'78 KZ1000 makeover

The chrome does look clean, and is a good contrast against a dark colored bike like your MKII or my bike. In the end, I want a natural finish exhaust (stainless and/or titanium) just for that same contrast you were going for Craig. I was considering the V&H because the collector is a smaller diameter vs the Kerker......a little more low end power than the Kerker perhaps? There is a Kerker in the bay area for $130 plus $20 shipping I am considering; it has the old school supertrapp muffler on it.

porchev914 wrote:

The chrome does look clean, and is a good contrast against a dark colored bike like your MKII or my bike. In the end, I want a natural finish exhaust (stainless and/or titanium) just for that same contrast you were going for Craig. I was considering the V&H because the collector is a smaller diameter vs the Kerker......a little more low end power than the Kerker perhaps? There is a Kerker in the bay area for $130 plus $20 shipping I am considering; it has the old school supertrapp muffler on it.

check out redline cycles then, he prechecks em for fit, his prices are a pinch higher but on this item its worth the extra 50 bucks

I bought a new chrome V&H for my MKII back around 1990 and it held up very well and fit perfectly....very little surface rust in the crevices only....after 19 years. I decided to get a new V&H 2 years ago when I did a complete resto on the MKII just to have the fresh chrome, and it didn't fit very well at all. I had to grind a bunch of chrome off of the back of the collector just to allow the megaphone to fit. There was no way that exhaust was going to fit together as I received it. I guess their quality has gone south..and least on the pipes for the old bikes.

If I got a new V&H, I'm close enough to the headquarters in SantaFe Springs that I could drive down in 45 minutes and airmail a bad header through their warehouse :laugh: All kidding aside, I would rather trade/sell my Yoshimura exhaust for an older V&H or Kerker. But I hear you on the declining quality of V&H. I have read Redlines website in years past about the poor quality V&H exhausts. Anyone have a Kerker they want to trade for a Yosh Series 2?

I think KERKER made 2 styles of pipes for the old kz. ive seen some like mine that wrap around the oil filter and others that go directly under.that later style supertrapp can could be shortened and then sanded to give it a mill finish.keeping it short to expose more of that sweet ssa?decisions,decisions.

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learned this year that the difference between the oil filter and center stand sweeper kerker and the straighter kerker is the race only version is straight and does not do the bends around stuff...the bent model in my mind is what a kerker looks like

I didn't even know Kerker made different bends for the same bike. I just assumed that they had the one header bend, and the midpipe/muffler had a different bend and or mounting tabs to fit different Kz configurations. Just goes to show how much I don't know :blush:

porchev914 wrote:

I didn't even know Kerker made different bends for the same bike. I just assumed that they had the one header bend, and the midpipe/muffler had a different bend and or mounting tabs to fit different Kz configurations. Just goes to show how much I don't know :blush:

Back in the day they made a race pipe 1st, with straight shrt primaries. then to make it more salable to the public they made 1 with longer primaries ,that wrapped around the oil filter housing, to allow filter changes.

mark1122 wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

I didn't even know Kerker made different bends for the same bike. I just assumed that they had the one header bend, and the midpipe/muffler had a different bend and or mounting tabs to fit different Kz configurations. Just goes to show how much I don't know :blush:

Back in the day they made a race pipe 1st, with straight shrt primaries. then to make it more salable to the public they made 1 with longer primaries ,that wrapped around the oil filter housing, to allow filter changes.

Exxxxxxactly right.
-KR

79MKII sold one in chrome new old stock this yr...and i saw two black old ones on ebay in good shape.


here is a new race bend in black.

and the street bend in chrome