500KM Yamaha MT-09 Review

[saluandnai]

FZ seat detail 2.jpg

I had my seat done at a place in BKK. From memory I think it cost 2,500. Basically I had the guy flatten the front part of the seat and also widen it slightly. Much better than the stock one for me.

I took him some pics from this French site and said "I want something like this" - http://ohlins.fr/blog/yamaha-mt-09-serie-unique-ohlins/

Particularly like the purple stitching - matches the wheels ...

looks good yes, but is it more comfy on a long ride n does it stop the tendancy to slide forward on the seat

[RedQualia]

FZ seat detail 2.jpg

I had my seat done at a place in BKK. From memory I think it cost 2,500. Basically I had the guy flatten the front part of the seat and also widen it slightly. Much better than the stock one for me.

I took him some pics from this French site and said "I want something like this" - http://ohlins.fr/blog/yamaha-mt-09-serie-unique-ohlins/

Particularly like the purple stitching - matches the wheels ...

I'll end up with something like that I guess. Maybe...

The stock seat does have some virtue. The flatness is great when it comes to being able to move around, forward and back and any which way. And while I'm not sure what the material is, I've noticed that it wicks water away pretty well. Easily made almost completely dry with the sleeve of a shirt, for example. It does become uncomfortably hard after a few hours, however.

In any case, my wife has a strong dislike for the seat. She's just not happy back there, and misses the Ninja seat very much. So she's the driving factor in terms of how the rear part of the seat turns out. The pic I originally posted is a bit thicker back there than the one in your pic, and I'm sure that's important to her. The one saluandnai posts for the fz1000 (?) seems a wee bit too thick in the back to me, but what do I know?

The seat builder here in CM will make the rear part of the seat a bit wider, maybe 3/4" to 1". I asked about squaring off the back end of the seat (he will use all new foam, presumably better than original), but he said that couldn't be done. That it must follow the form of the original seat pan. He'll also make the primary rider's butt bucket a bit wider and dished, I guess.

I've told him I'd like all black, and requested "holy leather." Naugahyde, I'm sure. It's not too late to rethink this a bit, however... I could request a different material, and have thought about silver piping to match the gas tank. But then I'd be kinda more locked in on that silver color. Not sure I want that.

Hopefully, my wife will be happier with the new seat. And myself as well, in terms of touring. I do a fair amount of touring... But I will lose that big, flat surface. I worry a bit that I won't be able to slide around as much, and that might be a bit of a serious loss. Maybe, kinda. Wait and see.

One other "general review" sort of comment: the bike handles differently with my wife on the back. Her 50KG does affect handling quite a bit. The bike becomes noticeably more top heavy. Enough to pay attention to and have to muscle about a bit. I never had that problem with the Ninja 650.

[saluandnai]

the seat om my fz 1000 was the first one I had made, on the second the back of the seat was lower, this may have been mk 2, not sure.

Edited June 5, 2016 by saluandnai

[papa al]

"papa's mechanic has a black Thruxton.

But he won't let papa take it for a spin."

Quick question papa: why do you refer to yourself in the third person?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/797362-papa-go-near-laos/

[post#8]

[soihok]

Oooops good point, this is the link

Yes your right, he goes through the diagnostics menu. He has a few good tips on other adjustments if your not a DIY mechanic or have a manual in a foreign language

I checked my bike yesterday and found all cylinders set on zero.

So changed the CO settings to +14.

WOW - what a difference!

Bike is now far more responsive.

20,000km in and never knew about this setting - thanks so much.

[BKKBike09]

That is one cool seat. Any chance of sharing the fabricators contact details?

Sure - in Sukhumvit Soi 71. All details here - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/767691-good-seat-shop/

[BKKBike09]

looks good yes, but is it more comfy on a long ride n does it stop the tendancy to slide forward on the seat

No more sliding forward. That was the main reason I had it remodeled. There are certainly times when you want to be tight up against the tank but not all the time for day-to-day riding.

I've never ridden it for longer than 2 hours. That's about as long as I ever want to sit on a bike, particularly since I'm quite tall and I like to stretch a bit. I've not done any touring on the FZ09 but given the tank range I'd be stopping anyway every couple of hundred K just to fill up. I didn't buy it for touring, just for running about in BKK and the odd trip outside town. I don't think naked bikes are ideal for serious touring, although that said I did take my Speed Triple London-Munich and back one year, and London-Rome and back the next ...

[BKKBike09]

Oooops good point, this is the link

Yes your right, he goes through the diagnostics menu. He has a few good tips on other adjustments if your not a DIY mechanic or have a manual in a foreign language

I checked my bike yesterday and found all cylinders set on zero.

So changed the CO settings to +14.

WOW - what a difference!

Bike is now far more responsive.

20,000km in and never knew about this setting - thanks so much.

Can anyone with a 2nd Gen FZ09 confirm whether it's also now possible to do this on an FZ. You can't do it on the original FZ (although you can on the MT-designated models).

[bramds]

I picked mine up last Friday and thus far have no complaints at all, what a smooth ride she is.

She really goes from 0 to wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii in 1 second

[soihok]

Oooops good point, this is the link

Yes your right, he goes through the diagnostics menu. He has a few good tips on other adjustments if your not a DIY mechanic or have a manual in a foreign language

I checked my bike yesterday and found all cylinders set on zero.

So changed the CO settings to +14.

WOW - what a difference!

Bike is now far more responsive.

20,000km in and never knew about this setting - thanks so much.

Can anyone with a 2nd Gen FZ09 confirm whether it's also now possible to do this on an FZ. You can't do it on the original FZ (although you can on the MT-designated models).

I think that there is some information on this on the MT09 - FZ09 Forum..

I will have a look for the link

[soihok]

Hi.

Have a look at post #252.

http://mt09.motorcycle-talk.com/forum/mt-09-technical/421-changing-co-settings-diag-menu-26.html#post39828

[RedQualia]

(Note: I tried dragging and dropping photos when composing this post. Looked like it was working in the editor area, but no... The pics didn't show up. Pics added after the fact then, using the "edit post" tool. They are in the order in which they were referenced, below. Sorry 'bout that...)

Seat in progress, checking out the foam to see what I think before it's covered further. Front of the area seems roomy enough. With my butt all the way back, still have about 5-6 inches in front of me. The seat maker reported making the seat maybe one inch thicker at the very front to help prevent sliding forward, but it doesn't really feel thicker when I'm sitting on the new seat. The rear part of the seat is wider, and certainly thicker than stock, but then almost anything would be. My wife reports that she likes sitting on the new seat much much more than the stock seat.

You can see here that the rear of the seat is a bit more rounded or squared off than the sort of pointy triangular rear of the stock seat.

In the photo below, there is a sort of notch in the foam on the bottom of the seat, near the bolt that previously secured the strap going over the seat. I'm not sure why that's there. I think it's where the seat strap was before, but I don't see a similar notch on the other side of the seat. Regardless, will ask the seat maker to fix/camouflage the notch a bit before covering the seat. In fact, the seat you see here will be covered with 1/2" thick yellow foam before being covered with upholstery.

So that's the progress thus far. If any comments/suggestions, now would be the time, before I take the seat back to be finished tomorrow...

(And now an out of order pic... The last pic was added after everything above. Apologies.)

Edited June 8, 2016 by RedQualia

[BKKBike09]

Hi.

Have a look at post #252.

http://mt09.motorcycle-talk.com/forum/mt-09-technical/421-changing-co-settings-diag-menu-26.html#post39828

Thanks - just re-confirmed though that it doesn't work on a 2014 FZ09 ...

[saluandnai]

(Note: I tried dragging and dropping photos when composing this post. Looked like it was working in the editor area, but no... The pics didn't show up. Pics added after the fact then, using the "edit post" tool. They are in the order in which they were referenced, below. Sorry 'bout that...)

Seat in progress, checking out the foam to see what I think before it's covered further. Front of the area seems roomy enough. With my butt all the way back, still have about 5-6 inches in front of me. The seat maker reported making the seat maybe one inch thicker at the very front to help prevent sliding forward, but it doesn't really feel thicker when I'm sitting on the new seat. The rear part of the seat is wider, and certainly thicker than stock, but then almost anything would be. My wife reports that she likes sitting on the new seat much much more than the stock seat.

You can see here that the rear of the seat is a bit more rounded or squared off than the sort of pointy triangular rear of the stock seat.

In the photo below, there is a sort of notch in the foam on the bottom of the seat, near the bolt that previously secured the strap going over the seat. I'm not sure why that's there. I think it's where the seat strap was before, but I don't see a similar notch on the other side of the seat. Regardless, will ask the seat maker to fix/camouflage the notch a bit before covering the seat. In fact, the seat you see here will be covered with 1/2" thick yellow foam before being covered with upholstery.

So that's the progress thus far. If any comments/suggestions, now would be the time, before I take the seat back to be finished tomorrow...

(And now an out of order pic... The last pic was added after everything above. Apologies.)

looking good so far, looking forward to seeing the finished article

[saluandnai]

still looking forward to seeing the finished article !

[RedQualia]

still looking forward to seeing the finished article !

I should be picking it up sometime Saturday afternoon. After much thought, I decided to go with something that's pretty much a knockoff of what in post #55, above. Different materials... Parts will be "holy leather" sort of stuff, while other parts will be smooth. But I decided that I liked the silver piping in the seat, shown in post #55, so asked for that. The foam inside is also completely different/new, so it may not feel the same as other custom seat covers ordered from the internet, etc. I will probably have pics posted by Saturday evening. Have a few things I need to do in the coming week, but have free time as well, and so we might be able to meet one day, depending on your availability. Send me a PM if you want, and we can talk about meeting more that way.

[saluandnai]

still looking forward to seeing the finished article !

I should be picking it up sometime Saturday afternoon. After much thought, I decided to go with something that's pretty much a knockoff of what in post #55, above. Different materials... Parts will be "holy leather" sort of stuff, while other parts will be smooth. But I decided that I liked the silver piping in the seat, shown in post #55, so asked for that. The foam inside is also completely different/new, so it may not feel the same as other custom seat covers ordered from the internet, etc. I will probably have pics posted by Saturday evening. Have a few things I need to do in the coming week, but have free time as well, and so we might be able to meet one day, depending on your availability. Send me a PM if you want, and we can talk about meeting more that way.

no rush, wait till you've your bits n pieces done n you have some free time n hopefully we can meet up then, I have a bit of a back prob at the moment so maybe leaving it a week or so would be better anyway, plus you might be able to tell me how the seat feels when your riding it

cheers

[RedQualia]

New seat finished and installed. I think substantially better than the old. I kept all the original padding and cover. Original padding is nothing more than yellow foam, no doubt keeping with Yamaha's effort to keep the bike somewhat affordable. The padding on the original seat isn't really thick anywhere. Padding on the rear part is thicker in the center area (one inch?), but much of it (sides and rear) is no more than maybe 3/8" (9-10mm) thick, uncompressed. Much thinner when sitting on it, I'm sure as it compresses very easily. The MT-09 is actually a fairly small bike, all things considered, and so the seating area is a bit small as well. My interests were a: a more comfortable seat, and b: dividing the available space between my wife and I so that both have adequate room. The seat is more comfortable, and the division of space is about as good as can be done. The rear part of the seat is maybe 3/4 - 1" wider, and is much thicker than before. It no longer compresses to nothing. It's still kinda rainy out there, and so I haven't spent lots of time with the new seat. I can say that leaning forward a bit, my butt is all the way to the rear of the primary rider's area. Comfortable enough, and there is no tendency to slide forward at all, though there is room to do so if I want, on long trips maybe.

Like saluandnai, I sometimes have back problems, and it's not always easy to tell what's gonna work for my particular back, and what will make problems. (I can ride a Yamaha Mio all day long, for example, but a Honda Wave causes major problems. What's different there?). The stock MT-09 seat caused no back problems at all. I'll have to wait for the rain to let up a bit to see if my back likes the new seat equally well.

Generally, though, and overall, I think I'm happy with the new seat. I'm not sure how it will be on long trips when I've spent all day in the saddle, except that I'm certain it will be much better than the stock seat.

Edited June 11, 2016 by RedQualia

[saluandnai]

^{been looking forward to the pic all day ha, looking good, much better than the original, give it a week or so to give us both some free time n lets meet up so I can see it in the flesh pls, where are you based}

[RedQualia]

The seat was redone by NR. Motorcycle Seat Shop, located at 145/5 Chiang Mai-Lumphun Road in Chiang Mai. Telephone 086-262-6338. (He does speak a bit of English, but I'm not sure you should push it too hard.) Turning south onto Chiang Mai-Lumphun Road from Tha Pae Road, proceed to about 100 meters after the entrance to Rimping Supermarket on the east side of the road. The seat shop is also on the east side of the road (left, for those who don't like compass directions). There's a row of small shops there... An eyeglass shop, the seat shop, a motorbike repair shop, etc. He mostly specializes in big bike seats. The last one I had done there was maybe 4-5 years ago for a 250cc bike. Turned out well and cost 2,000 Baht. First estimate for doing the MT-09 seat was 2,500 Baht. However, I wanted to keep the original seat cover and padding, which meant that he couldn't reuse those things. All new foam for the seat raised the cost to 3,500 Baht. That's $100US, at 35 Baht per dollar. A Corbin seat for an MT-09 runs $452, on the Corbin site. All things considered, I'm happy with the purchase and with this seat shop.

Edited June 11, 2016 by RedQualia

[RedQualia]

^{been looking forward to the pic all day ha, looking good, much better than the original, give it a week or so to give us both some free time n lets meet up so I can see it in the flesh pls, where are you based}

Assume we can meet in Chiang Mai somewhere. Send me a PM when you're ready.

[saluandnai]

^{been looking forward to the pic all day ha, looking good, much better than the original, give it a week or so to give us both some free time n lets meet up so I can see it in the flesh pls, where are you based}

Assume we can meet in Chiang Mai somewhere. Send me a PM when you're ready.

ok , chiang mai is fine for me, don't wanna seem dumb but dunno how to pm here

[RedQualia]

^{been looking forward to the pic all day ha, looking good, much better than the original, give it a week or so to give us both some free time n lets meet up so I can see it in the flesh pls, where are you based}

Assume we can meet in Chiang Mai somewhere. Send me a PM when you're ready.

ok , chiang mai is fine for me, don't wanna seem dumb but dunno how to pm here

No problem. I've sent you a PM. If you're on a PC, you should see an envelope like icon at the top of the screen somewhere. Click on that and you should be in business. If you're using ThaiVisa on a smartphone, however, then sorry... Can't help you.

[jeffconnors]

RED:

I did not say the Hurt Report addressed loud pipes...but it did identify the frequent accident conditions in which loud pipes will not be effective. Linked is a good article based on simple science. As it says, mostly the argument is made by Harley riders. If they were honest, their vanity is why they want loud pipes (Look at me!). Reducing accidents with loud pipes is a pipe dream.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/most-common-motorcycle-myths-debunked-part-1-45969.html

[RedQualia]

RED:

I did not say the Hurt Report addressed loud pipes...but it did identify the frequent accident conditions in which loud pipes will not be effective. Linked is a good article based on simple science. As it says, mostly the argument is made by Harley riders. If they were honest, their vanity is why they want loud pipes (Look at me!). Reducing accidents with loud pipes is a pipe dream.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/most-common-motorcycle-myths-debunked-part-1-45969.html

It seems that most of the links to anti-loud pipe articles found on the internet link to something written by this one guy. Like he's a one man crusade or something. I do not generally agree with this one guy, nor any of those who link to his articles. There is, however, a nugget of something relevant to be found in this particular screed: "A loud exhaust pipe could come in handy when splitting the lanes at low speed." He almost appears to be on to something here, but misses a great deal. Perhaps because he doesn't live in Thailand?

Most of the riding I do is around town, in populated areas. Slow moving traffic. Traffic going the wrong way on the side of the roads. Gravel trucks veering left to make right hand turns, and right to make left hand turns. Kids on motorbikes in the "fast lane" talking on mobile phones while drinking soda from a plastic bag and admiring their good looks in the rear view mirror. Old people who know the safest thing to do is to go along the side of the road as the police tell them to do at 20KPH until the very moment at which they need to turn right, and then cross three lanes of traffic to make that right turn, without looking. 342 motorbikes crowding all around the cars at stop lights, forever squeezing between cars wherever there's space, like grains of sand. But not just motorbikes here in Thailand, of course. If there's a space where a provincial bus can squeeze in, it will do it. Or a pickup truck. Or a Honda Freed. Doesn't matter if a three lane road turns into six lanes at the traffic lights. Doesn't matter if a dozen motorbikes are in the left lane of the road... If that guy in the Mazda 2 stopped in the center lane wants to go to the left lane, you can bet your last satang that he's gonna do it. And if someone wants to turn left from the center lane, going between the motorbikes, the odds that they will look for a motorbike are only even at best. If you live in Thailand and you haven't observed all this, then you're not paying attention and are just another part of the problem.

As I've said before, the only one on the roads in Thailand who cares whether I live or die is me. Thai drivers make this clear pretty much daily. The right of those in cars and trucks who wish to talk to their friends on their mobile phones at normal volume is pretty unimportant to me. It's been my experience that blipping the throttle a few times to invoke those loud pipes in traffic and thereby annoy the person in the car or on the motorbike nearby was absolutely the most correct thing to do, and most likely saved my ass.

One caveat, however: there is a difference between simply having loud pipes on your bike (or car or whatever), and being obnoxiously rude with them. I may have loud pipes, but my bike idles at stop lights, as it's been my experience that repeatedly revving the engine while stopped does not make the bike go faster. Nor do I find it necessary to go screaming down the highway at 4PM, 10PM, or 2AM, with the engine running at 11,000RPM, screaming through a tin can megaphone. Having "loud pipes" means I have the ability to make noise when necessary, not that I always do so.

Otherwise, I'm not quite sure why your writer, "Florin Tibu" (and the several other people who stop by to complain about loud pipes) feels it necessary to attempt to invoke physics to avoid invoking common sense. Perhaps their real complaint is against "boy racer" on the Honda 150 trying to see just how fast his bike will go in second gear at 10PM, or "drunk Harley rider" coming home at 2AM and waking up the neighborhood. But those are different complaints.

[RedQualia]

Actually, while a few different people like to stop by to let us all know that loud pipes on motorcycles are verbotten, there appear to be no laws here in Thailand to prevent one from mounting as many huge speakers as possible on one's vehicle and playing whatever they wish as loudly as possible, often while driving around quite slowly, perhaps ever forming a parade with others driving around quite slowly. I'm therefore thinking to get one of these. I'm sure I can fit speakers that are large enough to blast the noise of choice loudly enough to rattle car windows and tooth fillings. And the cops can check the sound level of my stock exhaust all they want, and it will pass every time.

Edited June 23, 2016 by RedQualia

[jeffconnors]

Actually, while a few different people like to stop by to let us all know that loud pipes on motorcycles are verbotten, there appear to be no laws here in Thailand to prevent one from mounting as many huge speakers as possible on one's vehicle and playing whatever they wish as loudly as possible, often while driving around quite slowly, perhaps ever forming a parade with others driving around quite slowly. I'm therefore thinking to get one of these. I'm sure I can fit speakers that are large enough to blast the noise of choice loudly, enough to rattle car windows and tooth fillings. And the cops can check the sound level of my stock exhaust all they want, and it will pass every tim

My perspective always defaults to the US. Yep, here the rules may, just may, be different. I enjoy scootering a lot here--we would all be under arrest in the US. When the MC is licensed, that will be more of a hoot. It's a quiet one but the air horn makes it louder!

[ardokano]

Having "loud pipes" means I have the ability to make noise when necessary, not that I always do so.

Otherwise,

I All time thinks having "loud pipes" its becouse need more pover more fast bike..

Can you tell me what you mean "make noise when necessary"?

Ps

Nice " rice" bike

Good luck on road..

On my opinion . native saddle a concise look.

new do not seem to do the bike. like a from Chinese scooter.

like a teddy bear backpack instead of a young sporty guy

may be if create one if his Alcantara or similar opaque material and sew it ne longitudinal stripes seem to see such a large and out of place on this bike.

But its only my IMHO

Edited June 24, 2016 by ardokano

[RedQualia]

Having "loud pipes" means I have the ability to make noise when necessary, not that I always do so.

Otherwise,

I All time thinks having "loud pipes" its becouse need more pover more fast bike..

Can you tell me what you mean "make noise when necessary"?

Ps

Nice " rice" bike

Good luck on road..

On my opinion . native saddle a concise look.

new do not seem to do the bike. like a from Chinese scooter.

like a teddy bear backpack instead of a young sporty guy

may be if create one if his Alcantara or similar opaque material and sew it ne longitudinal stripes seem to see such a large and out of place on this bike.

But its only my IMHO

"Make loud noise when necessary:" I imagine for most people, it would be like blowing their horn when necessary. Except that I don't blow my horn. First, it's simply not my habit. Second, I don't think it's very loud. Third, it's a bit difficult for me to think about finding the horn button over there between the high beam switch and turn signal lever while wearing gloves (as I always do), when say, a 55 year old woman has decided to cross the oncoming traffic lane to enter the roadway in front of me without looking. It is much easier for me to rev the engine, since my gloved hand is already wrapped around the throttle, and I feel it necessary to make damn sure she knows I'm coming up right behind her. Another time when it might be necessary is when that Mazda 2 (or Isuzu pickup) stopped in the center lane wants to go to the left most lane (because hey -- he can be three cars closer to the traffic light) without either looking at any of the motorbikes already in that lane, nor using his turn signal, and while he's probably talking on the phone. Suddenly making a lot of noise as he tries to wedge his fender in front of you seems like a good and even necessary thing to do. It damn sure isn't time for me to go fishing for the horn button "over there somewhere." I do not actually have loud pipes on my bike at present. I wish I had had them yesterday when someone in a car pulled out to block my lane of traffic on a two lane road and then sat there waiting for the other lane of traffic to clear. His door window was down, and yes... He was talking on his phone as he sat there in the middle of the road. I pulled up as closely to his car door as I could and just sat there on my quiet motorcycle. He couldn't tell that I was glaring at him through my tinted helmet windscreen. If I had loud pipes, then it would NOT have been necessary for me to sit there close to his car door and open window and rev the engine loudly while he talked on his phone. Not necessary at all. But I sure would have liked to have done it.

As for extra power, it's hard to say... Some aftermarket ("loud") pipes may deliver extra power. Some may actually take it away. Unless you have your engine dyno tested before and after, you won't know. What will likely be true is that your bike will weigh several KG less (5-6KG, in the case of the MT-09). Another likely occurrence is that, if you really like the sound your bike makes with the new "loud" pipes and insist on making loud sounds a lot, going faster a lot, etc., you'll start using more fuel. But because the engine is breathing more freely, fuel consumption can actually improve. It all depends on how you ride the bike. After I put a Tsukigi slip-on on my Kawasaki 650, I would use more fuel around town than I did with the stock muffler. On long trips, however, I would use less fuel... I could go further on a tank of gas. The same is true for automobiles. I remember claims by header manufacturers back in the states saying that fuel consumption could improve as much as 20%. That seemed to be true on one of my Camaros, on which I installed headers. It got pretty good mileage. But I also installed a smaller carburetor as well, and so I'm not sure which contributed most to saving fuel. These changes because fuel was very expensive at the time.

As for your seat comments, I confess to not understanding them all. I've said before that the stock seat does have some positives, but being comfortable isn't one of them. My wife hated sitting on the back of the stock seat. The new seat is much more comfortable, for both myself and my wife. Perhaps when you have a seat made, you'll share some pics of it with us.

[RedQualia]

The next motorcycle modification has been completed. This was simply to cut the stock muffler from the header pipes, then have a short piece of the next size smaller pipe welded inside the header, and to then put it back on the bike with the stock muffler. You can see where this was done just to the left of the O2 sensor in the first pic. You can also see that they welded loops onto both the muffler and header pipes to allow springs to be used there to help hold the two parts together. The springs used in this case were spares from a Tsukigi exhaust I had in the past.

Where cut, the stock pipe inside diameter was two inches. I mention that here because I spent lots of time searching for that detail on the internet, and never found it. The short bit of pipe inserted into the header pipe and welded in place, then, has an outside diameter of two inches.

Why do this? In part, because I consider the all welded together one piece stock exhaust system to be a design flaw. And in part, so that I can try various slip-on mufflers to see which might be better. And too, because most of the aftermarket exhausts for the MT-09 are quite expensive, running from say, 17,000 - 50,000 Baht. A wide variety of slip-ons can be found in different bike shops in Chiang Mai for anywhere from 2,000 - 5,000 Baht. 50,000 Baht is more than a new Yamaha GTX-125 motorbike costs. I'm certainly not going to pay that much just for an exhaust system!

I liked the shop that did the work quite a bit. They'd thought it would be simple, but it was more difficult than expected and took most of the day to finish. A couple of guys took turn working on getting it finished. I asked how much when they finished. They thought about it for a bit and then said 400 Baht. I laughed and told them I thought they were joking. It would have cost quite a bit more to have this done at some of the better known shops (I would have had to wait longer at the other shops I know of as well), so I gave them 1,000 Baht. They were surprised, and seemed happy.

The shop in question is on Chiang Mai-Lumphun Road in Saraphi. It is on the west side of the road about 150 meters north of the PTT station north of Ring Road 2, and about 500-1,000 meters south of the Ring Road 1 overpass (the road GlobalHouse is on). A pretty non-descript shop, but I think they did a good job working with that stainless steel...