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 Taking a technique or technology to the next step, forging ahead and seeing what we can done to make it better or more extreme is what some humans do best.
Be it cell phones, tile mosaics or race bikes, some people keep thinking about what else can be done to improve it. Mark Henry of Double Dog Moto is one of these men and, after putting his mind to how to make his Ducati race bike better, has developed a focused line of performance accessories.
Mark founded Double Dog Moto in San Francisco in 2009. His background as a mechanical engineer and personal involvement as a road racer sparked the idea to build and sell his innovations in structural carbon fiber and performance exhaust systems. Unlike many after market companies more focused on the “bling” factor, Double Dog Moto is focused on performance and lap times.
The two products that caught our attention right off were the radical looking full exhaust system and the Carbon fiber monocoque (say “mono-cock”) tail section.
These components are built to improve performance and save weight. This is more than the total of the pounds & ounces since the parts save weight in areas far away from the center of the motorcycle’s center of mass, namely high up in the tail section.
 Full Exhaust System - The 135DD Full Exhaust System can be used with the stock sub-frame and bodywork should you desire to retain them or need to spread out your expenditures. There is no doubt that there are substantial weight savings and improved weight distribution. You can imagine when transitioning your motorcycle from left to right in a chicane that having a lot of weight up high in the tail section will make throwing all of it around more difficult. It is like having a small passenger along for the ride!
The 135DD system is made of titanium and the megaphone is fabricated with TIG welded thin-wall stainless steel. It arrives in a little velvet bag which highlights the polished appearance as you remove it like a piece of jewelry. The 2 into 1 junction and headers are made from titanium and come with stainless steel mounting hardware. The 135DD muffler comes in polished stainless only.
 The entire system including the 135DD megaphone weighs only 9lbs!! The stock system is rather portly at 22bs. The 13lbs is huge savings, but again realize that these 13lbs are mostly saved by eliminating the exhaust canisters themselves which are mounted on the subframe - well away from the center of mass. Shedding that weight from under the seat is a big deal, and much more important than reducing the same weight closer to the center of mass. You feel the difference on your out lap and it feels like your bike just took a backpack off. The weight loss in this area assists in making the bike more ‘flickable' which, compared to my 4 cylinder counterparts, the Ducati needs all the help it can get.
Performance & Power - Big twins are known for lots of mid-range grunt and we didn’t want to lose any get up and go by installing the light weight exhaust. Amazingly it actually out-performed my Termignoni system on the dyno.
 Looking at a stock 1198, the 135DD adds over 10bhp at 6,000rpm compared to the Termi race system (which of course was an improvement over the stock exhaust system). See the dyno chart attached to see that there were gains throughout the mid-range and out-performed the termi all the way up to 10,000 rpm. I was really impressed and took the chance to meet with Mark Henry and ask him about Double Dog and how he came up with such an innovative design.
DP – Mark, how did you get the idea to begin Double Dog Moto and pursue this exhaust pipe design?
MH - Well it all springs from my passion for something that I’m doing –racing. I looked at the exhaust and sub-frames for areas to improve. Most of the after- market products were mostly making improvements of the stock system but not making major design changes. We saved 13 lbs. over the stock system.
DP- The weight savings is surely there, but how does such a short pipe get such big power numbers?
MH – Most of the exhaust mufflers are simply perforated tubes which only baffle the sound. I had experience with 2 stokes and expansion chambers. We wanted to try to the expansion chamber effect on 4 strokes, which we do see done on some moto-cross bikes. With lots of time proto-typing and dyno testing we found how we could affect the torque curve with the volume relationship. Of course exhaust pipe length has an effect on the torque curve but we can change the timing of the exhaust pulse and fine tune the performance. Over the other systems we made a significant gains in the mid-range and minor gains on the top end.
 DP- Tell us a bit about the Carbon Exoskeleton tail section which eliminates the subframe. Why such a focus on the tail section of the motorcycle?
MH – Aside from all that weight having a major impact when changing direction from side to side there is also a pitching effect that all motorcycles have to deal with. During hard braking and acceleration this pitching effect is where the motorcycle is trying to rotate around the center of the mass. We all spend a lot of time to set up suspension to minimize this effect and get the bike to settle down during these times. Removing all this weight and centralizing the mass clearly helps in this regard. The weight savings on the exhaust system total is 13 lbs. (24 lb stock, 22 lbs. Termi) the entire DD system is 9 total.
The monocoque tail weights under four pounds, but the other gain in stiffness, there is no flex. This improves the feedback to the rider. Normally the aluminum sub-frame, fiberglass bodywork and seat foam all flex which filter the feedback to rider. The carbon doesn’t flex and we use .5mm of polyurethane for the “seat” so feedback is lost.
After seeing the components and speaking to Mark, I had to try the concept on my race bike and have installed both the exhaust and tail section. I installed the exhaust first and coupled it with a Micro-Tec fuel management system to produce 162 HP. I have run the exhaust at the first race and had no issues other than a bit more noise, but I think that race bikes making noise is just fine.
 If you want to know how you can get your Double Dog exhaust mapped for your bike, DD has maps for the Nemesis fuel mngt system but Power Commanders can be used to create a suitable map as well. If you are riding on the street the Termi ECU would be fine since the mapping would be very close.
We have just mounted and tested the monocoque tail and the feeling of having zero seat pad is different, but after a few laps at the Team Promotion event at NJMP Thunderbolt I was accustomed to it.
I couldn’t resist taking the Termignoni mufflers to work to weigh them after pulling this massive hardware off the Ducati and seeing for myself what I just lost – a whopping 9.2 lbs off the tail section for the mufflers alone!
 Our first race with the entire package is May 1st and we’ll have a full race report and photos for you soon after.
Double Dog Moto has exhaust systems, monocoque tails and rear sets for a variety of sportbikes – see www.doubledogmoto.com for more info.
David Podolsky is the founder of Chicken Hawk Racing Tire Warmers with Team Sponsors: Dunlop Tires, MarkBilt, Heroic Leathers, Catalyst Composites, Speedy Moto, Sidi Boots, Ferodo, Shoei, Ohlins and VP Fuel
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