Key Figures · Parts maker and inventor
Ross Liberty
Owner of Factory Pipe, the exhaust maker, in magazines of 1989 to 1998 and registrant of its trademark, and inventor on a 2000 US patent for water injection in two-stroke exhausts.
At a glance
- Role
- Parts maker and inventor
- On the record
- 5 years, from 1989 to 2000
- Titles on the record
- none read off a held results document yet
- Companies
- Factory Pipe (ran)
- In the archive
- 2 history chapters
The eras this page's records fall in are drawn solid; the others are hollow.
How we know: Each bar runs the years printed on that era's panel, and which eras a page falls in is the archive's grouping of its records, not the length of anyone's career.
Design and invention
1996 and 2000 · Confirmed
PWI's May 1996 test of a Factory Pipe exhaust for the Sea-Doo XP, dyno-tested at the company's headquarters, describes his Electronically Controlled Water Injection, or ECWI, which sprayed water into the exhaust from 2,500 rpm and stopped at 5,600 rpm, to change the speed of the sonic wave in the expansion chamber. His patent of 2000 calls ECWI a system developed by the applicant.
The same article reported that, as of press time, the ECWI was not legal at IJSBA-sanctioned events, because the association's 1996 rule book did not allow controlled devices that alter the flow of water.
Sources: PWI May 1996 Factory Pipe test
1996, 1998 and 2000 · Confirmed
US patent 6,026,641, filed on 2 February 1998 and granted on 22 February 2000, names Ross H. Liberty as inventor of a method and apparatus for controlling exhaust gas temperature in a two-stroke engine, and names personal watercraft among such engines' uses. Its claims cover fluid (water, in the description) fed through a valve into the exhaust with a means of smoothing the pulses of fluid. ECWI, named both in the patent and in PWI's 1996 test of his exhaust, ties the inventor to the Factory Pipe owner.
Business
1994 and 1996 · Confirmed
USPTO's record of the FACTORY PIPE mark gives Liberty, Ross H., an individual, as its registrant and owner. The application was filed on 25 May 1994 for exhaust systems, among them expansion chambers and water boxes, for recreational watercraft, motorcycles, snowmobiles and ultralight aircraft; the mark was registered on 4 June 1996 and the registration has been renewed.
Sources: USPTO record serial 74529118
1989, 1996 and 1998 · Confirmed
Period magazines name him as the company's owner. Cycle News on 24 May 1989 calls him the owner of Factory Pipe Products, and Personal Watercraft Illustrated does the same in its tests of Factory Pipe exhausts published in May 1996 and December 1998.
Sources: Cycle News 24 May 1989; PWI May 1996 Factory Pipe test; PWI December 1998 Factory Pipe test
Recognition
The IJSBA hall of fame roster names Ross Liberty as its Lifetime Achiever of 2012. The roster prints names only, so reading the entry as the Factory Pipe owner's is the archive's inference from the name.
Sources: IJSBA hall of fame page
Names as printed
Ross H. Liberty (US patent 6026641)
Elsewhere in the archive
- History chapter: The aftermarket: exhaust pipes and engine parts
- History chapter: The aftermarket: pumps, plates, mats and the registers
- Organisation: International Jet Sports Boating Association
- Era: The early years, in print
- Era: The makers and their machines
What the archive has not read (3)
- No independent document held dates the founding; a 2012 newspaper feature, seen only in a copy saved during research, describes its start without a date and is not cited (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-05).
- An earlier patent by another company describes electronically controlled water injection; the archive makes no claim about who was first (checked 2026-10-05).
- The hall of fame page publishes no citation for its Lifetime Achievers (checked 2026-10-05).
Documents cited on this page
- USPTO record serial 74529118 (tsdr.uspto.gov): Trademark Status and Document Retrieval record, serial 74529118, registration 1977631 (FACTORY PIPE), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 1996-06-04; government, high. FACTORY PIPE, filed 25 May 1994, registered 4 June 1996, renewed, for exhaust systems for recreational watercraft, motorcycles, snowmobiles and ultralight aircraft. Registrant and current owner Liberty, Ross H., an individual. The status view leaves the first-use field blank. Owner and correspondent addresses are removed from the held copy. The published date is the registration date.
- PWI May 1996 Factory Pipe test (web.archive.org): Factory Pipe Products Sea-Doo XP 720 Exhaust System, by Jeff Hain (Personal Watercraft Illustrated, May 1996, Wayback capture), Personal Watercraft Illustrated, 1996-05; enthusiast media, medium. The magazine's test of the exhaust at Factory Pipe Products' headquarters, naming Ross Liberty as owner, describing his Electronically Controlled Water Injection (ECWI), and reporting that the ECWI was not legal at IJSBA events as of press time. The article's own verdicts on the product are not used.
- US patent 6026641 (patents.google.com): US patent 6,026,641, Method and apparatus for improved control of exhaust gas temperature from a two-stroke engine (USPTO record), United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2000-02-22; government, high. Filed 2 February 1998, granted 22 February 2000, inventor printed as Liberty; Ross H., no assignee, five claims for water fed through a valve into a two-stroke exhaust with a means of smoothing its pulses. The background calls ECWI a system developed by the applicant. An earlier filing by another company covers electronically controlled water injection too, so no page calls this a first. Held as the USPTO Patent Public Search record; the link is the Google Patents page.
- Cycle News 24 May 1989 (held here, not public): Cycle News, 24 May 1989 (archive.org OCR, excerpts), Cycle News, issue held by the Internet Archive, 1989-05-24; enthusiast media, medium. Two excerpts of the issue's OCR: a motorcycle enduro report, and a short personal notice that calls Ross Liberty the owner of Factory Pipe Products. The notice's family details are removed from the held copy; only the owner phrase is used.
- PWI December 1998 Factory Pipe test (web.archive.org): Factory Pipe's Yamaha WaveRunner GP800 Exhaust Systems, by Jeff Hain (Personal Watercraft Illustrated, December 1998, Wayback capture), Personal Watercraft Illustrated, 1998-12; enthusiast media, medium. The magazine's test of a Factory Pipe twin exhaust for the Yamaha GP800, twice naming Factory Pipe owner Ross Liberty. Phone numbers in its supplier list are removed from the held copy; the product verdicts are not used.
- IJSBA hall of fame page (ijsba.com): The Jacobsen-Stjernstrom IJSBA Hall of Fame (IJSBA page), International Jet Sports Boating Association; sanctioning body, high. The association's own roster, read on 22 September 2026, giving the hall's name, its creation and dedication in 2006, and inductees by year to 2014, names only. It publishes no selection criteria and no citation for anyone.
Cite this page
“Ross Liberty”, BaddJet archive, https://baddjetarchive.com/key-figures/ross-liberty/
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0 titles on the record · 6 sourced facts · 6 documents