Hello Noddy,
Q: I have the pleasure of owning a Kawasaki Versys, which I would love to extract more sound out of.
I don’t really want to fit an after market silencer as I much prefer the look of the standard silencer that suits the lines of the Versys. So, I would like to know your opinion on cutting open the standard silencer, along the welded seam, then removing the cat converter and eventually weld it back together again. Would this do the job and if so would it release more power in the process and would the bike need to be re-tuned to compensate for the increased flow?
Thanks and regards Gerald Leibstein
A: It seems to be a myth out there that removing the cat will improve exhaust flow rates, which as a rule, it certainly doesn’t. I know this because we’ve removed the cat on various bikes and then run them on the dyno, with no horsepower gains shown at all. But yours could be different, as we haven’t done one, but I doubt it.
However, if you do want to keep the stock silencer you can easily do what you’ve suggested. The removal of the cat will increase the noise levels but please make sure that a specialist welder does the job for you otherwise the silencer could split open on you, if not correctly re-built. Just one more thing though, check to see if this will negate the warranty of the bike, if it still has one running that is? And you’ll be pleased to know that you shouldn’t have to re-map the fueling because the ECU should compensate for this small modification.
