Before discussing about whether you should or should not modify the exhaust on your 150 cc motorcycle, let us discuss the benefits of an after-market exhaust.
- Light Weight: They are generally lighter in weight and hence help in shedding the weight of the motorcycles. Weight reduction plays a great role in performance, especially in racing.
- Power Gain: A good after-market exhaust combined with an ECU remapping can boost the power of a motorcycle. It also holds a great importance in racing.
- Better exhaust note: Although it cannot be generalized, some of the after-market exhausts may make the motorcycles sound better. However, that depends on the type of exhaust, and the type of the engine as well. In my opinion, inline engines sound better than singles or parallels when their exhausts have been changed to after-market exhausts.
- Looks better: Although looks can be subjective, after-market exhaust generally looks better than the stock exhaust. As emission norms are getting more stringent, the size of the stock exhausts is also becoming bigger and bigger.
So, if you install an after-market exhaust on your 150 cc motorcycle or any smaller capacity motorcycle, are you going to gain all the benefits that are being mentioned above? The simple answer is “No” unless you are racing. Let us discuss “why?”.
- Weight reduction in few kilograms will not make much of a difference while riding in the streets.
- Gain in power by a fraction is really of no use in the public roads.
- A badly engineered after-market exhaust might make your motorcycle sound annoying and get you in trouble since in many locations, loud exhausts are illegal.
- So, the only benefits you may or may not gain by modifying the exhaust on your motorcycle are looks and a loud exhaust note.
I hope this article will provide you some help during your purchase decision.
