When it comes to selecting what exhaust to purchase for your dirt bike the options can seem overwhelming at first. I want to help you make a decision that will guide you towards the performance output you are seeking for your style of riding.
Two-Stroke Exhaust Systems:
When shopping for a two stroke exhaust system you really need to spend time on your motorcycle, and learn where your bikes performance is strong and/or weak. Two-strokes have what is called a power band which is where the bike makes a surge of power in a particular RPM range (check out my article on Power Bands). This is crucial to factor into your decision, because you can choose specific header pipes that will shift your power band to a more desirable RPM range.
Trail Riding Exhaust:
When trail riding you typically need a lot of low RPM power to climb up obstacles at slow controllable speeds. It is important to select a pipe that is designed to shift your power bad into the low/mid range so that you have a smooth controllable torque off the bottom when riding in technical single track. I recommend the Pro Circuit Platinum 2 pipe for trail riding, it provides a great low to mid power range.
Motocross Exhaust:
When riding motocross you want to choose a pipe that is designed to keep the power band in the mid or high RPM range. This would give you soft controllable power out of corners, which keeps you from losing traction at your rear wheel, and allows you to have that little bit of extra speed and power through the rhythm sections. I recommend the Pro Circuit Works header pipe for motocross and supercross.
Motocross and Trail Hybrid Exhaust:
If you do a variety of off-road trail riding and motocross I would suggest getting something pretty neutral such as the FMF Fatty that is designed to help your bikes performance across a wide range of RPM and balance your performance across the board. This way you won’t sacrifice on the top or bottom end and your bike will be well rounded for any situation.
Silencer:
As far as the silencer goes they have a fairly minimal effect on the performance of your motorcycle, so the main things to consider are the noise level and whether or not you need a spark arrestor. I am often riding in areas that require your silencer to be spark arrested so that limits my options significantly, plus Pro Circuit only makes one spark arrested option for my bike, so that made my decision pretty easy. I do recommend matching your brand of silencer to the brand of your header. This isn’t a requirement but they do design their systems to perform best with their own silencer.
Four-Stroke Exhaust Systems:
In my experience choosing your four-stroke exhaust has little consequences when choosing between brands and price ranges. Honestly it is all about opening up your exhaust system so that your bike can run free from the restrictive factory exhaust that the manufacturers are forced to sell on the bikes for emissions regulations. Don’t get me wrong there are small differences and you’re splitting hairs for performance at that point. Unlike the two-strokes, the four-strokes have a very linear powerband so this means that the exhaust selection has little to do with where your bike makes peak horsepower. You will gain some performance but the best part of the upgrade (in my opinion) is the sound of an aftermarket exhaust. I recently purchased a preowned 2013 CRF450R with a full Yoshimura carbon fiber exhaust system and it sounds beautiful!
Very helpful article!