Stainless exhaust worth it in your opinions?

[neil.]

Hey folks,

The stock can on my YBR has seen a few harsh winters and is rusting in various places, especially on the downpipe and the underside of the silencer. I noticed that Motad do a stainless exhaust for this bike but it costs double that of the stock (about £200 vs £100ish). Would it be a worthwhile upgrade, as in, would it last longer than 2 or more stock cans? How well do stainless exhausts bear up in the british weather, if used every day, all year round? I've read in some places they will last the life of the bike, but in other cases they rot in the same way but more slowly than mild steel? What are your experiences and opinions? Are they worth it from a 'lastability' point of view (not bothered about the 'shinyness/bling' factor)?

Cheers!

Edit: Just found a Motad one for just over £100.... hmmm shall I?
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[herulach]

[neil.]

Bottle is tied to the top half of the left pillion footrest bracket, pipe is routed along the swingarm.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Noxious89123]

Stainless will still rust, but nowhere near as badly. Whereas mild just rusts and goes all flaky and falls to bits, stainless jut seems to get a hard orangey layed on it. Go over it with some wirewool / wirebrush and you have nice shiny solid steel underneath.

Definitely worth it over mild steel pipes imo.
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'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[hmmmnz]

yep they are well worth it,
everybike should come with them!!
cheap bastards
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the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Robby]

Go for stainless. If you want to be cheaper and have some tools and time you can make stainless downpipes using pre-bent sections of pipe and welding them together.

I'm doing this at the moment because no-one makes a stainless exhaust (or even a replica of the original in mild steel) for my bike. Two downpipes is costing me about 90 quid in materials and mig wire, then another 60 for a fair of cheap generic silencers. The silencers will rust through but they're cheap.

[Ariel Badger]

If you are going to sell the bike use mild steel but if it is a keeper go stainless.
You will not get back the investment of a SS system on the market but it will pay for itself on your own bike.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[DrDonnyBrago]

Stainless will last a long time, mild steel has no long term place in bike exhausts.

[neil.]

Thanks very muchly for the responses. Looks like stainless is a goer as I will be keeping the bike.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Kickstart]

Hi

Stainless steel shouldn't rust (except a few grades that probably shouldn't be used on an exhaust). It can crack, and a badly designed exhaust will likely suffer from this. And it is not unknown for people to make stainless exhausts with mild steel bits inside (ie, baffles in the silencer) or mild steel sections (ie, standard Bandit exhausts that are stainless except for a 2" section under the engine).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[neil.]

Thanks Keith. This is the actual system: https://www.motad.co.uk/product.php?prod=YAMAHA+YBR125

Looks like it's completely stainless on the outside. No idea about the baffle, but there's no catalyst inside, according to them. Also, I'd assume the muffler will attach to the downpipe as an interference fit with a clamp, which is different from the stock system, which is is one piece, all welded together?

Cheers.
____________________
CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Kickstart]

Hi

Looks decent enough. Looks like the silencer section has a couple fo slits in it at the join to allow it to clamp to the down pipes.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[ZRX61]

80,000+ miles & 11 years on this stainless Muzzy system...
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/ZRX61/Vehicles/ZRX11003.jpg

[DrDonnyBrago]

80,000 miles without even a rusty horn!

Do you have shares in ACF50 ? Bike parts I can see look very tidy .

[c_dug]

Shows what british weather does to a bike, I'll pop a picture or two of my 100k mile NTV and you will see the difference
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[ZRX61]

[neil.]

Ordered the new Motad can for £99.99 + £12 for delivery. Just need to source a pair of decent stainless bolts for the header, as they don't supply em, but can't for the life of me find any information as to the correct length of the ones I need (nothing in parts/service books). Will have to measure one of the existing ones when I disassemble methinks... I've started praying to the God of motorcycling that the bolts will come out easily in one piece, with the help of the holy liquid that is penetrating fluid, dispensed over a few days and nights, with a sacrificial virgin thrown in for good measure!
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[herulach]

[.]

£170 plus vat = £199 - £99 is probably a typo

[andys675]

motad have been selling their exhausts themselves on ebay under the ebay ID motad1 a lot of them half RRP, got my fazer downpipes off them direct for £139.99 instead of £280 list price, which was even better than the inferior delkevic ones at £170-180
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Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

[neil.]

Yes it was listed at £99.99 on eBay under motad1, but the listings ended. I emailed them asking if they were going to relist as I would definitely buy one, they said if I phone and order one, they'll honour the price, so I did. The eBay listing said that they'd like feedback and pics of it installed as they've only recently started making that system.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[bruno22rf]

Stainless steel is not as strong as the higher tensile steel normally used for header bolts so if you must use them make sure you smother them in copper slip incase you ever need to remove them-they dont rust in as such but S/S reacts with alloy when wet and will corrode itself in solid.Your header bolts will be a fine pitch metric-standard are course-most likely 8 or 10 mm x 1.5-look in your yellow pages for your local engineering suppliers-or ask your local dealer for one standard bolt (if you dont have the originals) and send it to one of the bolt dealers on ebay.

[neil.]

Cool, didn't know that about stainless steel seizing like that, although plenty of copper grease will be going on the bolts/gasket. Ordered the genuine bolts off a Yammy dealer.
____________________
CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Bezzer]

[bruno22rf]

Apologies for slightly incorrect info-point i was trying to make is that S/S is not as strong as the steel used in everyday bolts+at what point did i suggest that steel does,nt rust?-simply pointing out that fitting S/S does not mean that corrosion is no longer an issue (decent S/S such as en56am takes a shit load of abuse b4 it will show any signs of corrosion)+hands up for bad pitch info-its bin nearly 20 years since i was an engineer-should,ve checked.