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jrandom
7th December 2004, 13:20
The exhaust baffling on my bike is munted, it's not generating ideal backpressure and therefore losing power, and the pipes aren't shiny. Can't have that, can we?

Now, Victorian Motorcycle Wreckers have three full chromed steel factory Zeal exhausts for sale.

In order from left to right on the attached photos, they're scraped-and-oxidised for $200, slightly-dinged for $300, and mint for $450.

Shipping will be about $100 to get whichever set I choose.

Now, I can probably find enough cash for the most shiny and expensive set, but... should I?

Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be phoning my order through in the morning.

vifferman
7th December 2004, 13:26
Wot about, Option D - None of the above. :spudwhat:

I can see why they have a tendency to auto-munt; they look rather vulnerable (or is that just the photo?)
Time to invent the MightyMuntproofZealUnderseatZorstSystem™ :headbang:

Or is that the MightyZealMuntproofUnderseatAndUnderseaZorstSystem ™ ? :spudwhat:

Sniper
7th December 2004, 13:30
Always get the better one, unless you are really keen on a scratched one, but I would suggest a brand new one

Motoracer
7th December 2004, 13:30
I think if the exterior of your current mufflers are in OK condition. Look into the costs of replacing the baffel.

Otherwise, insted of spending 550, I'd try to get a quote from neptune. I can't imagine a new pair being a hell of a lot more.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 13:32
A quote from Neptune?

Who do I call, then?

jrandom
7th December 2004, 13:35
I think if the exterior of your current mufflers are in OK condition. Look into the costs of replacing the baffel.

I want the chrome all over, though. It's just nasty rusty pipes at the moment with a chrome cover on the muffler. Yucky.

An AM zorst would be way cool, but see my above post... who can help, then?

Motoracer
7th December 2004, 13:38
Here you go man: http://www.neptunemufflers.co.nz/

riffer
7th December 2004, 13:45
Buy the cheapest ones. Rip out the baffles. Put them in your ones.

Hitcher
7th December 2004, 13:46
Do the right thing by the world's best four-cylinder 250. Hmmmm. Chrome.

What was your line again about the ideal exhaust note for a Zeal? "Like butter melting into a tub of KY Jelly."

Hitcher
7th December 2004, 13:49
Don't forget that the Victorian Wreckers' price is for everything from the farm to the fart. Neptune will quote on a can/cans only. You'll still be up for pipe mods and fitting costs. $450 looks more attractive by the moment...

jrandom
7th December 2004, 13:57
Well, Neptune can't help me, but Custom Chambers in East Tamaki can.

$350 for a four-into-one set of headers, $300 for a new single muffler, and $240 to chrome it all.

So - $890, just for an exhaust system for my wee 250? It'd look and sound great, but I'm not paying out that much, for this bike.

I think I'll just buy the cheap one or maybe the middle-o-t'road one from Vic Wreckers... I'm bound to drop the thing at some point, anyway. Sigh.

vifferman
7th December 2004, 14:10
Well, Neptune can't help me, but Custom Chambers in East Tamaki can.

$350 for a four-into-one set of headers, $300 for a new single muffler, and $240 to chrome it all.Why would you need the headers? Does the current system not go four-into-one-into-two? Why can't you just buy a slip-on of some sort and slip it on?

Custom Chambers are plonkers anyway. He's the guy who said he'd have to cut my mufflers open to quieten them, after I explained to him my alternative idea. So, exasperated with three different muffler dudes who didn't seem to be able to think outside the pipe, I went to Woolf's with a crude diagram, said, "Make these, please", and 2 days and $60 later, the beast was quietened. Some judicial tuning with a hacksaw, and Bingo! Voila! Hey Presto! Abracadabra! Bob's your auntie.

Anyhoo - if you go with the Vic Wreckers option, you should have no problems with WOFs and the like, or your bike needing rejetting, or that sort of thing.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 14:20
Why would you need the headers? Does the current system not go four-into-one-into-two? Why can't you just buy a slip-on of some sort and slip it on?

I have a mental picture of four-into-two coming side-by-side up to the cans, but it's sitting at Spectrum and I've already bothered the poor man enough today with my obsessive-compulsive fettling requests, so I'll just look at it again later this afternoon. If it's four-into-one already, no reason not to just get CC to make me a new slip-on, although I fear the likelihood of it needing all sorts of finickity twiddling to run properly afterwards. I don't want the bike to suddenly develop a powerband and refuse to idle, or anything. Or mebbe I just shouldn't worry. :spudwhat:


if you go with the Vic Wreckers option, you should have no problems with WOFs and the like, or your bike needing rejetting, or that sort of thing.

Indeed.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 15:42
Right. Done.

I needed a new tacho unit as well. Vic Wreckers had one of those for $125, so I've bought that and the $200 exhaust. I decided that looking pretty wasn't worth the extra money.

And yes, the exhaust is four-into-two. A single slip-on wouldn't be an option.

Once the new zorst is on, it'll be AMPS gas-analyser tuning time, I think. The carbs were *way* out of balance; the bike idles and revs much, much better after some attention from the nice men at Spectrum, who also spot-welded the existing baffling so that it doesn't come entirely adrift and punch out the windscreen of some car behind me on the motorway.

vifferman
7th December 2004, 15:50
Right. Done.

I needed a new tacho unit as well. Vic Wreckers had one of those for $125, so I've bought that and the $200 exhaust. I decided that looking pretty wasn't worth the extra money.Fairy Nuff.
But what was the point of your poll? One hundred percent (100% !) of your respondents opted for the $450, and yet you ignored their sagely wisdom or their wise sagedom, or their sage-flavoured slippers, and opted for El Crappo!
She's an ugly brute.

Is it sound (and by that, I mean of limb - if zorsts have such - not of toot)?
If this was your choice, how much uglier and unsounderer was the Blakamin'd one?

aff-man
7th December 2004, 16:09
Mate you shoud've just customized. I did it for the vt250 got the conversion things (needed like a big to small flange but you could get a 2 into 1) made up and stuck a viffer400 zorst on the vt250, Sounded great went good all for like $100. :headbang:

Blakamin
7th December 2004, 16:59
Buy the cheapest ones. Rip out the baffles. Put them in your ones.
Not an option as the pipes are a bit thin....

If this was your choice, how much uglier and unsounderer was the Blakamin'd one?
Its a piece of steel tube with LotsaHoles™ and wrapped with zorst stuffing and rammed on the end of the outlets so as to have "some" backpressure and a bit less sewing machine noise.. the pipes are pretty thin and in some spots I had the local bro-in-law weld some plates on them

Blakamin
7th December 2004, 17:00
Mate you shoud've just customized. I did it for the vt250 got the conversion things (needed like a big to small flange but you could get a 2 into 1) made up and stuck a viffer400 zorst on the vt250, Sounded great went good all for like $100. :headbang:
Thats what I was gunna do... a nice chrome single pipe just to confuse more people as to what it was!

jrandom
7th December 2004, 17:41
Fairy Nuff.
But what was the point of your poll? One hundred percent (100% !) of your respondents opted for the $450, and yet you ignored their sagely wisdom or their wise sagedom, or their sage-flavoured slippers, and opted for El Crappo!
She's an ugly brute.

Firstly, the necessity of a new tacho pushed the importance of price up.

The point of my poll was not to give me something to slavishly follow, but rather to stimulate discussion. As it happens, I wouldn't have called Neptune and Custom Chambers without this thread, so it served its purpose.

Also, as expected, everyone who *doesn't* have to pay the cash out of their own pockets thinks that the shiny one is best... ;)


Is it sound (and by that, I mean of limb - if zorsts have such - not of toot)?
If this was your choice, how much uglier and unsounderer was the Blakamin'd one?

I grilled the man at Vic Wreckers on this point, and he has assured me on the honour of his dead relatives, and even the ones who are just a bit sick, that it is mechanically tiptop.

The current pipes are not chromed, and are therefore insufficiently pretty for my exacting requirements. And see Blakamin's comments re. industrial build quality of the existing mufflage.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 18:05
Mate you shoud've just customized.

Yeeaaaahhh... mebbe. :spudwhat:

But in the end, it's just another 250cc commuter, isn't it? I just can't bring myself to spend more time or dollars on it than I have to, although I'll do whatever's needed to get it in proper condition. Cosmetics and sound are near the bottom of the list, though. The only real reason I'm buying another zorst for the thing is so that I can consign Blakamin's, er, 'special' mufflers to a well-deserved resting place... :p

Blakamin
7th December 2004, 18:09
yup...they'd look good at the tip...or in a museum for "ingenuity in the face of no $$$" (was seriously broke when I did them)
or keep them for a zeal owner that might need them one day!

aff-man
7th December 2004, 18:15
Yeeaaaahhh... mebbe. :spudwhat:

But in the end, it's just another 250cc commuter, isn't it? I just can't bring myself to spend more time or dollars on it than I have to, although I'll do whatever's needed to get it in proper condition. Cosmetics and sound are near the bottom of the list, though. The only real reason I'm buying another zorst for the thing is so that I can consign Blakamin's, er, 'special' mufflers to a well-deserved resting place... :p

well it might cost less to customise. And a louder bike is safer cause people hear you coming hehehe

Bonez
7th December 2004, 18:54
Non of them. Get a two into one adapter made up and buy a cheap as chips after market dunstall replica or reverse cone muffler. WFO have a good selection to choose from and any good bike shop should be able to aquire them.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 19:17
well it might cost less to customise. And a louder bike is safer cause people hear you coming hehehe

Chroo, indeed. I'm just being lazy and grumpy and buying something that I *know* will fit and do the trick.

Hey, it's only $200. If I have the leisure and cash at any future point, I might have a poke around for a sexy single can... I'll feel better about doing that now that I've bought a banged-up stock set, you see. :whistle:

aff-man
7th December 2004, 19:28
yeh just check into atomic or mt eden they usually have some old pipes going cheap then a flange made ny pit stop, some welding at home and you have yourself a custom 2 into 1 muffler system. Sing out if you ever need a hand :Punk: :Punk: :Punk:

Wellyman
7th December 2004, 19:29
Come and see us at atomic motorcycle wreckers!! we may be able to help you we are open monday to saturday.

jrandom
7th December 2004, 19:52
Come and see us at atomic motorcycle wreckers!! we may be able to help you we are open monday to saturday.

Ah yes. Well, I work just around the corner, so I'll wander by and have a look sometime. Er... do you want the old exhaust system once it's off, then? Better than nothing if another Zeal owner ever needs something that works.

One of the guys at work has just got his TIG welding cert and is going to buy a welder, so perhaps I'll test his mad pipe-welding skillz once he gets set up at home. I could have different exhausts for different days of the week... bit of quick bolting and unbolting, and I'll have a note to match my mood.

Blakamin
7th December 2004, 20:07
bit of quick bolting and unbolting, and I'll have a note to match my mood.
I thought about that.... and settled on LOUD!!!! :D
:shifty:

Yamahamaman
7th December 2004, 20:08
some welding at home and you have yourself a custom 2 into 1 muffler system. Sing out if you ever need a hand :Punk: :Punk: :Punk:
Yeah, good on you.

In case you didn't know, the manufacturers of your motorcycle have invested M$$$ in developing the best exhaust/carburation/injection solution for the best results.

When you complain about the performance of your motorcycle, I'll remind you of your "modifications".

riffer
7th December 2004, 20:57
Yeah, good on you.

In case you didn't know, the manufacturers of your motorcycle have invested M$$$ in developing the best exhaust/carburation/injection solution for the best results.

When you complain about the performance of your motorcycle, I'll remind you of your "modifications".
Maybe, maybe not.

Actually the manufacturers of the motorcycle have invested M$$$ to develop the best exhaust/carburretion/injection solution for the best results possible while still meeting emission/noise standards.

FROSTY
7th December 2004, 21:13
dude why not just fit a 4 into 1 from a fzr250?
itll do the same job and be heaps cheaper

aff-man
7th December 2004, 21:30
Yeah, good on you.

In case you didn't know, the manufacturers of your motorcycle have invested M$$$ in developing the best exhaust/carburation/injection solution for the best results.

When you complain about the performance of your motorcycle, I'll remind you of your "modifications".

hell the vt ran better with the zorst mods i made so what does that say about the manufacturers $M$$ ??????.

Yamahamaman
7th December 2004, 21:43
hell the vt ran better with the zorst mods i made so what does that say about the manufacturers $M$$ ??????.
Unless you have the dyno printouts before and after the mods, I have to doubt your comments.

jrandom
8th December 2004, 07:43
dude why not just fit a 4 into 1 from a fzr250?
itll do the same job and be heaps cheaper

Because... oh, I dunno. I have an inexplicable desire to just make the thing stock.

It's already running noticeably better just from welding the existing baffles into the existing cans. Exhausts do make such a difference.

Hitcher
8th December 2004, 16:16
I have an inexplicable desire to just make the thing stock.

Good boy! You'll reap your reward in Yamaha heaven.

Blakamin
8th December 2004, 16:36
It's already running noticeably better just from welding the existing baffles into the existing cans. Exhausts do make such a difference.
Ya shoulda ridden her when they waz empty!!! :sleep:
I wouldve welded them but the boss still hasnt forked out for a mig...... :confused2

WINJA
10th December 2004, 17:28
Well, Neptune can't help me, but Custom Chambers in East Tamaki can.

$350 for a four-into-one set of headers, $300 for a new single muffler, and $240 to chrome it all.

So - $890, just for an exhaust system for my wee 250? It'd look and sound great, but I'm not paying out that much, for this bike.

I think I'll just buy the cheap one or maybe the middle-o-t'road one from Vic Wreckers... I'm bound to drop the thing at some point, anyway. Sigh.
$890 IS TOO MUCH YOU SHOULDNT SPEND MORE THAN THE BIKE IS ACTUALLY WORTH JUST ON A REPAIR .ARE YOUR HEADERS AND MIDPIE USABLE, ARE YOU HANDY WITH A WELDER AND HACKSAW ? YOU CAN PROBABLY MAKE SOMETHING YOURSELF OR GET FROSTY TO HELP YOU

jrandom
10th December 2004, 20:56
$890 IS TOO MUCH YOU SHOULDNT SPEND MORE THAN THE BIKE IS ACTUALLY WORTH JUST ON A REPAIR.

My point exactly. I might spend the money if it was a bike I'd be keeping for a while longer, not just flicking on in a year or two.


ARE YOUR HEADERS AND MIDPIE USABLE, ARE YOU HANDY WITH A WELDER AND HACKSAW ? YOU CAN PROBABLY MAKE SOMETHING YOURSELF OR GET FROSTY TO HELP YOU

Everything's fine except the end cans, and the fact that the pipes aren't chromed. And me, handy? Nope. But I have friends in places with TIG welders and the will to use 'em, so I'm sure I could have some sexy-smooth pipe-joinin' going on if I needed it.

But, like I said, I've decided that I just want the thing stock (even if a little bashed up) which is why I've got the zorsts from the wreckers.

WINJA
10th December 2004, 21:22
My point exactly. I might spend the money if it was a bike I'd be keeping for a while longer, not just flicking on in a year or two.



Everything's fine except the end cans, and the fact that the pipes aren't chromed. And me, handy? Nope. But I have friends in places with TIG welders and the will to use 'em, so I'm sure I could have some sexy-smooth pipe-joinin' going on if I needed it.

But, like I said, I've decided that I just want the thing stock (even if a little bashed up) which is why I've got the zorsts from the wreckers.
OK THEN , YOU CAN BUY ALUMINIUM TUBE FROM MICO BY THE METER, AND YOU CAN BUY PERF FROM WOOLF MUFLERS,THEN YOU JUST NEED TO MAKE THEN END CAPS FROM SCRAP STAINLESS, IVE DONE THIS A FEW TIMES AND THEY LOOK AND SOUND GOOD.WHEN YOU GET YOUR PERF YOU CAN PUT MORE HOLES IN IT OF VARYING SIZES TO DAMPEN THE SOUND BETTER, AND YOU CAN USE FIBERGLASS LIKE PINK BATTS FOR PACKING