About Plymouths Only Exhaust Manufacturer....
It all began when dave bought a vfr 400 nc30 in 1997, it had a leaky ART silencer on it which was split at every rivet through the carbon fibre.As a sheetmetal worker he decided to improve on the design making some end caps requiring no rivets, and fitted to the outside of the carbon, thus making it totally repackable, and to protect it against the temperatures of the exhaust.
Soon enough found a supplier of carbon fibre and started to make a couple for freinds (those silencers are still going strong today, never having been repacked). The tiger sticker was representing the tiger on the Kenpo Karate patch, and my brother very young at the time, did an amazing fantasy tiger which was used as a logo. The name sidekick was chosen to represent one of the most powerfull kicks in karate, and as the silencer was on the side of the bike, so the name side kick was perfect, adding that extra kick of power to the bike, due to less restriction.
The internals coincidently needed to reduce from the exsisting exhaust , like on a fireblade 63mm down to the 50mm baffle ,common sense was to use a developed cone, turns out that ws the best thing he could have ever done , as this was known as an anti reversion cone, which speeds up gas flow, similar to what harley use on their headers.... the rest is history as they say....
From 1997 to 2005 Dave Ran a successful Business manufacturing performance exhausts and accessories for both motorcycles and cars. As an experienced sheet metal worker He designed some unique motorcycle silencers that still to this day have never been replicated. These included the "Alien face" silencer, The Tripple outlet trilogy silencer to name a few.
His products were manufactured in Stainless steel,aluminium, carbon fibre, Kevlar and Titanium. The main components were literally hand crafted and polished personally, taking upto 2 hours per race silencer. The silencers were tested in magazines including The Motorcycle News, and were producing More Horse power than the big name brands, soon the silencers were selling around the world and featured in and on front covers of numerous magazines.
In 2005 he had to make a decission to expand to keep up with the market or call it a day and move to , lets say a less stressfull way to make a living!!
he worked on well in excess of 2000 bikes and cars in just over 8 years, all the images are of his work, featured in this country and abroad.
In 2008 and Being the way that he is, and loving the thrill of fabricating something that starts as an idea or an inspiration, he started to design some very exclusive and high quality products again.. the purpose was to take his new brand with him when he and his family would emigrate Later that year...
Although still owning the Sidekick Name, after selling the business stock in 2005, he decided to make some proto types which again spread like a rash, only as not to conflict, called this brand KARITSU PERFORMANCE. you can read the history of that name by clicking on it.
All images in the galleries are of bikes worked on during the Sidekick reign in Plymouth from 1997,
However to come back and re invent the wheel would be pointless, so Dave has turne to his skills as a sheet metal worker and as a fully coded welder to the highest standard, developed and is still designing as we speek... a range of fabricated silencers using pattern development , none of which are mass produced.
From the South west of England to the South of Australia. be assured
"THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN"
