I got the new muffler in yesterday, about 2 weeks before Helmet Head Cycles thought it would be in. Drop shipped from their distributor.
The finish is awesome if you like shiny.
I am not a flashy person, so it didn't strike me at first, except that it appears flawless. The welds look great, and the fit to the motorcycle was perfect. Just for the sake of argument, I had to start the engine without any muffler on it at all, just the collectors. WOW! its loud! I got the muffler to change the exhaust note a bit and this muffler does it in spades. I like the look of the Akrapovic just as much as the Staintune, but the Staintune was a lot less expensive. Best price I found on the Akra was $720, but I don't recall where. Helmet Head offered the Staintune for $599. From the recordings I heard online I didn't think there was much of a difference in sound, so I went with the less expensive option (and the option that was recommended to me by a friend who used to race motorcycles and also used to work in the industry.)Installation was easy, except for not having the exact tools at work that I needed for all of the Allen cap screws. I removed the old muffler then found out that BMW, in their infinite wisdom, has the nut captured in a welded cage for the rear hanger. I went to my local bolt shop and picked up the 8mm nylock nut that I needed to complete installation. Everything else was either reused or included. I guess Staintune doesn't know that the nut is captured on the R1200R. The muffler weight 1/2 of the stock unit, at about 7lbs vs 13lbs. It's also a lot smaller and really tidy's up the side of the motorcycle.
All in all I am pretty pleased with the look and fit and finish of the new muffler, and the sound is awesome. I am running without the baffle installed, but I plan to try it out for the longer and group rides.
I am going to try to get an audio recording in the future, but I don't want to embarrass myself after that great video in the Akra install thread that Peckhammer did.
Mike
Was going to post a pic, but I don't have the option at this time, so I will need to upload it to a server someplace first.
