Shanghai Muffler Man -- modding my JH600

[euphonius]

No, this is a muffler man who strives for perfection. He changed grinding wheels at least three times, each time choosing a progressively finer grit, to shine this handmade gem to an appropriate high sheen. The final wheel he rubbed against a black slab of something, presumably a very fine abrasive.



And..... voila! The quality of this piece simply took my breath away! Mister Muffler obviously was quite pleased with his handiwork too, though he said he'd done this many times before.



Of course the piece slipped into the muffler like, er, well, like a hand into a glove. All that remained now was to bring it all together on the bike.







A little more grinding and polishing, for good measure. Also, look carefully: He's added a little ear by which to bolt the adapter to the bike. It's just to the left of center, in the funnel section, in this image.



Nor was that his final trick for the day. The bazooka-like stock muffler was attached to the frame with two big bolts, whereas the slip-on ProDuro comes with a circumference strap. Yet neither of the stock bolt holes was anywhere near the center of the ProDuro, so the strap would have mounted poorly, and looked stupid too. The solution? A strap to bridge the two bolt holes.



Here it is with one allen bolt yet to install.



So here's a final close-up, with the side panel already back in place.



And a wider look.




And off goes Mister Muffler to aid other scooters in distress, and to continue to abuse his knees.



I know, I know. A picture is worth a thousand words. But in my case, I thought this story was worth a thousand pix. Or at least a hundred. I'll close with a few more images from Jiaoji Lu before we hit the showers...

Is that a solid rear tire?









Whoa!!!! What was that????







So how does it work?

Pfaelzer and Franki both use the ProDuro Sport muffler, and both cautioned me that it's a bit louder than the stock muffler, which someone described as sounding a bit like a sewing machine. In fact, Franki offers two models -- the "sport" and the "approved + sport", the latter of which is said to be the quieter of the two but also offering less of a performance boost. I opted for the higher-performance, louder version, since the Jialing offers only about 32 kw/hours aka 40 horsepower, which is on the low side for an engine of its size.

I don't have the means, or the interest, to put it on a dyno to measure the change in power and torque, but suffice it to say I had a much livelier ride home from Mister Muffler's shop this afternoon. It's definitely louder, and there's more backfire than before, especially when engine braking. There's no way I'll be sneaking into town in the dead of night! But this modification has definitely trimmed the bike down. It's at least 5kg lighter, and conspicuously narrower, which will make installing the luggage frame much more practical.

So it's now a loud, aggressive dual sport. Did someone say motorcycles cause a bit of noise pollution? Guilty as charged!

Oh, and he charged me 400 yuan, or about US$58. Red egg guy said this was more than usual, a "foreigner's price". I paid happily, without complaint. The price of admission for a day of entertainment on Jiaoji Lu, with a nice shiny souvenir to carry on future rides.