Modern Vespa

I'm such a goof!
I dug out my caliper (haven't used in a few years).
The head exhaust pipe on a GT200 is 1.25" OD.
By cutting off the swaged end of the muffler the muffler pipe would also be 1.25".
Thus, a stainless flex coupler with same size ends could be used.

A plain stainless mesh collar would work too, and be far cheaper. My humble opinion is that the graphite itself is too much of a 'Good Idea', and the redesign of the collars would seem to back this up - if only half-way!

I have followed this thread from the beginning and was determined not to get into the fray, but I can't help it! At the expense of bringing on the fury of the "experts" I have to say "what's the problem?" After 23,000 trouble free miles with the Moto Amore sleeve installed, the last item I think about as being problematic is the muffler/exhaust joint. I have removed and replaced my muffler at least 7 or 8 times, mostly for tire changes, always by removing the muffler at the clamp, never at the header. I apply anti-seize compound before replacing the muffler and carefully align the parts and alternate the tightening of the bolts involved. With this set-up I have ridden long, hard days in hot weather with no mishap. OK, I lied, I did have a header stud break at about 17,000 miles, but it could have been caused by a number of things. Personally, I think the stud came loose, then sheared. It has since been replaced by a stainless steel bolt, loctited in, and I don't anticipate any future problems. I don't care what anybody else thinks or does, the brass bushing solves the problem for me. Or maybe, I've just been lucky.

Cheers,

Bob

I agree that torquing the pipe clamp to the proper spec is absolutely crucial when using the stock graphite bushing. It doesn't require nearly as much force as one might think, and over-torquing can very easily damage the bushing and lead to premature failure. I have the brass bushing on my 250, but it doesn't seem to provide that much slip to be honest. It sits tight against the header pipe, and if anything is going to slip in the joint, it would be the muffler pipe against the bushing, which is different from the behavior of the stock graphite bushing. I have kept the stock bushing on my 300, which now has nearly 4200 miles. Even after removing the muffler to replace the gearbox oil at 600 miles and the rear tire at 3300 miles, with riding it frequently at WOT, the same bushing that it came with from the factory has held up just fine (knock on wood). I've taken great care to be very gentle when removing and reinstalling the muffler, and it seems to have been the right recipe to preserve the bushing as best as possible.

However, I strongly caution against the practice of removing the header pipe at the cylinder. First of all, it's a relatively big pain in the ass to get it off and on that way. Second, you run the risk of snapping an exhaust stud if you're not extremely careful, and it's far from easy or cheap to replace what would seem like a piddly little part.

In your case, Windbreaker, I imagine you've been very careful to torque the header nuts down properly and you don't mind the Houdini-like maneuvers to get them off and on. Anyone who wants to go that route should be very, very careful and be aware of the potentially disastrous consequences.

Anyway, that's my $0.02 on the subject. On a side note, that is an absolutely gorgeous color on your GTS, Windbreaker... I love it!

I thought only the older GTS ones were blowing? Sure hope I don't have this problem with my 300.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Bob. I too had to endure a broken exhaust stud on my 250 which also has the brass bushing, but that happened less than a day after someone (who shall remain nameless) removed the exhaust at the head. He mentioned that he did have a difficult time getting one of the header nuts off and an even harder time getting it back on, which I believe was the stud that broke. He also did not use a torque wrench when tightening the nuts either. I am inclined to blame those factors for the broken stud, although I can't help but wonder if the brass bushing might have played a role as well, by stressing the stud for a prolonged period of time leading up to the break. For the record, this all happened several months after I rode the bike on the Cannonball too, so it had seen plenty of abuse well before the time that the stud broke. However, it has been fine since the stud was replaced... so far so good, knock on wood.

You will, it's just a matter of time. The difference is that the older 250's (2007 & earlier) would also melt the rear brake line when the gasket blew. A bulletin was issued to replace the header pipe with a new design, that has a built in deflector that directs the hot gases away from the brake line. So your exhaust bushing will still fail eventually, it just won't take your rear brake with it.

Wonderful

sorry o.t...newbie here...what's WOT?

Wide Open Throttle

Mine failed repeatedly
Maybe because the whole exhaust was rusting,
as I was commuting through NJ winters

Finally replaced it with a Leo Vince pipe--no problems since

From what I can tell, if you don't mind a little louder exhaust the Leo Vince pipe is the way to go. Then we won't have to screw with removing the header pipe.

I did have a broken header stud, but before the exhaust was welded up.

Piaggio probably never thought that we'd cover the miles we are, so some of the maintenance we're doing (tire changes, etc), wouldn't happen that much. Was hoping the'd figure it out by now.

They are very used to high-mileage users in Europe.

The issue of the graphite collars has been going on for ages. We'll see if the new design helps. I'm not holding my breath on that though.

Would you think that the LV pipe is the answer to most of the problems, if a little louder exhaust wasn't a concern?

Only if properly installed. And it's difficult to install properly. With the LV, you have to be very, very sure that when you bolt the can to the swingarm plate, you aren't causing the down (header) tube and intermediate tube to deflect in any way. If you bolt it up such that the down tube and intermediate tube deflect, you'll be putting pressure on the down tube. Repeated heating and cooling of the down tube while under stress will cause the down tube to break.

thanks!!!