[250rinblack]

I took my Yoshi slip-on off today. It was on the bike when I bought it six months ago, and the original muffler came with the bike. I'd been contemplating retro-fitting the the stock muffler because:
1. I'm a shift worker and my travel times vary from 0330 in the morning to after midnight and I don't think my neighbours are too impressed with the noise (although none of them have said anything....yet). My wife said she could here me coming down the street, and that was on a very minimal throttle opening.
2. The note from the Yoshi had a very harsh "blat" in the mid-range around the 4000-7000rpm range; it wasn't a good sound. I just didn't like the noise it made. Additionally it was quite deafening on long rides.
3. I'm not so sure that there is/was a noticeable performance gain, and if there was I'm not sure I'm good enough to have noticed it.
4. Aesethically I think the stock muffler looks just as good, so there's no loss there.

I do believe though that loud pipes (within reason) do make car drivers look. Many a time in the last six months when I've been riding and I wasn't sure if the car in front knew I was near them I'd just close the throttle and the popping and banging on the over-run would make the driver's head turn. Guess time will tell if I've made the correct decision.