While you may be poking fun at those who claim a 4-5lb loss in weight will make the bike accelerate faster (acknowledging that many of us can do that simply by losing a little bit of unhealthy weight, lol), cumulative weight loss may result in a perceptible improvement in performance. I'm not familiar with all the options available, but is it possible to lose 20 lbs. or so with a Two Bros. (or similar) system? Subtract another 5 lbs. for a lithium battery, and maybe the 5-10 lbs. the significant other has been nudging you to lose, and you have a 30-35 lbs. cumulative weight loss. Most people will feel that differenceNo idea if anyone here has been able to do a comparison of all those exhaust systems. I can tell you that there have been a few posts saying you cannot expect an increase in performance by changing the exhaust system. The bike's ECU pretty much thwarts easy performance increases.
If you want to make the bike quicker, change the lead acid battery to a Lithium batt. The latter will shave off several pounds (4 or 5?) and the lighter bike will accelerate faster.
In fact, I've posted exactly that bit about a Li battery boosting performance several times - all in jest. I also point out that the bike will be easier to pick up if you drop it - also as a joke. But of course, there is an element of truth in both of those statements. Practically speaking, I doubt one could measure the increase in performance unless all aspects of the test were automated - and even then variables might make the results meaningless. As for a 25 lb or even 40 lb lighter ST having faster acceleration or a higher top speed than a weightier example, again, I doubt the difference would be enough to consistently show up in say, a drag race or top speed run. Operator reflexes, clutch actuation, and wind resistance (operator height and breadth (latter because we have a few, ahhh portly owners) influencing the last) would be more important.While you may be poking fun at those who claim a 4-5lb loss in weight will make the bike accelerate faster (acknowledging that many of us can do that simply by losing a little bit of unhealthy weight, lol), cumulative weight loss may result in a perceptible improvement in performance. I'm not familiar with all the options available, but is it possible to lose 20 lbs. or so with a Two Bros. (or similar) system? Subtract another 5 lbs. for a lithium battery, and maybe the 5-10 lbs. the significant other has been nudging you to lose, and you have a 30-35 lbs. cumulative weight loss. Most people will feel that difference
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Half of my "assessments" are performed by my butt dyno, lol. And for reference, I'm getting to the age where "the older I get, the faster I WAS." While I could stand to drop 20 lbs. for optimum results, I'm short and stocky by nature and wind resistance has rarely been my friend, except for perhaps popping out of the bubble after a long straight on the track
I'm a bit of a weight weenie and fortunate enough to be around some very fast and very light bikes... but unfortunately, that makes most bikes above 450 lbs. wet seem a bit heavy. That said, I'm on a fun exercise to see how much weight I can drop from my ST1100. I think I can do 50lbs. pretty easily, but the additional 50 lbs. (goal) will likely be prohibitively expensive. It's the journey, not the destination, right? Thank you so much for this, It really helped. You all are amazing, I really do appreciate the contributions.