In general I have been very happy with the performance of the stock V Star 1300, but having been riding it for a while now and getting used to all its little nuances I did decide it could do with a little boost in the low end as I felt I was having to exert a little too much clutch control a little to early and too often when slowing down and when in traffic and a bit of extra torque and rumble wouldn't go amiss either. So I decided it was time for a set of after market exhausts which would give me what I wanted and would also give me that sweeter Harley like exhaust note. My first thought was Vance and Hines as they have probably the best reputation and I have had them before on my V Star 1100 and was happy with them, plus they are easier to get here in the UK. However V&H only do a 2into1 for the 1300 and I am not overly keen on that look and wanted to replace my stock 2into1 with a 2into2.

The next most popular seems to be Cobra , and they have a good choice of exhausts for the 1300 and the sound seemed to be what I wanted. I did initially want the Slashdowns but these proved very elusive and no-one had any as they are very popular it seems, one of my suppliers Eastern Cruisers  told me he could get a set of speedster longs, so I went with that. Unfortunately after they had been fitted it turned out they had had got me the shorts, but I decided to suck it down after all the hassle getting them, I will get a set of slashcut tips to achieve the look I want.

 

In addition I also got the FI2000 digital fuel processor, which is supposed to provide better throttle response, no backfiring and smoother cruising and you need one of these with after market exhausts.

 

Anyway, the result of these exhausts + FI2000, I have no idea how the exhausts perform without the F2000 or how the FI2000 performs with the stock exhaust.

 

PROS

They sound great, much better than stock and are LOUD if that is what you like, at least to the human ear they sound very loud. I have recorded the exhaust note which you can hear in the video below, but it really doesn't sound anywhere near as loud in the video and it doesn't do them justice, you need to hear them in the flesh.

Performance wise there is a definite improvement in the low end, exactly what I wanted in fact. More torque and less clutch control required. You can go faster in lower gears (easily 30mph in 1st, 60mph in 2nd), slower in higher gears, so you no longer feel like you are going to stall if you don't get down to first gear quick enough or when doing a hill start.

 

CONS

While I do love the sound in general and it is useful for "being heard" and tearing up the neighbourhood, I do find it an annoyance on the motorway which is where you appreciate the much quieter note of the stock exhaust, especially on long journeys where you just want to chill out. After an hour or more riding I am usually half deaf. It would be nice to be able to switch between quiet and loud whenever you wanted, like the peacemaker pipes from national cycle, but I wasn't brave enough to buy those :-)

 

In the high end (70mph+) I have lost some torque and performance. Previously I have had this baby at 100mph with more to go. With the cobra exhausts and FI2000 I was at full throttle by the time I got to 100mph. I will be giving the FI2000 pots a tweak to see if I can fix this, I will report back when I have done it, but in general the low end performance improvements are more important to me as I spend more time driving at 30-40mph than I do at 100mph and I have used to it by now anyway :-)

 

There is also increased vibrations. My mirrors now vibrate, even at low speeds, they did not do this before. I also cannot ride so long without a break now, but I am more sensitive to the vibrations than most, so others may not notice this.

If you want to hear how they sound, check out my video on youtube.

 

 

My V star XVS 1100 Silverado has been traded in and I am now the proud owner on the new 2007 Yamaha V Star 1300 or the XVS1300A Midnight Star as it is called in Europe.

While I did love my 1100 I have been having constant issues with it and just decided I had enough and couldn't be bothered trying to resolve them any longer. Which is a shame because I had spent a considerable amount of time and money upgrading it. Hopefully it will go to a better home and will be cared for by someone who is more mechanical, unlike me, I like to ride bikes not work on them.

 

I spent quite a bit of time deciding which bike to upgrade to as I didn't want to spend too much money on something I don't really need (I really should be buying a second car), so I set my budget at £2000. It ended up being a toss up between a used Yamaha Roadstar XVS1700, a used Kawasaki Vulcan VN1600 or a new Yamaha V Star XVS1300. I then narrowed it down to the XVS1300 and VN1600 as I wanted fuel injection and the Roadstar doesn't have this (not on pre 2007 models anyway).

I then found a shop near to where we are moving to next year (P and H Motorcycles) who had both bikes brand new for around the same price £7000 (£4500 trade in on my 1100). I also managed to bring them down £500 from their advertised price too, and they let me take a test ride on both bikes, which is quite rare. Plus I actually purchased 2 bikes from this shop in the past already so I knew they were reliable, so I was prepared to pay a bit more for my bike than I would have done elsewhere.

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I own one of these awsome cruisers, a yamaha vstar 1100 Silverado, and I love it. So I think I am going to dedicate a section of my blog to my bike.

For those that don't know, the stock exhausts that generally come with bikes (especially cruisers) are generally a bit pants. they don't have a very good sound to them and hinder the potential performance. Expect perhaps the Harley Davidsons, which generally sound better.
So I decided to take the plunge and do an upgrade. I put a pair of vance and hines classic II slip-ons onto my bike, and all I can say is WOW! what a difference.
It now has a nice loud rumble that made the bike sound like a hairdryer before, it sounds far more healthy in all gears and at all speeds, the vibrations are reduced at higher speeds, and the performance boost was definitely noticable, I felt I was riding a new more powerful bike. You will find pulling away from lights and hill starts much easier.
For for those of you thinking about replacing your exhausts, do it now, you will not regret it. Many bikers say that you need a FULL EXHAUST system to get the real benefit, well I had a full set of vance and hines on my old bike (vulcan 1600), and these slips-ons are just as good I think. They are certainly just as loud.
Be warned though, the volume increase is substantial, so your neighbours may not be quite so impressed when you roll home at 2AM. You also should be warned about the grin factor, because when you ride your bike out of the shop with your new growlers, you wont stop grinning all the way home.