This post is from my thread about pictures of my bike, but since I spent so much time doing this writeup, I thought it would be worth making just a thread about all the different exhausts I've used throughout the year and a half ownership of my 2006 zx14. With all the exhausts, my bike setup has been the same (save for installing a 16t front sprocket for a short stint on the Muzzy m10 and Brocks Alien Head).
My bikes consists of the following....
2006 Kawi zx14
PCIII usb
Flies removed
Pipercross race filter
The exhausts I've used are....
Stock (obviously)
Tsukigi
Muzzy m10 (the original, not the m14/m10)
*Important note: The Muzzy pipe I was using was the original design. Since that time, Muzzy has come out with the stepped header m14 version. That pipe is lightyears better then the original that I tested. It is fully tig welded, and quality of build is on par with, or better then the Brocks imo. Sticks m14 equipped bike romped my bike on two seperate dyno days (Tsukigi and Brocks equipped). Comparing other m14 equipped bikes, I've come to the conclusion that his bike just finds another 4-5 whp. All in all, get an m14, not an original muzzys...... cause the originals suck.
Brocks Alien Head
Orient Express (this exhaust is made by Ti-Force for Orient Express)
Power: I like the alien head and the orient express the best. The alien head undoubtedly makes the most hp out of all the pipes. It's noticeable in the ride! The alien head used to loft the tire so badly in 2nd that I had to go back to a 17t front sprocket. None of the other pipes did that. All the 3 other exhausts are similar in power (as far as I can tell). I would guess that the power goes Orient Express being second, Muzzy m10, and Tsukigi (all trailing the Brocks of course).
Quality: The build quality of the brocks and muzzy are lacking in comparison to the orient express (ti-force) and tsukigi. It's not even close! The orient and tsukigi look like works of art, and the brocks and muzzy pipes look like they were built by a muffler shop. To be fair, the muzzy pipe was even lower quality then the brocks. One thing that hurt the Brocks (as far as quality goes) was how thin the piping was. It was so thin that the spot welds for the spring tabs left large bumps on the inside of the piping. I know it's much more difficult to weld thin piping.
Fitment: Fitment was where the brocks pipe really shined. All the other pipes stick out below or equal with the oil drain plug guard, but the brocks is higher then even the sump. The Muzzys was the easiest to assmble because it was just 2 pieces. All the others were equally frustrating (but not all that bad).
Sound: Though my opinion counts for little, I thought I would still air out my thoughts about the sound of each pipe. For street riding, the Orient Express is the nicest. It is deep and smooth with no raspy undertones. It's not the same deep that you get with a shorty pipe (like the m10 or alien head), but it's still deep. The sound is what you would expect from a liter bike, with 352 more ccs..... Still has that f1 high revving wail to it, but a little deeper. It is calm when riding regularly, but opens up when you get on it. The Tsukigi (I think it's muffler packing was burnt out of it), muzzy m10, and brocks all made a blat blat blat sound at about 1,500 rpms. That really annoyed me. At the track, the Muzzy m10 and the Brocks alien head sounded equally good. Real aggressive, and real deep. They aren't as deep as a Brocks Smeg, but they are still much deeper then a canister style exhaust. Both the Brocks and m10 were tiring on your ears if you were riding for more then 50 miles at a time. I would suggest ear plugs if you go on longer rides with the muzzy m10 or brocks alien head. IMO, the m10 is a little quieter then the Brocks, but that's like saying one sumo wrestler is fatter then another...... They are both fat......
Mapping: With all the exhaust systems, I ran flies out. For the Tsukigi, I got a map from HPC (zx14.net). It was a good map but ran rich up top. I considered getting a custom map as I suspected the map was a little fat in areas. All in all, it was a good map, but down on power compared to the others. The Tsukigi made the least power of the group. For the muzzy m10, I tried my Tsukigi map, and a map for a ti-force (each of them complete garbage). Then I got the map from muzzys, and it was ok. Having this map on my bike made me realize that the mapping for the Tsukigi was actually pretty good. This was the worst mapped pipe I had. If I would have kept it longer, I probably would have gotten a custom tune. The brocks was......surprise, surprise...... the best mapped pipe of the bunch. I got my maps from brock, and I never even considered getting it custom tuned. I got a dyno done (to check hp), and the tune was perfect. When I got my Orient Express pipe, I just left the Brocks street map on the bike, and I have no need to change it. I have a map from hpc and from orient express, but I never even tried them out. The Brocks map is very smooth, even with the orient express map loaded.
Important note: I was comparing maps, and the muzzy and brocks maps were almost exactly identical. There were something like 14 different cells out of close to 500 cells. I'm guessing that muzzy just used brocks map.
Pricing: These prices are the cheapest that I've found them
Brocks: $1000 (but it comes with excellent maps)
Orient Express: $775 (the map looks pretty good that comes with it, but I've just been running the brocks map)
Tsukigi: $750 (doesn't come with a map, but the vender might give you one. The one from HPC is pretty good and he gives you the map if you buy the pipe from him)
Muzzy m10: $800
Conclusion: Don't get me wrong, I liked all of the pipes, but if I had to rate them, I would rate them.....
Orient Express
Brocks Alien Head
Tsukigi
Muzzy m10
This takes everything into account....... For my needs, the orient express looks the part, sounds great, fits the budget, and makes almost as much power as the Brocks.
Videos I have......
Tsukigi Full System Sound Clip
Muzzy m14 vs Brocks Smeg vs Brocks Alien Head
Orient Express Full System Sound Clip
[large image sizes reduced 3/20/10 -bg]
* Last updated by: bgordon on 3/20/2010 @ 10:16 AM *
