Which exhaust do I buy?

[jrandom]

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]

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™

Or is that the MightyZealMuntproofUnderseatAndUnderseaZorstSystem™ ? :spudwhat:

[Sniper]

Always get the better one, unless you are really keen on a scratched one, but I would suggest a brand new one

[Motoracer]

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]

A quote from Neptune?

Who do I call, then?

[jrandom]

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]

Here you go man: http://www.neptunemufflers.co.nz/

[riffer]

Buy the cheapest ones. Rip out the baffles. Put them in your ones.

[Hitcher]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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?