ok, here's the scoop: i think my goals may differ from yours; i didn't want a hit in the motor, i hate "hit". for my purposes, it just gets in the way, esp. after getting tired. i never race mx; i use the bike primarily for tight, gnarly enduros, so i was after smooth power from bottom to top. i had a gnarly pipe on my '98, but it took away too much top. so i had eric port the '00 for more bottom w/o losing all the top, & he did just that (cost $110). i wanted it still smoother, so i put on a steahly flywheel weight (~$100). i liked that even more, but i wanted a little more back on the top, so i put on a pro circuit pipe (~$150 with silencer used) & went to race gas mixed 50/50 with pump gas. when i last had the motor apart, i noticed that the reeds were beginning to fray, so i popped in a moto tassinari set i had laying around (the original, not the delta II, they're about $150 now). now it's just about right for me. it has nice smooth power from the very bottom, with a smoothed-out transition to "on the pipe" (it's still noticeable), & a screaming top end. i got in a drag race between corners with a yz 250 in a field at a hare scramble the other day, & he just barely pulled me (& i got him right back in the woods). as you may imagine, i have had to jack with the jetting thruout this process, & while it's pretty close, it may be just a smidge rich right at the transition from the pilot to the bottom of the needle, i just ran out of time (& energy) to mess with it. the bike has never fouled a plug & exc. for 1 fluke thing unrelated to the mods, has been absolutely stone reliable. all of the mods put together cost less than the pipe i put on my yz250f trying to make it useable for enduros.