VF500F Aftermarket Exhaust Systems from Back in the Day

The caveat is that aftermarket systems can negatively affect the performance.

Without dialing in the jetting and putting the bike on a dynamometer it is a bit hard to have quantifiable data on the HP ratings.

 

True beans

 

I'm the one that bought this one, I'll have installed pics and videos when it gets here. Interestingly, Mac is reissuing many old systems, maybe if enough people asked/bugged them enough they'd add our bikes to the list.

 

I'm not too sure about those Mac systems.
A friend of mine with a early 80's Suzuki picked one up because it was the only aftermarket system offered and it has a pretty unpleasant baffle rattling.
I'm not really a fan of the quality of products I've seen from them so far.

Hopefully the ones you picked up work great

 

Please keep us posted! Thx.

 

I will check around & see if I have any photos left from those days..

 

Many thanks!

 

well, I could not find any photos of my old race bike, but I did stumble across an e-bay add for a VF500F with the same system on it. If you notice, the right muffler ends at the edge of the rear tire & the left ends before the rear axle. Honda : Interceptor: eBay Motors (item 290463856977 end time Aug-20-10 16:11:53 PDT)

 

I wonder what kind of replacements for the 700 there are?

 

Thanks for the follow up post.

 

I finally made it home. When I get a chance to get to my storage I'll take some pictures of my Hindle system. I will say that when I modified my chin fairing it wasn't like what has been shown. I cut mine on the forward-facing angled portion, not the side.

 

Thank you for the post. Look forward to seeing the photos.

 

Okay I got the Mac system, 150 bucks from ebay, installed today. The stock stuff came off pretty easily, the two rear collector-to-downtube clamps/bolts were the hardest to get to. The right one you can see in front of the footpeg and reach with an extension, the left side one you need to get a REALLY long extension and kinda go in at an angle through the other peg or under/around the chain. My collector wasn't bolted to the oil pan at all, that was kind of a surprise...it came off with a little persuading from a couple of prybars.

Anyway the Mac went on okay, again the rear was hard to bolt up, had to reach into that tight space and hold a nut/turn a bolt for both downpipes. Having a helper (my buddy whose garage I was at) made that easier. The front ones were simple, just a little hightemp silicone on the end of tube and then line up two bolts . Now the two rear cylinders go into one pipe, exit the right side, the two front into one, out the left. The two slipons/mufflers fit well, but the hangers/brackets they came with don't line up with the old location near rear pegs. And if you try to flip them around/MacGuyver something then the bolts are too close to the swingarm. I temped some brackets up, but I'll have to get something else, like those wrap-around style hangers that are used on newer aftermarket pipes, or these pipes might fall off sooner than later...

Oh, it also says you can use the center stand, but mine whacks into the left side pipe, I'll have to add a stop to it and/or take it off completely.

Sooo, the sound. These things are WWAAYY louder than stock, and they have to be just about straight-through-no-baffles-at-all. I can stand 15 feet behind the bike at idle and feel the exhaust pulses blowing past me. Supposedly they have removable baffles, but if you ask me they have already been removed... and like someone said above, there is a raspy/rattly kind of sound, it's not so bad, but it sounds like a piped 2-stroke snowmobile, if you ever heard one of those.

Performance wise it's great, noticeably quicker up through 6-9k, no drop off at low rpms or off idle. There is some lean-pop on deceleration, so I have some carb work to do, I am sure some richening would make a difference in feel/sound/performance.

All of this stuff weighs about 10 pounds less than the stock pieces, and it looks good too, quality chip-resistant powdercoat and good quality clamps/bolts/etc (except for the muffler hangers that don't work). I can't imagine ANYTHING could be more free-flowing that these things, so for a performance mod I'd say they are a big plus as long as you address the jetting issues (I will eventually). Right now they are too loud and raspy, I'll look into adding some baffling/packing until I get more of the small-block-rumble that I've heard with some other systems.

Pics and video to follow.....

 

Video:

Stock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypQneNxSoeA

Mac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdG7aRheCxg

 

I'm glad that they worked out for you (except the mounts and noise excess). They are different. I don't remember ever seeing these back in the day.

 

Thank you for the follow-up post and the before and after videos. Great info added to this thread.

If I could ask, could you please post what carburetor jetting you are using - i.e. main jet & emulsion tubes, slow jet, jet needles and how many turns out you have the pilot screws - once you have everything dialed in.

On a side note - a very nice looking '85 you have there!

 

A bit more intel,,,two photos of the original Vance & Hines system (photos: eBay auction)

 

I had a V&H like the one above and it was exelent! I had it on an 86' engine in an 84/85 frame. No probs with the oil pan clearance! The 4-2's sound the best i think

 

Value/Price is often in question with these aftermarket parts. For future reference, the V&H set sold to a single ebay bidder for the $299 asking price

 

Did anyone forget about the Laser/Jama systems? Ah yes..... we actually want to forget about those!