I just came off of 2-3/4 years running a Muzzy full exhaust for a ZX14 and wanted to let people know what I am finding.
The Muzzy is built very much like the full Area-P system and uses the same flash with just about the same results.
After reading all the threads about the different systems that are out there for us now I started to question just what I wanted for my riding style.
Last January I updated to Shoodaben's newest premium flash. Steve asked me to let him know how I liked it after a few 1st gear 4K rpm WOT runs. WOW, both times I tried it, the traction control kicked in to keep the front wheel on the ground. The bike took off like a shot and after 6K was a whole other animal, you really need some wide open spaces to appreciate what the bike could do with that setup. Throughout the rest of the year I thought about what I had and what I was using it for. Most of my riding is commuting on the highway in moderate to heavy traffic. Although I had no problems with the way the bike performed I thought more and more about how much of the bikes performance I was using ... I wasn't using the bike for what it could do, I was using it for what I needed, knowing what it could do.
Last winter I bought myself a Black Widow header for Christmas. The install of the header went without a hitch, everything fit nice and tight and I followed it up with a 18” Delkevic Carbon Fiber Oval I had when running the stock head pipes. On 3/22/21 I received my re-flashed ECU (Shoodaben MRP) and have a little over 300 miles on it so far.
What I’ve noticed the most so far is the way the bike responds to light to medium throttle input in the 2K to 4K rpm range. It’s as if the motor were a tightly wound spring just waiting to be released. Small throttle increases seem so much stronger and sharper than they did with the Muzzy on. The Muzzy had no problem with getting out of its own way when I felt the need to get around slower traffic, but the BW seems to do the same thing with less twist of the wrist and is a little quicker to respond.
I haven’t seen any Dyno charts showing a C14 with the BW header or full system yet, but would be interested to see the torque curve as it seems to build torque real quick. I have Dyno charts of my bike with the stock exhaust, and with the Delk slip-on and may get it back on the Dyno when it warms up a little to compare the difference between the stock header and the BW.
The bike stock was impressive coming from a C10, but had issues with abrupt throttle responses that made it much less smooth. An ECU flash took care of most of the abruptness and the Delk slip-on made it sound like a bike that meant business. The Muzzy made the world above 6K rpm incredibly exciting but I just wasn’t going to that world very often, and I’m pretty sure my neighbors didn’t like the sound of the bike as much as I did at 5:15 AM. The performance I have with the BW now seems to fit the bill more than any combination of exhaust and flash I have had yet. It will get to triple digits in no time at all, is smooth from idle on up and feels stronger in the RPM range I ride the most in. Joe C
