Arrow Superbike Dual Round Titanium Slip-Ons
Arrow Superbike Dual Round Titanium Slip-Ons
CW EVALUATION
Double the mufflers, double the fun
OKAY, SO YOU JUST BOUGHT AN Aprilia RSV Mule and you're looking for a way to add a little oomph, both functionally and visually. Ordinarily, a slip-on muffler would increase flow, but how are you going to improve upon the Mille's silencer, which sets new standards for length and width?
By fitting two mufflers, that’s how. Italian manufacturer Arrow now offers “shotgun-style” tandem slipons that look trick, boost power and, because they’re made of titanium, weigh half as much as the Mille’s clunky 17-pound stocker. Yet they’re hardly more difficult to install: The only steps out of the ordinary are that you have to bolt the two mufflers together using the supplied carbon-fiber clamp, and replace the stock right-side footpeg bracket with the included polished-aluminum hanger. (Yes, this means you lose one passenger peg; in the interest of symmetry, we removed the other one as well.) Total installation time is 15 minutes, max.
U.S. importer CycleMall.net includes a free EPROM chip with purchase (a $60 value), so we installed that, too. And in so doing, we learned a valuable lesson: The metal prongs on the Mille’s stock EPROM are extremely delicate, enough so that we irreversibly damaged ours while removing it. Fortunately, the Arrow EPROM snapped right in without drama.
DETAILS
CycleMall.net 208 Technology Dr., #F Irvine, CA 92618 949/453-1199 www.cyclemall.net Price $975
Twice as nice as stock Half as heavy Noticeably improved performance
Expensive, even with a free chip Only one-legged passengers need apply
The results were definitely worthwhile. As tested in our July, 2000, issue-with its airbox and muffler restrictors removed and the appropriate wire exiting its ECU clipped, which activates an alternate “map”-our test Mille made 108.5 horsepower and 65.8 foot-pounds of torque. And while installing the Arrow system only increased peak ponies by a few decimal points and torque by 2 ft.-lbs., there were substantial gains in both between 5500 and 8500 rpm-right in the meat of the V-Twin’s powerband.
Riding the Mille in a Club Desmo meeting at Buttonwillow Raceway confirmed the dyno’s findings. The increase in power was definitely noticeable, and the already excellent throttle response was smoother yet. We were concerned about the proximity of the upper muffler to the right turnsignal and the rider’s boot heel, but neither proved problematic. And as an added bonus, the Mille’s exhaust note was throatier, yet only slightly louder than stock.
Take that to mean Arrow has hit the bull’s-eye. U
