson’s new home. Make note of the new address. And get ready for some exciting new additions, too. Samson has the new shop to make that magic happen and that spells good business for all of us in the industry. Kenny Price, founder and president of Samson Exhaust Seen here is just one of many shelves holding inventory of Samson exhaust systems that were built ahead of time so shipments did not fall behind during the move. We visited the new Samson facility during their move-in and production had not yet restarted. Here some of the buffing equipment awaits the return of the Samson factory workers. With the new layout, an inventory of raw pipe will be staged at the beginning of the production line ready to be cut and bent into shape.

Parts Magazine
Volume 13 #9

Parts Magazine Index