And the performance is... is.... iiiiiiiis...

But first, some more ẁorship at the temple of LED.

The lower spots (£15 delivered!) came with a nice LED ring but 55W halogen foglight main bulbs. There was no way I was going to traumatise my poor little dynamo and battery by wiring in another 110W of load, but fortunately there are LED equivalents for the H3 type bulbs.

As you can see, they're tecno-tastic. It's like living in a bright bluish-white Futureworld. The moment there's a LED equivalent of the Xenon BA20D headlight bulb, I'll be on it like Angelina Jolie on an African orphanage.

But that's not why we're here, is it? It's to find out if de-catting the bike made any difference to the performance. Well, did it? Did it? Wait - why am I asking you? I'm the one who knows.

The glaciers withdrew briefly today, and I went for a lunchtime drag along the handy local dual carriageway. Up the on-ramp, feeling good, 30mph, 40, and an indicated 50 as I hit the main carriageway. Throttle pegged, here comes 55, and the 60-ish that's the usual top end. But wait - what's this? Do we see 65? We do! Do we see 70? Near as dammit, we do, in 5th and a fraction over 10,000 RPM. That's more like a real 65, but it's comfortably faster than the bike has ever shown on the flat, enough to keep up with the traffic and safely overtake Micra Man.

So we're clear, that's the purpose of getting that little bit of extra performance. It's not about burning rubber on the shopping trip, it's about the difference between holding up and keeping up with cars on open roads. Slower isn't safer if it means you're being tailgated by Astra Man.

For those keeping score, that's with a 17 tooth front sprocket, stock CDI, aftermarket coil and HT lead, a K&N stylee filter, 95 main jet and a DR8EIX plug (DR9EIX is a better for extended high RPM). Now that the engine can exhale, I'll re-try the 100 and 105 jets to see if the needle can go into the Forbidden Zone past 70.

So, was chopping the cats worth it? I'd say yes, but only because I did it on the cheap and enjoyed the process. If you had to pay for 2 aftermarket exhausts - assuming that you could find ones that were definitely cat-free - would it really be worth spending 1/5th or more of the price of the bike to get another 3 or 4 mph?

That's up to you to decide, gentle reader. I can only write my own tale. What's yours?