So the Devil Exhaust company in France finally delivered the racer exhaust for my CBF125 Stunner. Four weeks for delivery.... ridiculous... but once I had opened the box everything was forgiven.
The stainless steel is beautiful and the construction is very tidy with narrow welds and rivetting. I am very cynical of "easy to fit" replacement exhausts but the Devil bolted in place with minimal jiggling. It's a two man job though (or a one man job for a three armed man!) but only because there are three parts to the exhaust and you need to support it all as you tighten up the bolts. But it took 15 minutes and required no gasket material to seal it. Marvellous!
... and the result. Well I am thrilled with it. At the exit to the exhaust there is a baffle ( "a decibel killer") retained by one rivet. Drilling out the rivet and replacing it with a nut and bolt made it removable. With the baffle in place the noise is louder than standard but still within legal limits. The noise is richer though and belies the small capacity of the engine.
With the baffle removed the bike sounds remarkable. Even on idle it has the depth of sound you would expect from a bike of 4 times the capacity. Rev the engine and it sounds like armageddon...great then...but you better have a good relationship with your neighbours.
As for performance, the bike is faster than standard with the baffle in place and about the same with the baffle removed. I suspect the mixture is weak with the straight through pipe. I put the baffle back in. The neighbours love me again and the bike goes really well: revving more freely and feeling less restricted at full throttle.
A good investment? Yes, for sure. It looks so much better than the standard exhaust and the stainless steel might resist the British winter a bit better than the painted original.
