Mac vs. VH ?

Hi Folks, Happy Father's Day to the Dad's of the group!!!
I'm planning on switching from my 4-2 exhaust to a 4-1 exhaust, and originally I was going to go with the Mac (black) exhaust. But then I found a Vance & Hines (chrome) for a close price (its more expensive then the black mac exhaust, but cheaper then the chrome mac exhaust). I figured I'd ask here for feedback on the different exhausts and see if that would help me decide. I've seen a few bikes in the gallery with the Mac exhaust and it seems to hang fairly low, anyone know if there is better ground clearence with one over the other? any problems with oil drain plug/filter ? or center-stand retention ? Both claim neither are affected.

The one downfall of buying parts online is having to judge everything buy one or two pics, so any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance & Have a Good Father's Day

I've had Mac exhausts on two previous bikes. An '81 Honda CB650 - I loved it; light, good looking, nice growl to the exhaust. I bought another for a Suzuki gs450, and most of the above, but it was too loud. On the whole I've been pleased with them. As for VH pipes the only detractor I've heard are the folks at Redline Cycles. Check this out: redlinecycle.com/Exhaust%20-%20V&H%202.html

hope this helps...Sam

AzKZ650 wrote:

Hi Folks, Happy Father's Day to the Dad's of the group!!!
I'm planning on switching from my 4-2 exhaust to a 4-1 exhaust, and originally I was going to go with the Mac (black) exhaust. But then I found a Vance & Hines (chrome) for a close price (its more expensive then the black mac exhaust, but cheaper then the chrome mac exhaust). I figured I'd ask here for feedback on the different exhausts and see if that would help me decide. I've seen a few bikes in the gallery with the Mac exhaust and it seems to hang fairly low, anyone know if there is better ground clearence with one over the other? any problems with oil drain plug/filter ? or center-stand retention ? Both claim neither are affected.

The one downfall of buying parts online is having to judge everything buy one or two pics, so any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance & Have a Good Father's Day

I was told that MAC's are cheapie exhausts made for torque. All I know is that mine is holding up year after year and sounds like a ferrari. I love it but it is borderline acceptable around here for noise. I'm ok as long as I don't wick it up in residential areas (for too long antway;) ). 18-20 yr old girls seem to be drawn to the sound. A nice ego boost, but they are pretty much untouchables when in your 40's. :laugh:

Samwell wrote:

I've had Mac exhausts on two previous bikes. An '81 Honda CB650 - I loved it; light, good looking, nice growl to the exhaust. I bought another for a Suzuki gs450, and most of the above, but it was too loud. On the whole I've been pleased with them. As for VH pipes the only detractor I've heard are the folks at Redline Cycles. Check this out: redlinecycle.com/Exhaust%20-%20V&H%202.html

hope this helps...Sam

AzKZ650 wrote:

Hi Folks, Happy Father's Day to the Dad's of the group!!!
I'm planning on switching from my 4-2 exhaust to a 4-1 exhaust, and originally I was going to go with the Mac (black) exhaust. But then I found a Vance & Hines (chrome) for a close price (its more expensive then the black mac exhaust, but cheaper then the chrome mac exhaust). I figured I'd ask here for feedback on the different exhausts and see if that would help me decide. I've seen a few bikes in the gallery with the Mac exhaust and it seems to hang fairly low, anyone know if there is better ground clearence with one over the other? any problems with oil drain plug/filter ? or center-stand retention ? Both claim neither are affected.

The one downfall of buying parts online is having to judge everything buy one or two pics, so any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance & Have a Good Father's Day

yeah there are definately quality control issues at vance and hines.ask skipper76 how much tweaking we had to do to put that brand new chrome header on his bike,i wasnt really impressed with them myself i prefer the old kerker headers.vance and hines used to be a proud name but it looks like they are getting caught up in mass production .

I'm running a Mac open with a short turn out on my 650/700 cafe, I love the noise but haven't tried for inspection yet, the muffler was bad on it so it was deleted but I found that a car cherrybomb fits nice and quiets it down a lot( for inspection purposes).. have not tried V&H but have one in the parts pile not sure what it fits

I've had my MAC pipe for a full year and it is pretty darned nice. The fit and finish are very good and the sound is sweeeet. The only problem I had was when I had the bike fully lit and the baffle popped out onto the road as the nut and bolt holding the baffle in twisted itself loose. A little Loctite and the baffle is staying in its home.

The only thing I'd like to see MAC change is a little more upturn on the can to give it a meaner look.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

'77 Kz650 Custom 14,000 original miles. Newest incarnation has 810 Wiseco, Ported head, MAC pipe, WiredGeorge Mikuni 28's, 750 cams/valves, DYNA, Velocity stacks, 130 Rear Tire, 14 tooth sprocket.

Thanks for all the input guys, especially for the heads-up, Samwell, from redline. Looks like Mac it is (kerker would excede my meager budget :whistle: )

You could always try X-Pipe! But then again, if Kerker will have to excuse your budget, X-Pipe will deffinatly have too as well.

Personally, I'v never cared for the MAC cans. I had one on an old Honda and didn't care for it much (Personal opinion and preference) I've never had a V&H, so I couldn't render an opinion there, but I would take one over the MAC given the choice.

...for what it's worth.

i personally have no issues with the vance and hines i just bought in april from jeff.i pefer crome, i think it looks better and a powdercoated header tends to rust quickly if they are warm and you get stuck riding in the rain. btw, anyone know where the websight is for the x-pipe?

Quality issues w/V&H? I wonder if Redline is having the same quality issues that Jeff (Z1Enterprises) has mentioned for the OEM Z1 pipes? I wonder if V&H has switched their manufacturing to mainland China (which is where the OEM Z1 (pipes by Doremi?) are now produced). Jeff sells V&H headers...he also should have seen quality problems.

skipper76 bought his from jeff at z1 and i can definately say they have qc issues .i had to use a dremel to grind down the flanges on two of the pipes just to get the collars to slide on we also had to make a homemade bracket for the header to mount the mounting hole on header was off by more than 2" .ive got a vance and hines header around here somewhere that has an extra hole drilled in it since mounting hole was way off also,this seems to be a common issue.:S

I have been highly impressed by the customer service at MAC.... they've sent me mounting hardware free of charge for a used pipe, and a new can for just 35 bones when I rashed mine.