It was after work at Gene's house, the night before we were leaving for my first real GS ride. When I got off the bike, I noticed an unusual puff of air hitting my right leg, and I asked Gene what he thought. It didn't take long for him to find a four inch crack emanating from the upper mounting bracket of the Staintune muffler that the previous owner had fitted to the bike.

Crushed that a component with such a fine reputation had failed so catastrophically on my new-to-me GS, I was comforted only by Staintune's lifetime guarantee. The bike deal included the stock BMW silencer, so a quick detour back to my garage the next day salvaged the trip. And an email inquiry to Staintune was answered a few days later with instructions to ship the muffler back to them for repair. Two trips to the post office (the first box was an inch oversize) and $35 later, the Staintune was on a slow boat to Oz.

Almost three months later I got a call from California BMW saying my muffler was in. I was a bit confused until I remembered that they serve as the US importer for Staintune. I was also a little disappointed to learn I'd need to make a trip to Mountain View to retrieve the package. On opening the box all my misgivings disappeared, as it appeared to contain a new muffler. Not only was there no sign of the crack, there was not a single scratch or scar on the entire thing. It was as shiny as a new penny! I was so sure that the original muffler had been replaced that I sent another email off to ask. I was assured that the silencer had indeed been repaired.

Now I had to decide if I wanted to keep it or not. The crack had done nothing to bolster my confidence in the Staintune's durability, and I'd noticed no loss in performance when the BMW muffler was installed. Indeed, I found I liked the deeper, throatier sound of the stock system more than the Staintune. Since both were made of stainless steel, I decided to stay with the BMW part and sell the Staintune on the web. That move netted me a cool $400 which helped offset the cost of the upgrades I'd made elsewhere.