I'll start with with a full and transparent disclosure - I'm not a fan of noisy exhausts, and this colours my judgement. Although that means I come across as skeptical, I'm still interested in what people say.
So there are a lot of posts / threads about exhausts here, and I honestly find it a bit baffling.
Firstly, I have seen people saying the standard exhaust is crap. What is it about the standard exhaust that is wrong?
As far as I can see, a replacement exhaust might add a few BHP - the dyno results I've seen seem to show about 4 - 5 maximum, which on a 74 bhp bike doesn't seem like a huge gain. Considering the replacement exhaust is usually somewhere between 10 - 20% of the cost of the bike itself, is that really what people are looking for?
Or, is it the sound? I (and I know I'm in a minority here) quite like the noise the standard exhaust makes. It's quiet, for sure, but it's not offensive, and doesn't screech like an inline twin does. Is it bad enough to warrant spending half a grand or more on a new one? I'm entirely discounting the absurd here, by the way. I can see the standard Akrapovic for example changes the noise entirely (which I'm not against, just pretty indifferent to), but I have also had some dick who has taken his baffles out to bully his way through traffic by revving the nuts off it to startle motorists, come racing up behind me. Yeah, sure, I'll get out of your way reeeeaaaall soon, I'm just giving you some time to admire my 15 foot wide MT07. Anyway, I digress/rant.
I know this is entirely horses for courses, but the way I see it is that some people seem to spend several thousand pounds making their bikes look and sound like a 1 litre superbike, whereas when I decided I also wanted something that looked and sounded like a 1 litre superbike, I bought a 1 litre superbike, for quite a lot less money than some people spend on their MT07.
I'm not targeting anyone here (well, except that one guy . . . ) and I am aware and completely on board with mods and customisation, but to me customisation is 50 quid for a set of heated grips - I'd be interested to know how you justify the hundreds or even thousands some people spend replacing things that (to me) seem perfectly adequate.
So there are a lot of posts / threads about exhausts here, and I honestly find it a bit baffling.
Firstly, I have seen people saying the standard exhaust is crap. What is it about the standard exhaust that is wrong?
As far as I can see, a replacement exhaust might add a few BHP - the dyno results I've seen seem to show about 4 - 5 maximum, which on a 74 bhp bike doesn't seem like a huge gain. Considering the replacement exhaust is usually somewhere between 10 - 20% of the cost of the bike itself, is that really what people are looking for?
Or, is it the sound? I (and I know I'm in a minority here) quite like the noise the standard exhaust makes. It's quiet, for sure, but it's not offensive, and doesn't screech like an inline twin does. Is it bad enough to warrant spending half a grand or more on a new one? I'm entirely discounting the absurd here, by the way. I can see the standard Akrapovic for example changes the noise entirely (which I'm not against, just pretty indifferent to), but I have also had some dick who has taken his baffles out to bully his way through traffic by revving the nuts off it to startle motorists, come racing up behind me. Yeah, sure, I'll get out of your way reeeeaaaall soon, I'm just giving you some time to admire my 15 foot wide MT07. Anyway, I digress/rant.
I know this is entirely horses for courses, but the way I see it is that some people seem to spend several thousand pounds making their bikes look and sound like a 1 litre superbike, whereas when I decided I also wanted something that looked and sounded like a 1 litre superbike, I bought a 1 litre superbike, for quite a lot less money than some people spend on their MT07.
I'm not targeting anyone here (well, except that one guy . . . ) and I am aware and completely on board with mods and customisation, but to me customisation is 50 quid for a set of heated grips - I'd be interested to know how you justify the hundreds or even thousands some people spend replacing things that (to me) seem perfectly adequate.