I originally purchased the motorcycle table lift to help keep my back from unnecessary hardship, but having had the Blast on the lift to install the Kerker exhaust made the finicky job a lot less miserable (or from a more positive point of view, a lot more fun). The table lift is not an essential tool, but man does it ever make one’s life easier for certain tasks.
After cleaning up the damaged thread, I still could not get the bolt to grab, so I unbolted the front of the pipe and removed the support bracket from the frame. I then mounted the exhaust to the support bracket while on the bench, and then reinstalled the connected exhaust and bracket back to the frame. Moving on to the front hanger, I lifted the exhaust and with a bit of persuasion and a 2x4 lever, managed to get the bolt to pass through the hanger and frame. All that remained was to fasten the header clamp, tighten all the fasteners to spec, and test the exhaust for any leaks. The entire job took me longer than it should have, partially because of the missing instructions and parts, but also because the tolerances for the pipe are so close, and accessibility at the rear is so limited. Thank goodness there were no leaks. Comparing the Sound Levels of the Kerker Vs the Pro Series Exhaust The general consensus of those in the know on the Blast user group basically described the Pro Pipe as well built, the quietest of the aftermarket pipes, and with the most moderate power increase. The Kerker on the other hand was somewhat less dependable, louder (but repackable), and produced more power. While I can’t comment on dependability or performance at this time, I can quantify the sound levels. Gail’s 2005 Blast has the Pro pipe installed and has seen about 8,000km of use. Andrew’s Blast is a 2001 model, but the Kerker is brand new. A couple of years ago I had performed a series of sound level tests on my TSport and the results were very interesting. We decided to do the same tests on the two Blasts using the same equipment, test area, and distances as before. The results were surprising. Although we tried to duplicate the test parameters from before, variables such as environmental conditions may have had an impact for a direct comparison of the data – I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that our recent tests can all be compared to each other since they were all taken within a minutes of each other. Since Andrew had his Lightning over at the time of the test, we included the results from his bike which is stock AND LEGAL. Finally, Caroline’s basically stock 883 with SE II’s was also tested. She had commented many times in the past that Gail’s bike was louder than hers, so this was an opportunity to see if she was right. Here is what we found: The Equipment: Radio Shack analog Sound Level Meter on a tripod. - Sound measured 20 feet from the muffler tip. The Location: my driveway – house on the left, evergreen trees on the right, and the garage behind. Temperature: 30 deg. C. - Humidex high 30’s C. Sound levels in Decibles
1No tachometer, so reading was taken at an approximate mid throttle position.
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