End cans - Good or bad.

O.k. , let me start off. Since I came back to biking last summer and did my test and got the bike I'm just about to get rid of, I've held the view loud end cans are pointless, noisey, irritating and antisocial and give bikers a bad name with non bikers.

This week, after a 3 month layup of my mates bike due to 6 out of 8 exhaust studs snapping off when he tried to remove the old system we finally got the job finished but what a PITA of a job it's been. In the menatime his MOT and his Mrs's MOT both run out on their bikes. I have this week off work and on Tuesday in the pissing rain, I rode his Mrs's Virago 1100 twin to the MOT place while my mate lead the way on his GSX1400. He's got what I thought were noisey end cans on his GSX but in comparison to the 1100 twin I could barely hear the engine running on it when we swapped bikes just around the corner from his place on the way home.

Yesterday in the first decent weather we've had this week, we did a short trip to make sure nothing was going to fall off his newly put back together bike. Total milage was just short of 50 miles and we stopped halfway for a shandy and stretch of the legs. Finally got back to his place and he offered me his keys for a go on his bike.

OMG , I was grinning from ear to ear. The GSX1400 is definitely a head turner with those end cans on. No it's not in the league of the V twin 1100 I had a go on but I'm now scouring the net for end cans for a brand new bike I've not yet collected from the dealers.

My question is, are they a good idea or not. I think I've changed my view prior to these last few days.

Decent end cans are the way to go......cheap ones can look sh*tty and mess the bikes fuelling...

Are there factory end cans available for your new bike? I have TORs (Triumph Off-Road) cans on the Speedie...which are actually manufactured for the bike by Triumph, and an official ECU map is available for them...they sound a bit meatier than standard....but are not stupid loud.....love 'em.

There are Acrapovic ones available from Kawasaki and I've been looking at ones SP Engineering do. Apparently they shouldn't need a power commander or remapping at all and give a very slight boost to mid range power (not that that's what I'm looking for anyway)

I think ii'll have to have a measure up on Tuesday once I've picked the bike up as I'm likely to be putting luggage on it and that may include panniers at some point as well as the top box. The ones I've seen do seem to be angled up in the air quite a bit so could foul panniers if they are too high or too long.

My bikes original can is awful, most new ones are awful get I nice one on there tbh it would be the first change I made.

Oh and I noticed other day kids covered their ears when I rode past

And their eyes when you take yer helmet off !!!

If you decide to go the twin route, i can post my end can sound with baffles in and out. not a massive roar on a ic4 though!