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Five Worst Standard Motorcycle Exhausts

Here on Exhaust-Notes.com we go out of our way to showcase the full range of aftermarket exhausts available for your bike. And its lucky we do, because as standard motorcycle manufacturers are prepared to send bikes out of their factories equipped with some downright diabolical rears. Whether its because they’re scrimping on costs or because by the designers themselves were exhausted by the time they got to the exhaust, the bikes below represent the lowest of the low.

Now don’t be offended if your bike’s listed here, help is at hand, simply click on the link next to your bike and we’ll show you a range of performance exhausts that will transform your machine’s looks, sound and performance. Disagree with the list? Think we’ve missed a howler? Contact us and set us straight.

So here it is. The hall of shame of ugliest five exhausts to grace a motorbike.

5) Suzuki GSXR 1000 The 2005 Gixxer Thou saw Suzuki make a range of improvements to their infamous track tool to reassert its position at top of the class which had come under threat from the R1, CBR1000RR and ZX10R (see below). They trimmed some weight, they sharpened its lines, they improved the handling and they fitted an all-new exhaust system sporting ‘Suzuki Race Technology’. It tries to mimic the stubby exhausts seen on race bikes on the MotoGP and Superbike grids. It fails. What it lost in length it gained in girth. Yes its titanium, yes its stamped with the words ‘Race Technology’ but I’m betting it’s the first thing GSXR owners change on buying the bike.

4) Honda Transalp The Honda Transalp is a very likeable bike. Sharing the same engine as the ever popular NTV650 with and a nod to Paris-Dakar racers in its style it has proved a steady seller in Honda’s line-up since the mid-nineties. Honda are typically quite conservative in their bike design but with this exhaust they tried to make a statement and got it plain wrong. Perhaps worried that the Transalp didn’t look aggressive enough when it got to the exhaust they went with something that looks like a chrome sawn-off, double-barrelled shotgun. A toy one. The ‘barrels’ feed straight into the sort of collector box you’d expect to find under a Ford Cortina. This is half-hidden by the rear fairing but enough protrudes to know that those chrome end-pipes are a sham. Had they run straight through, now that would have been a different look and sound entirely, and the Transalp might have escaped the humiliation of this list.

3) Yamaha DT125 Its perhaps cruel to include a two stroke machine in this list relying as they do on expansion chambers in the exhaust to extract maximum performance. But having ridden one of these in my youth the exhaust haunts me to this day. Its black, the expansion chamber hangs out of the side of the engine like a distended gut, and it culminates in an end can with the calibre of an air rifle. Plus its matt black and rusts - nuff said.

2) Kawasaki ZX10R Kawasaki’s 2004 ZX10R is an awesome motorcycle. Producing a whopping 155 bhp, weighing only 170g with razor sharp lines and untouchable on the track the ZX10R upped the threshold in its class when launched. The issue with the ZX10R is simply the size of the exhaust. It’s a miracle they managed to keep the weight down to 170kgs when from looking at it you’d think the exhaust itself weighs as much as your average pillion. Perhaps this was a sensible move on Kawasaki’s part; most people who buy a race replica like the ZX10R are going to upgrade the exhaust within the first year of ownership. Kawasaki decided not to waste development budget on a high-spec factory exhaust when it was going to be ditched within weeks of purchase. But the fact remains that the standard exhaust on the Kawasaki is unforgivably large and as such it charts here at number 2.

1) BMW F650 Scarver Here’s another ‘statement’ bike, this time from BMW. There’s a lot I don’t like about the Scarver but I’m not here to criticise the whole package, just the exhaust. And it’s a mutant. The Scarver’s sister model, the standard F650, sports a fairly bulky exhaust, but at least its half-slung under the seat to conceal its bulk. Not so with the Scarver, the exhaust exits alongside the swingarm in full view. To add insult to injury BMW have blotted some completely superfluous plastic panels to it, and capped the whole thing off with a black plastic teat. Yuck.