Hello Jim...
Yes indeed I did get your email yesterday, been too bunged up with a cold to make any sort of intelligible reply, although I did wrap up well to go out and take some more photos. Thanks for your kind comments on my website by the way.
I was rather fortunate with my down pipes in that they were already on the bike when I came to take on ownership of bike. The drive/nearside pipe does not have any really noticeable kink side to side as such but does have a slight kink in a top to bottom sort of manner. The pipe just clears the bottom underside of the primary cover by just a quarter of an inch. I purchased my Goldie pipes from Armours and have been very happy with them although I feel now after three or four years the chrome could have been a little better, rust is fighting to get through now. I must admit though I could have looked after them a bit better than I have done, using fine steel wool to remove baked on oil is not the way to go!
There has not been any mention that there is two lengths of Goldie pipes, mine I believe to be the longer types measuring 27 & 1/4 inches long. I also had to make up some triangular brackets which were easy enough to do. In all I've not had any sort of problem you yourself is experiencing, hope you manage to sort it out soon.