Curly from the three stooges...
Curly from the three stooges stopped by to show his wrenching skills.
John Zamora: Associate Editor
Miles Ridden: 1250
Mods: Slip-on exhaust, rearsets and a fender eliminator
First things first on my ER-6n-getting rid of the BORING stock exhaust. So I headed to the Vance & Hines headquarters to check out the latest and greatest in parallel twin pipeage. The stock pipe for the ER is hideous and resembles a car muffler with a dolphin nose for an exhaust tip. The CS-One slip-on is designed for both the ER and its sister, the Ninja 650, and has a specially designed boom box chamber for a throaty sound while keeping the decibels down. Turning the key and firing up the motor feels more like a kick-start as it comes to life with a roar. The exhaust note went from the hum of a sewing machine to that of a four-stroke thumper on steroids. Pre and post-dyno runs proved 2.6 ponies added to the stable with a 3.6 LB weight savings. The matte black pipe with red badge matches the flat black of the bike to a T and looks custom too. For just over five bills, it's a must-have upgrade.
Valter Moto Rearsets
$600...
The stock rearsets on the ER-6n are the definition of over-engineering with a jungle-gym design that does nothing more than hold a passenger's feet. Rearsets from Valter Moto eliminate the passenger pegs and with a black finish they vastly improved the look of the rear end. Because the exhaust was designed to bolt to the stock pipe with a special bracket, a replacement mount had to be fabricated to complete the marriage of aftermarket parts.
With the exhaust, pegs and miscellaneous parts installed, I was going to take a break from the mods. But with the minor liposuction to the rear already underway, the stock undertail looked like a tail on a fine-ass booty. Not hot. With a nip, tuck and a slice, a fender eliminator from Competition Werkes completed the back side clean up and left it looking like a completely different beast. The only thing left for the rear is to remove the love handles and cap it off with a solo seat cover.
Vance & hines CS-one exhaust...
Competition werkes fender...
Now that the bike looks good, I can focus my attention on brake upgrades. Levers and lines are next on the list and possibly some pads to help improve the poor stock stopping power. Hopefully in the next few months the ER-6n will be ready to join the 600 bad-boy gang.
Coming next month: Braking upgrades