Alphabet Exhaust
Alphabet Exhaust
EVALUATION
When the long-term Yamaha XS750 Special arrived, we were pleased to see the short mufflers mounted on it. Short mufflers look nice and don’t get in the way. There is room for improvement, however, and a set of Alphabet headers on the Triple pointed up the shortcomings of the stock system.
The Alphabet exhaust is a 3-into-l collector system with the single muffler mounted low on the righthand side of the bike. The headers clamp to the exhaust ports with the stock clamps. Single wall header pipes slip-fit into the collector that's welded to the muffler. On the side of the muffler that fits next to the bike there’s a bracket that clamps to the right rear footpeg. The bracket slides in a small housing on the side of the muffler and has an elongated hole for adjustment of the bracket. Installation is straightforward, requiring only common tools and not needing any bending or welding. A fast worker could have the Alphabet exhaust installed in half an hour.
Alphabet's exhaust for the Yamaha weighs 12 lb. The stock Yamaha exhaust weighs 28 lb. Getting rid of 16 lb. on a 546 lb. motorcycle may not seem like much, but there are lots of more difficult methods.
At the dragstrip the Yamaha with the Alphabet turned a best time of 13.12 sec. at 102.73 mph. With the stock system installed on the same day, the best time was 13.44 sec. at 97.82 mph. A third of a second and 5 mph is a commendable increase in performance.
At the other side of that trade-off is noise. The Alphabet exhaust is loud by any standard. Measured by the California Highway Patrol test, the Alphabet equipped Triple recorded 95 db(A). The stock exhaust produced a sound of 83 db(A) under the same test conditions. Translated into human terms, the Alphabet exhaust is loud enough to get you a ticket, is loud enough to make drivers in the next lane roll up their windows and is loud enough to make a rider’s ears ring after a long ride.
In day-to-day use the noise was the only
objection. Both sidestand and centerstand remained in use with the Alphabet exhaust. The oil drain plug could still be reached and even the oil filter housing could be pulled with the exhaust installed, although the fit was close. Ground clearance wasn't a problem, although the cornering clearance on the righthand side was slightly less with the Alphabet than with the stock system. The difference may be two or three degrees difference in lean angle.
Because the header pipes are single wall, they began to blue almost immediately after installation. By the time the exhaust had 1000 mi. of use, the top 8 in. of tubing had become a dark blue. After about 1000 mi. the muffler bracket broke on the exhaust. but the muffler didn't fall off or drag and it was only a small rattle that showed up. indicating the bracket broke.
The Alphabet exhaust did improve performance and did put out more noise. Cost is $154.95 from Alphabet's Custom West Corp., 12572 Western Ave., Garden Grove, Calif. 92641 (714) 897-3561.
