Should I buy Vane & Hines or Jardine exhaust?

I am going to purchase a new exhaust system in a few weeks and have narrowed it down to the Vance and Hines Street 4 into 1 Megaphone System or the Jardine Classic chrome 4 into 1. The prices for each are around $300. My question is what would you guy recommend. I know that Vance and Hines no longer manufacture’s the exhaust system for my 83 XJ750 maxim but they are still easily available new in the market place.

 

i'm a big fan of vance and hines so id say go with them. but if your going for a nice tone you wont relly know witch is better untill you try both well i dont think any of us can afford to buy both lol. I my self will never go down to 1 pipe because it makes the bike look uneven but every one likes different look's but if you ask me on the pipes id say vance and hines because theay usually have a nice tone

 

all most forgot when you get the new exaust be sure to retune the carbs as the carbs use the air flowing through the motor to pull in air/fule mixture in to the chamber durning valave lap (it's to early in the morning i dont know if i used the right word valve lap= where both valves are open for a short peirod of time)

 

I believe Dennis Kirk has the Jardine's for cheaper than that, but I might be thinking of the Mac's. I know it has the Mac's for about $220 or so.

Every bike I've heard with a Vance and Hines pipe has a real nice sound to it though.

 

Not from personal experience, but the rumors I hear are that MACs don't last. Any MAC owners around to comment on build quality, price and durability?

If the MACs are really cheap then I don't see why you wouldn't buy one - even if it didn't last 20 years!

 

Exactly my thinking. I plan on getting a Mac 4-1 eventually, I'll let you know how it turns out.

I do have experience with Mac's on cars (5.0's mostly) and they look, sound, and fit good, and haven't had any problems with longevity.

 

I have a Mac 4 into 1 on my 82 seca 750.
The quality seems good for a cheap aftermarket exhaust.
Fit is good, oil filter and drain plug are easily accessable (found out tonight), although, I did get a fair amount of oil on the header while draining.
This could be because the bike has no front end on it currently, and is resting on the center stand and some jack stands under the crash bars.
I have modified my muffler with a baffle out of a VW Bug, and it is now straight through.
I can't wait to fire it up, it should be quite loud....hehe.
For the price, I can't see the Macs being beat.

$.02

Nachoman

 

I think I’ll go with the Vance and Hines do to the fact that I have never heard of poor build quality from there products. After all these old school exhaust system were developed by Byron Hines and race proven by Terry Vance.

 

I've been looking for new exhaust. where have you found the Vance and Hines? I'e only been able to find the Mac and Jardine. I like the Jardine's myself but am interested in the V and H as well.
Mark

 

If you go with the Jardine system from Dennis Kirk, get the chrome. I bought the one with the black headers about 10 years ago, and the instructions never said that the black paint still had to be "cured." I bolted it up, and promptly burned most of the paint off the headers. I found out later (through Dennis Kirk) that you have to run it through a few short heat cycles (about a min to 5 mins each) to get the paint baked on there, otherwise it will peel off like mine did. I spent the next two years occaisionally sanding the rust off and hitting it up with high-temp spray paint. I believe they are the same price, so go with the chrome.

 

Vance and Hines exhausts for are bikes are becoming very hard to find. Which I find odd because this company’s bread and butter when they first started in the early 80's was 4 into 1 in line four bikes. They now seem to exclusively make exhausts for large V-twin cruisers. I guess that’s where the gold is. The Cycle magazine July 1982 issue I have has ads of this exhaust all over it along with Kerker and Supertrapp my first pick if I could find one. They were double walled and wouldn’t blue. Any way I found them selling the Vance and Hines exhausts at http://www.motorcycleproshop.com/exhaus ... /vhyam.asp for 300 bucks but that was a few weeks ago and it now appears to be sold out. Worse yet they seem to be should out of this same exhausts at http://www.mawonline.com/vance&hi.htm for all Yamaha’s needing this type of exhaust. But I’ll keep searching and make a few phone calls to these web sites to see what’s up.

Here is the line to the Jardine exhaust system for $314 which is not bad considering that they have this exhaust listed at around $450 on the Jardine web site http://www.motorcyclemart.com/model/yam ... a750xj.htm

Jardine web site http://jardine.rideshop.com/catalog/def ... b90a1a2561

 

Just looked at Dennis kirk and they are selling the Jardine Classic 4-1 System with Chrome for $498.99. Bravo12 just got your private message the Suzuki Bandit 1200 is a exceptional bike but have decided to put off getting a newer bike for a little bit at least for now. But the Bandit fits the ideal street bike to a tee. What bike shops would you recommended in the Philadelphia area for bike gear. I have been to Yamaha Cycle City off of Spring Garden street, the Triumph place in Manayunk and a few places off of West Chester Pike.

 

I know that this thread is over a year old, but thought I should comment since I have had a MAC exhaust for almost three years now. I bought the MAC 4 into 2 turned exhaust out for the looks and the fact it was a full free-flow exhaust. Free flow exhausts are almost non-existant for our bikes. I needed free flow for the DynoJet kit and K&N pods that I installed.

The MAC turn-outs are double-walled and have never blued. They stay cool and my bags sit on the back of the exhaust and they haven't hardened the leather at all. The MAC headers on the other hand are definitely of poorer quality. They blued and have since started to rust near the exhaust head.

I love the sound of the Jardine bullet exhausts. A friend here in town with an XJ650 had them on and I wanted to buy his bike just so I could swap out the exhausts!

I'm looking to try a set of Jardine slash-cut slip-ons to see if they mess with my 116 main jets and pod filters. I also own a separate airbox with a K&N filter and smaller jets that I can fool around with. It's great having parts!

Does anyone know how the Jardines compare in exhaust flow? Are they more or the same as the stock megaphones?

If anyone has a pair of Jardine slip-ons they'd be willing to let me try out I'd be willing to pay the shipping both ways.

Does anyone know if the Jardine slip-ons will slip onto a MAC 4 into 2 header? My header is 2" OD and the distance from the clamp to the hanger is 6-1/2".

Thanks!

 

Hey SingingOtter...

do you have any idea if your exhaust would fit a 550 Maxim?

my exhaust is still functional but id like to get rid of the megaphone mufflers and go with something straight 'looking'...

it sounds as if your MAC has straighter pipes or mufflers...

thanks

david

 

Yes, they are a bit more level with the ground, but not by much. If you mean by straighter that they aren't megaphone shaped, then they are straight. I think that they fit the 550. A look at the fit chart should tell you that. I would go to BikeBandit.com and compare the part numbers for your header pipes and compare them with my 1981 XJ650H pipes. That should give you an idea.

One thing I recently learned is that Harley Davidson puts out a line of mufflers that have an adjustable slotted bracket that just happens to match up with ours. That and they have the 1-7/8" end that mates with the MAC header clamps. I have a friend who runs an HD custom shop and he said he'll give me a call when he has some time and that we can go through his inventory and see what fits and looks good.

Good Luck!

 

I had a set of the Jardine Bullet type mufflers recently. I paid way too much for them, and as far as performance or sound goes, they did not look or sound as well as the stock exhaust. They are built well, and the chrome and finish is stunning, but they are heavy and seem a bit restrictive. On a 550 it might be a different story, but for the 650 Seca at least, I have not found an aftermarket exhaust that performs as well as stock. cruzerjd

 

Just an update...the MAC exhaust 4 into 2 header where the muffler slips on are 2" OD. Dang those things are big. Basically if I can get a nice looking adapter to get down to 1-7/8" OD then any of the HD Dyna mufflers will fit. I did buy a set of Jardine mufflers, but was disappointed to learn they were much smaller, same as whatever the stock exhaust size was...BTW, with the Dynojet 1&3 kit & K&N pods and the 2" header without the mufflers...ooooooo...sounds mean!!!

 

I have a mac 4 into 1 pipe on my xj650rj, had it for 8 years now and I bought it used. I have painted the header about 5 times but you can't beat the sound. I tried a yoshimura pipe but it didn't sound as nice. Love the sound!!