Z250SL muffler replacement

As the owner of what is surely the most abused and neglected Z250SL in the British Isles I feel I should report about the stonkingly poor build quality of the exhaust. Here is how it looked not long after I bought it:

And here is how it looked after 18574 miles and another crash:

It had been noisy for at least a couple of months previous to this but the crash really finished it off. The noise was tiresome and the bike's first MOT was drawing near so I figured I had to fix it. What I really wanted was an Ixil can but these require real money to be spent so instead I bought a very-slightly-used original exhaust from ebay for £36.01, I can only thank the vain person who thought it was wise to fit something aftermarket. So, remove the bolt from the passenger footpeg hanger and remove the muffler..

I had to giggle.

In the interest of science I tried to get some pictures of inside the can but my phone insisted on focusing on the grass instead, when will technology allow us to manually operate the focus??

Not a lot to it really, why are they so expensive? It was also well on its way to rotting in other places too:

The next step was to get what was left of the muffler section off the stainless downpipe. I like that at least some of the exhaust is stainless but why not make it all stainless?? Anyway, it is held on with a clamp which I thought was going to be a nightmare to get off - not so! I hammered a socket on to what was left of the bolt head, gave it a good twist and the whole clamp tore off! Result.

Happily the new exhaust came with its clamp so this was no loss at all. Also if this is supposed to happen by design then it's brilliant.

So, twist and heave on the remains until it comes off.

It wasn't too difficult to remove, and the remains of the gasket were quite easily removed with a wire brush. I did consider fitting a new gasket but the one left in the new exhaust still looked fine (it wasn't torn up) and have you seen the price of them?? So on it went.

Upon starting it sounded very much like a sewing machine, only slightly less embarrassing but much less offensive. Overall a good job but a shame I had to do it so soon. Also the footpeg hanger is bent after the crashes which means the bolt hole isn't quite where it should be any more, I did consider bending it back but if it snaps off then I'm in deep doo-dah so I left it. An insurance person would probably write it off because the frame is bent, oh well..