Has anyone here manufactured their own Mid Pipe for the 1290R ? I'm considering having a muffler shop bend and weld up one for me. May even paint it Orange. Just feels like $160 plus is a bit absurd for a short piece of bent pipe and a couple collars welded on.

$160 is pretty cheap, most shops in my area charge $80-$125 per hour for labour.

Muffler shops do not typically have a mandrel bender as well as stainless pipe or the correct fittings. You just spent a crap ton of money on the bike why cheap out now?

An exhaust shop wont do the same job & as mentioned they wont be able to make a mandrel bent pipe
Sure it is a little pricey but it is lightweight thin wall pipe & very nice mandrel bending to the correct shape to fit, wouldnt bother stuffing around, just buy a link pipe, either Mivv, Remus or Arrow etc will work fine, they pop up second had / cheap now & then too

If you want to do it yourself then go get a stainless steel ubend, cut and weld, cut and weld.

On my 1290R i had a link pipe made up to fit my acra pipe, it cost 200 to get made, this time for the GT i got a Remus link pipe to go with the Remus muffler, much better quality, and the pipe joining brackets fit perfectly.

Thank you gentlemen for your input.
I do have a mandrel pipe bending muffler shop. But he is limited on SS. So...I'll keep an eye out for a used one.

Yep...ton of cash for a top notch bike. My bride said, no spending money on it until we pay off other stuff. The convo actually went like this. "Why did you buy it if you don't like it. If you liked it, you wouldn't need to change it!" Since I like my meals warm and my clothes clean...I will refrain from spending too much too soon.