Temptation got the better of me...

Truly I resisted...

Ever since getting the DL I've been in two minds as to whether I should change the mufflers on it:

For: it's a V-twin and should be allowed to make music.
Against: do I want it to be rowdy when pootling along quietly on some delicious back road?

So I held off and ummed and arrred, forgot about it for a while, was tortured whenever a sweet V-twin rode past, got plenty of stick from Brian and kept a bit of an eye on Trademe...

Well Trademe ended up coming through when I had a quick look one weekend.  I spotted some Remus Revolution GP mufflers and put them on my watch list and then pretended to forget about them...The auction came and went and obviously they didn't sell as the seller sent out a fixed price offer valid for three days...

So after consulting the V-Strom forum (not a lot of help there this time) and more head scratching I decided to pull the pin and on Tuesday morning took delivery of some shiny stainless steel.  That night there was only one thing on the agenda and it wasn't dinner - I was straight into it when I got home.

Removing the old mufflers was a piece of cake even with my pannier racks on but it did take a bit of a wrestle to get the new mufflers on - the issue was tightening up the clamps while trying to keep the pipes oriented properly so they looked right (still may need to adjust the left one a little).  After a fair bit of grunting and groaning they were on and don't they look nice?

Mmmm, shiny!

Naturally next on the agenda was the fire up and a quick test ride.  Well, I have yet to have a proper ride but so far I'm reasonably impressed.  The bike sounds great but I don't think it's too loud - definitely not as loud as the VTR with it's titanium Two Bros pipes.  Seat of the pants also says the poor old DL was mightily strangled with the standard mufflers and it now feels like it spins up more readily and it also handles lower revs a bit better.

Anyway, here's a quick sample of the new music - I'll try and get better on bike video/audio on the weekend...