This article was written by Mr. Grigsby and he has graciously allowed me to post it here.
I received the box from Kiernan Racing (http://www.braincell.com/kiernan) exactly when they said it should arrive. Bonus points for Kiernan.Unlike my previous hellish experience with Bladerunners, Micron packs their exhausts well. The silencer and connector pipe were wrapped in several layers of foam, the mounting hardware and directions were in a separate ziplock bag and all the bolts and spacers were nested inside yet another bag. All this came inside a large box with lots of styrofoam peanuts.
Packaging score: A- Would have been an A but I don't like styrofoam peanuts: you can't pull stuff out of the box without getting them all over your room or garage.
The silencer is a standard straight-through design of average length with a 50% perf tube and some sort of packing material that's supposed to last longer than fiberglass. The carbon fiber looks and feels sweet. It has a smooth finish, regular weave, no visible flaws, and doesn't crackle when you squeeze it. Micron's logo is made of metal, looks good and is identifiable without being huge. The end caps are polished nicely. Unfortunately they stamp "Race Use Only" on the rear cap...help us out, guys, hmm? However, at least it can be removed without drilling out rivets by loosen the screws and you can repack it yourself.
The connector pipe is polished stainless and has nuts welded on to hold a heat shield so you don't melt the heel of your boot which is a nice touch not found on other systems. The circular clamp which holds the canister has a full rubber lining which will not move or scratch the can which is a nice change from the Two Bros.
Finish and build quality: A- The spring mounting welds on the connector pipe could have been cleaner but are hard to see. I'm nitpicking here.
Micron includes a full packing list, including every bolt and washer and an AutoCad drawing of the bracket fitting on the bike so you know what to attach where. In addition they provide step-by-step fitting instructions for those of us who are less experienced in tinkering.
Documentation: A
Unfortunately the extensive documentation pointed out that the spacers they provided were the wrong size (about 5mm as opposed to 15mm). Also, they neither listed nor provided the two 10mm bolts needed to hold the heat shield on. But there are 2 spare canister springs ... go figure.
I figured I'd try to install it anyway. However, this quickly pointed out two things. The metal mounting bracket weigh a ton and a half and the mounting holes were drilled too close together to mate with the footpeg mounting holes.
Ease of Installation: C- One trip to Home Depot and a Dremel tool required. However, the bracket was obviously hand-bent so this may be bad luck on my part.
Strangely, this huge and heavy bracket hangs the exhaust clamp about two inches directly below a pre-threaded hole in the frame identical to those holding the footpeg. Why didn't they just hang it from that and save the weight? Perhaps they didn't want to make people cut a tiny hole in their mudguard. I, however, will be doing this as soon as I can get another short aluminium strip.
Once bodged onto the bike, the mounting bracket holds the pipe securely in just the right place which is parallel with the rear cowling and in tight with the tire. It looks exactly like you'd want a high-level exhaust to look. You may need spacers for the canister clamp if you don't want it in so tight.
Fit: A-
Upon starting, I notice that this pipe is quite loud compared to stock with a noticeable "rip" as I blip the throttle. Lugging around town sounds very big, mean and snarly. Interestingly enough, it doesn't seem to get much louder at higher revs and at highway speed (65 mph) I can barely hear it over the wind, unlike a Two Bros which "booms" and would probably give me a headache on long freeway trips. At full rip it is somewhat louder than stock, but much less so than at low revs. I like this.
It's clearly quieter than a Two Bros but clearly noisier than a Yosh Zyclone. Further tests as I find other systems to compare it to.
Sound quality: A- It could be a bit quieter at low revs but sounds great at speed.
I don't think I'm going appreciably faster, but we'll have to get some dyno results to find out. My bike now runs lean and pops a lot on deceleration, which sounds cool but is sub-optimal. Time to tune it again.
Performance: who knows?
Do I like it? Absolutely -- it looks and sounds great. But Micron needs to be more precise when drilling their brackets and packing their nuts and bolts. I sure this helps someone make a decision.
Griggs
