Those of you who know me appreciate that I'm an enthusiastic Drag Star owner and have been assisting fellow owners to make their Drag Stars sound more like "real" motorcycles by providing the Drag Star Doctor's, "keyhole surgery," service to alter existing stock exhaust systems. At various rallies and runs I've discussed with fellow owners the virtues of keeping your existing stock Drag Star system rather than changing it for a lower quality one.

Briefly summarised, the benefits of the stock Drag Star system are:

1. The existing stock Yamaha system is excellent and unmatched in terms of it's design and manufacturing quality.
2. It looks visually right for the bike, it has balance.
3. The heat shield system is the best I've seen on any motorcycle and keeps your skin, leathers and waterproofs unscorched.
4. The system does not discolour .
5. The system is well plated and polished and does not rust easily.
6. The system and the engine are in harmony (tuned) to give continuous torque and smooth horsepower delivery.
7. The system carries a European "E" type approval number (important if your bike is checked over by the authorities or your insurance company).
8. The balance pipe is retained which helps to assist the flow of gases and has a tendency to "pull" one exhaust pulse after another increasing power and torque slightly.

OK so if the stock system is so good, why do people change the pipes. The answer quite simply is that the sound quality of the stock system is poor. The plain fact is that the sound is so disappointing that most owners will trade the eight excellent points above to correct this one bad point. This is easy to understand. Sound is important. It helps keep us safe because we get noticed. It also gives us greater riding pleasure.

Put much more lyrically, I recently loaned one owner a set of Drag Star Doctor pipes whilst I was modifying his own set. He emailed me back the next day, "Just love the sound of the pipes, I was playing tunes on them all the way home (35 miles is not enough ) what can I say, the sound is awesome." Apart from the fact that some southern owners seem to feel they have the gift of the warrior poets, this illustrates what we all do when we when we get a nice sounding bike - we ride on the exhaust note, we play tunes.

Most owners will tend to follow the obvious route of scouring the catalogues and ordering a set of pipes that seem to look passable in an attempt to get something that sounds different. Often they are also mislead into believing that if you get a noisy set of pipes, it automatically must give more power because the gases flow largely unimpaired.

This is an easily understood but common misconception. As well as trading off the eight outstanding points of the original system, some systems may even seriously damage your engine, by making it breath too readily, thereby running leaner and leading to unnecessary overheating of the engine.

"But the guy in the shop says it will run without any re-jetting." Yes it may run with no re-jetting, but that doesn't necessarily mean that no damage is being done.

At a recent rally I observed the unfortunate owner of a new 1100 Drag Star. The guy had purchased a set of drag pipes made by arguably the best know and most common after market pipe manufacturer around. The bike made lots of noise, but the sound quality was poor - it had no depth. The bike had also started producing a "pinking" sound which made the engine sound poorly tuned. I don't know if the owner of his 6 or 7 mates gathered round the bike ever got to the bottom of the problem. The unfortunate owner did eventually take matters up with the trader who sold the pipes, but apparently "they didn't offer much help and weren't very interested."

An exhaust system can be thought of as a sub system of the engine. Change it or alter it without special checks or changes to carburation and you could be looking at a badly damaged engine. In particular drag pipes need special care, they can make the bike breath too easily with little back pressure available. It's preferable to retain some back pressure and carburation should never, ever be neglected.

If you really must fit free breathing pipes, make sure you fit pipes with anti-reversion baffles to help compensate for the lack of back pressure - ask your dealer if they've got them. If they don't have them or your dealer looks blankly at you when you mention anti-reversion baffles, don't buy the pipes - he's selling blind and you're buying blind.

I'm not saying that many of the systems out there don't work, they do. But the prospective problems and necessary adjustments are glossed over by dealers who just want to make another sale and don't want to scare off potential purchasers by telling them they may have to re-jet. Most of the conversations I have had on this subject have occurred where strong drink has been taken and I've been asked to clarify through, "The Clatter," exactly what a Drag Star Doctor modification gives the rider. So for those of you who fell over in the bar at the last rally and never got up, here it is again - The Drag Star Doctor's, "keyhole surgery," was developed and perfected originally for my own Drag Star 650 Classic and the results match the intended characteristics the bike was designed to achieve, perfectly.

I'm currently offering Stage 1 and Stage 2 levels of modification, both have been fully tested and require no re-jetting unless riders wish to boost the power and torque characteristics above those already achieved by the Drag Star Doctor modifications.

Stage 1:

Looks totally stock on the outside, because all the improvements to gas flowing are made from the inside only. This gives a deeper exhaust note, with a mean crack when the exhaust is blipped. Not considered offensive. excellent quality sound.

Stage 2:

This is an upgrade to the Stage 1 mods. and can be added at any time in the future. This looks almost totally stock on the outside apart from a circular track around the rear baffle plate where the final exhaust pipe protrudes from the end of the silencer. Improves look of silencer ends. This give a very loud and deep exhaust note, with a very mean bark when the throttle is blipped. Sounds a bit like a V8 Corvette (well I think so) when you throttle off. Considered noisy, but can be ridden quietly with care. Excellent quality sound.

Although the main purpose of the Drag Star Doctor modifications is to give the bike and it's rider more presence on the road in order to avoid accidents and improve riding pleasure, recent Dyno tests have produced the following results when compared to a stock system:

Stage 1 pipes = 0.3 hp increase at rear wheel, no increase in torque.

Stage 2 pipes = 0.6hp increase at rear wheel, 0.2kgm torque increase.

In both cases, the data produced also showed that the pipe mods made the bike more responsive (free revving) due to the better breathing characteristics.

With stage 1 pipes, this equates to a power increase of 9,900 ft lbs every minute, or put another way:

I calculate that if you took two Drag Stars, one stock and the other running Stage 1 pipes, each with a 12 stone rider, but the Drag Star with the Stage 1 pipes also had a 12 stone pillion passenger and 2 stone of camping gear (14 extra stones handicap) and they decided to race (assuming a rolling start) then the Drag Star with the stage one pipes has the capability to not only beat the stock Drag Star, but after one minute it would be ahead by approximately one and a half lengths.

Stage 2 pipes, deliver an increase in power of 19,800 ft lbs every minute, which should give the ability to carry the 12 stone rider and a 24 stone pillion passenger together with 4 stone of camping gear (28 extra stones handicap), and still being able to win the race!

Both Stage 1 and Stage 2 should overcome the complaints of owners who regularly ride two up and want more power.

This extra power was sufficient to allow me to haul a huge tent and a load of gear to the recent Knotties rally. The tent was so large that I was able to park the bike inside it every evening. This provided a great deal of mirth and merriment to all of my fellow riders in Centre 05 (The Yorkies).

Whilst we are on the subject of rallies, if you're a member and still haven't been along to a rally, read the write ups and make it a priority for next season. What a great weekend was had by all at the Knotties. By the way "WHO THE F**K IS TARQUIN?" and why was Gary always in the showers? -- If you weren't there you won't understand.