Loud exhausts, what do you think?

[Freebird]

Just a thought, what are people’s views on loud cans and is there a difference between Harley and Harleyesque straight through pipes and sports bike with performance can?

I know this could get bitchy so please be nice. :yes:

Personally, I like the stealth factor of the Blackbird with standard cans, that and I don’t need any more power. :rockon:

(not that sticking a noisy can on improves performance!!!)

[vifferman]

While I like the sound of many 'performance' exhausts (especially 90-degree V twins or fours, and triples), there's a point where excessive loudness makes it obnoxious rather than 'zorst music'. Almost all Harleys - especially those with 'drag pipes - sound crap. Their exhausts don't sound tuned, just loud.

I remember an episode of Mrkn Chopper, where instead of drag pipes they fitted some that were supposedly performance pipes (and a LOT quieter) and the Teutels were amazed at how nice it sounded. IIRC, they said it sounded "like a race bike - REALLY nice!"

[Blind spot]

I totally agree with vifferman

[Blackbird]

I prefer quiet cans, less fatiguing on a long haul and I certainly don't want to attract attention to myself either. That's not to say that I don't appreciate hearing the boom of a Ducati with an absence of baffles as long as I don't have to follow it for long! The "quality" of sound is obviously important to me as loud fours and Harleys do nothing for me which is not the case with aforementioned Ducatis!

[imdying]

While I like the sound of many 'performance' exhausts (especially 90-degree V twins or fours, and triples), there's a point where excessive loudness makes it obnoxious rather than 'zorst music'. Almost all Harleys - especially those with 'drag pipes - sound crap. Their exhausts don't sound tuned, just loud.QFT. Loud is good, but there's too loud. My bike is fine for me, not so fine for those behind me. Gets a warrant, don't care about much else TBH... I try not to piss the neighbours off, and don't rape it round the streets late at night.

[Coldrider]

Depends whether you like the sound of after market or performance pipes, or whether you are imposing that sound for others to hear. Some noise is good, some can be real bad.

[Pwalo]

I like my own bike to be quiet(ish). Definitely as stealthy as possible.

[Grahameeboy]

I prefer quiet cans, less fatiguing on a long haul and I certainly don't want to attract attention to myself either. That's not to say that I don't appreciate hearing the boom of a Ducati with an absence of baffles as long as I don't have to follow it for long! The "quality" of sound is obviously important to me as loud fours and Harleys do nothing for me which is not the case with aforementioned Ducatis!

Arrows come with a removable baffle (uses a circlip) so for long trips you can put baffle in and for my bike it sounds about the same just a slightly different...well more like more of a burble......

[Grub]

Stealth is my No1 priority in cans. Why advertise to everyone for miles around, especially those with *555 phones, that you're having a bit of a thrash?

[surfer]

I found when I had really really loud pipes on a previous bike I had it made for being unpopular with the neighbours and generally everyone in the vicinity; on longer trips I got a headache from the din (shorty mufflers with no baffles). Personally I wouldn't go that loud ever again. I have heard louder though.

There is loud and too loud. Too loud for me equates to being a tosser. I always feel like asking the rider how big is your penis?

I like cars to know I am there as well as the potential meandering pedestrian that occaisionally decides on taking a suicide run to cross the road without looking.

My current bike doesn't have baffles but is not overloud and as it gets a warrant ok I am happy. The size of my penis is fine too.

[avgas]

I have allready spoken about what i like and what does what.
I currently have an aftermarket pipe that looks stealth and doesn't make me tone deaf.
If i were to replace it it would be with a supertrapp so i could change how loud i want it.

[HenryDorsetCase]

my personal preference has been to leave the pipes standard and spend the money on suspension mods. stuff that makes others think you might be faster vs stuff that actually allows you to be faster.

my 2c

[MotoGirl]

My bike is reasonably noisy and I love the sound of the Italian brute throbbing between my :innocent: whoops *stops bike porn*.

Although reasonably noisy, I can tolerate my Akrapovics for a few hours and don't get a headache. When I tour the South Island next April, I'll stick the baffles back in. Like Surfer said, you need to be responsible in your own backyard to avoid pissing the neighbours off.

I also find that cars get out of my way when I'm on something loud. Either that, or this bike is just more visible than the previous ones.

[Coyote]

I've just put on the VFR a CBR400 muffler with baffles removed and replaced with a perferated cone (big intake to small outtake) and a few layers of fibreglass mat around the cone. It's still a bit too loud for my liking but it's much better than when I tried the muffler when it was hollow. When it was hollow it had no bottom end power and sounded very rattly. When I can afford proper muffler packing I'll open it up again and hopefully it'll be perfect by then, quiter and stock-better power. It's quiet enough to not get harrassed by cops and public untill I get that packing.

Goes to show a loud pipe hinders performance. Like all those boy racers

[Ewan Oozarmy]

I also find that cars get out of my way when I'm on something loud. Either that, or this bike is just more visible than the previous ones.

I think I've changed the cans on every bike I've owned, one, for the weight savings, and two, for the safety factor - people tend to hear you when you're filtering and any additional visibility to your average twat in a car can only be good.

[Bass]

Firstly, I seem to remember a thread on here where someone produced some dyno figures of back to back tests of various aftermarket exhaust systems. Most gave less grunt than the stock cans - one or two gave very slightly more than the stock ones.
So it has to be mostly a "sound" thing therefore and nothing much to do with power.

Secondly, while I do enjoy a bit of character in an exhaust note, my house is on a significant thoroughfare and not far from an intersection with lights. There have been occasions when I had to work all night and so was trying to catch up on some sleep during the day. On those days, I would cheerfully have slowly and painfully executed one or two bikers with ridiculously loud exhaust systems who insisted on gunning it away from the lights - all of them V twins and most of them Harleys.

[vifferman]

There is loud and too loud. Too loud for me equates to being a tosser. I always feel like asking the rider how big is your penis?

LOL.
Have you seen that ad video, with a guy on a loud Harley, trying to talk to a pretty girl crossing the road in front of him? She can't work out what he's trying to say over the din, and when he eventually turns the motor off, he says, "Yes - as a mater of fact, my penis IS really small!"

I know from experience what is too loud: if you're riding down the street, and car alarms go off in cars you pass, it's too loud. If you're riding down the street, and people turn around to see what's coming, it's too loud. If you can ride past the HP headquarters, and end up with a cop car/bike on your tail, and get pulled over, it's too loud. If you don't get pulled over, but you're relieved that you didn't, then it's marginal.

I live a few km away from the harbour bridge in a straight line - I can see the top of it from the kitchen window. Virtually the only vehicles I can hear when lying in bed at night or early in the morning are the odd BoiRacR car that's yet to be pulled over and stickered, and Harleys with drag pipes.

[Coldrider]

Ram air Kwackas make beautiful induction music from the air boxes, but I have to admit the Akrapovic Blued titanium finish on some of their exhausts looks fantastic, looks better than noise.

[wildpudding]

The exhaust on my bike is pretty loud, used to think louder is better but now its to the point where I wear ear plugs pretty much every time to cut down the noise.

Stefan

[The Lone Rider]

I wonder what sort of responses you'd get if you asked this on a forum board that has a dominant ratio of cruiser bikers compared to sporters and other bike types.

[pritch]

my personal preference has been to leave the pipes standard and spend the money on suspension mods. stuff that makes others think you might be faster vs stuff that actually allows you to be faster.my 2c

I tend to agree with that sentiment but just after I bought my Ohlins a set of Arrow cans sort of fell out of the sky. Provenance was impeccable and the price was irresistible so....

At normal cruising speed I can't hear the exhaust so it isn't too loud.
I'll be checking them out to see if I can spot the magic circlip though.
Purely in the interests of science you understand.

[Pancakes]

I made a straight thu 2" can for mine and the results were what I expected, way less bottom end (which on a 250 V-Twin pretty much ruins the bike) and lets it just rev free and make more power over the standard red-line (which gets pretty pricey unless the internals have been sorted or it's on of those rare engines that are bullet-proof, did you know Toyota engines with a "G" in the code have heads designed by Yamaha? just out of interest)

I personally like hearing the pulse of the cylinders but hate a drone whan I'm riding/driving. Stock cans win in something you have to live with. Keeps you "in" with the neighbours and doesn't sound as fast, would attract less attention from the fuzz. With the straight pipe on tho' was the safest splitting I've ever done! Cars parting like the red sea and if someones in your way, clutch in and a rev and they move (sounds great esp under bridges etc!).




Goes to show a loud pipe hinders performance. Like all those boy racers

This is a bit different, bike pipes will have the pipe volumes calculated, the pipes merging at different places depending on the engine layout etc so the hot gasses cool and leave a vaccum to help draw out the next cylinders exhaust gasses (hence the name "extractors").
Most of the boy racer cars are turbo'ed so the greater the pressure drop across the turbine (exhaust) side of the turbo the more boost is supplied to the intake and it will also come on fasetr (be less "laggy"). You will quite often see Log manifolds on a turbo car which on a N/A vehicle would create awful results with one pulse blocking the next. Turbos don't spin at the average gas speed as the pressurised gas speeds the wheel up more than the lack of gas slows it down. I hate to make up numbers but it would be closer to 70% of the average gas speed, this means having all the gasses in uneven lenght pipes coming into the turbo at one time makes the whole setup work better. What I hate is "performance" cars with massive chrome wheels! One of the heaviest metals out for more than some nice light OZ Racing magnesium rims, do they know about unsprung weight!

[Hitcher]

Loud is good, but not excessively so. A performance engine deserves to be appreciated. And there can be some significant weight savings to be had by ditching standard mufflers.

[NighthawkNZ]

I saw on trademe some NZ made performance cans that you could quickly and easily switch between loud and stealth... just by the use of an allan key... they were going for about 1500 and he had them to fit many brands and models...

Personally I like the deep rummbling sound of a well tuned VTwin.... but only for a short time, on a long trip that would get to me and prefer the quieter hence why I was seriously considering the above...

[rainman]

Well, I suppose since I'm having baffles fitted to my drilled-out pipes later tonight, that kinda answers the question for me.

I don't really mind the loud too much around town, does cause cars to pay a bit more attention, I think, but on a long trip it's just too noisy, and I would like to be able to get a WOF easily. And I have set off car alarms... although in a parking garage so maybe that doesn't count. :innocent:

[Boob Johnson]

I think I've changed the cans on every bike I've owned, one, for the weight savings, and two, for the safety factor - people tend to hear you when you're filtering and any additional visibility to your average twat in a car can only be good.Hear hear agreed (no pun intended :innocent:)

Ive just ordered my new can for two reasons, nicer back note & cagers can hear me coming if they don't see me. Might have saved my accident 2 months ago :angry:

[xwhatsit]

Singles deserve to be unleashed. There's a Kawasaki MX bike around the neighbourhood somewhere -- unregistered, obviously for off-road use only, but he cracks around the roads (the one time I saw him he had a pillion) a fair bit, it's a quiet and dozy part of Auckland. I recognised the noise, though...

Singles don't have that overwhelming dizzying `boooooom' that a lot of performance engines with loud cans have. Boy-racer cars are the worst for this, but V-twins and fours can do it too. That said, despite the bassy boom of the V-twin, a Ducati has a special timbre that more than makes up for it.

Harleys have a nice flavour too, the sound of that strange ignition set-up they have that causes the potato is very tasty. Not too loud, though -- otherwise it's overwhelming, like when you turn up your stereo too high and can't hear the music properly any more. Fours are not at all nice with super-loud pipes on them. The main appeal of a four-cylinder engine note is that F1-style whine, and having it massively loud doesn't really improve it much. I think the higher frequency the noise, the harder it is to listen to loud; like when you listen to a shitty pair of headphones and the female singer just sounds really sibilant and painful to listen to. That's why singles and twins can get away with being louder than fours.

I wouldn't mind hearing what my bike sounds like with a louder pipe on it; I heard an XR250 with the same engine with a loud pipe on it, it sounded very tasty surprisingly enough. As standard all you can hear is the rattly camshaft, unless you grab a fistful on the motorway beside a concrete barrier.

I do serious mileage on my bike, so an over-loud pipe (on any bike) for me would be a bad idea.

[jimbo600]

Well my GSXR is loud as fuck. Most folk say it sounds good. Not heard a bad word against it. However, I ride in a very tall gear round home and in built up areas and it's pretty sedate when ridden like that. I have also noticed that when on open roads birds etc move away well before my arrival, as do livestock by the side of the road so it does have safety implications.

I got booted from a trackday, but all was OK after I fitted the baffle.

Flames come out on the overrun too so its stayin' on.

I'd say its not about how loud a can is, its about the tone. Some HDs are crazy loud but in my view sound gnarly.

[Pancakes]

Harleys have a nice flavour too, the sound of that strange ignition set-up they have that causes the potato is very tasty.

I think they have a single lobe crank where the con rods are on the same lobe (more like the crank on a single) where most (all the rest if Harley has patented the sound?) are like out of time inline twins with two conrod lobes on the crank?

I guess we'll find out in a minute, someone will say.

[babyblade250rr]

i just put a carbon muffler on my bike and it sounds beeeuuutiful, loud, but not overly loud to the point i need earplugs i luv it:love:

[blade1000]

wel i agrre with those who change their pipes always best to be heard

[moT]

just get ur stock can and rip all the crap outa it... its louder and cheaper and can be tuned for more power

[Pancakes]

I borrowed an RGVr 250 for quite a while years ago and it had race pipes/chambers and a dry clutch, was raspy and rattly sounding and pissed people off! I loved it! Smelled good too!

[scracha]

(not that sticking a noisy can on improves performance!!!)

I hate loud pipes. They fatigue you when you're riding and they annoy almost everyone else. Talk about putting a gun to our own heads.

Cue "loud pipes save lives" spouting $hite. When pootling along in my car I've NEVER heard a bike coming up behind me until it's basically passing me. Unfortunately the exhaust is at the back of a bike.

[imdying]

Cue "loud pipes save lives" spouting $hite. When pootling along in my car I've NEVER heard a bike coming up behind me until it's basically passing me.I agree. Back in the day it way ok... my Escort leaked so much of everything you could anything... newish Jap car, not much chance, and even less if the stereo is on.

[scracha]

I agree. Back in the day it way ok... my Escort leaked so much of everything you could anything... newish Jap car, not much chance, and even less if the stereo is on.
Yeah, sometimes when the bikes pass me the pipes are so loud I make spelling mistakes when texting, lose the paragraph of the newspaper I'm reading or drop my PDA's stylus :innocent:

[Timber020]

Loud pipes get on my nerves, I get enough loud at work. I have to admit to me it seems to be the cruisers that tend to be loudest, and most annoying. Mild is fine, wild pipes are for self indulgent dickheads who are old enough to know better

[Sam I Am]

my xr650 motard is embarrassingly loud, sounds fantastic but i know you can hear it for well over half kilometer in cbd ( not counting all the car alarms going off arround me ) and in the valeys out west well everyone hears me comming 5min before i arrive ( and no my bike isn't really slow ) but i dont need to atract any more police to pick up more speeding tickets !! if i could work out how to tame the sound with out spending heaps and with out lossing too much power i would jump at it ....

saying that a well tuned soprts bike with a hot pipe is always music to my ears

[rwh]

Both of my bikes had aftermarket exhausts when I got them.

I think I'd rather the current one was quieter, simply because I don't like annoying the neighbours. I had the same problem with my old Celica - it was embarrassing if I'd been called in to work at 3am, then arrived home, uphill, in that. It set off alarms in parking buildings too.

Having said that - I do like the sound myself. Especially in tunnels ... it's a pity that most around here are in 50k areas, so there's not much chance to wind it up. And the biggest problem with the new Wellington Bypass is that there's now more fastish road before you get into the Terrace Tunnel, so you're usually doing at least 70 before you get to the entrance - again only 30k (well, ok, maybe 50 - 60 ...) to gain before you've got to button off. Assuming you're not stuck behind traffic that thinks 80 is the appropriate speed in there.

Summary? In the right conditions - yes, the Remus exhaust sounds quite nice :) But I wouldn't buy one, and it wouldn't increase what I was prepared to pay for a bike.

Richard

[Coyote]

This is a bit different, bike pipes will have the pipe volumes calculated, the pipes merging at different places depending on the engine layout etc so the hot gasses cool and leave a vaccum to help draw out the next cylinders exhaust gasses (hence the name "extractors").
Most of the boy racer cars are turbo'ed so the greater the pressure drop across the turbine (exhaust) side of the turbo the more boost is supplied to the intake and it will also come on fasetr (be less "laggy"). You will quite often see Log manifolds on a turbo car which on a N/A vehicle would create awful results with one pulse blocking the next. Turbos don't spin at the average gas speed as the pressurised gas speeds the wheel up more than the lack of gas slows it down. I hate to make up numbers but it would be closer to 70% of the average gas speed, this means having all the gasses in uneven lenght pipes coming into the turbo at one time makes the whole setup work better. What I hate is "performance" cars with massive chrome wheels! One of the heaviest metals out for more than some nice light OZ Racing magnesium rims, do they know about unsprung weight!
Interesting stuff (you'd get rep if I wasn't sin binned). Explains why turbo cars have big bores, and that people my age are wankers for putting big bores on their mazda familias

Mind you, I'm being a bit hypocritical cause my exhaust is pretty loud at the moment. I'll get some pink bats from the attic in the weekend

[Coyote]

Cue "loud pipes save lives" spouting $hite. When pootling along in my car I've NEVER heard a bike coming up behind me until it's basically passing me. Unfortunately the exhaust is at the back of a bike.
I remember riding in a car and looking back when I heard a large V-Twin rumbling. It was still 5 cars back, and it was deafening when it was right next to us. So in a car you are more aware they're around, but on the bike you won't have hearing for much longer

[outlawtorn]

I personally prefer my V&H Straightshots, because I can filter through the motorway traffic and know that the majority of people can hear me. My filtering has become easier since the loud pipes have been installed.

Loud pipes don't save lives, but they make filtering easier and less stressful.

[Ewan Oozarmy]

I hate loud pipes. They fatigue you when you're riding and they annoy almost everyone else. Talk about putting a gun to our own heads.

Cue "loud pipes save lives" spouting $hite. When pootling along in my car I've NEVER heard a bike coming up behind me until it's basically passing me. Unfortunately the exhaust is at the back of a bike.

I guess this is all a matter of opinion. A few years back when I was living in London I did this http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/ because it was free. The cops that were running the course (believe it or not in the UK the cops are actually on the whole pretty pro bikes) actually advised us that aftermarket cans can help to make you more visible to the average idiot car driver and that they generally turn a blind eye to noisy cans, as long as you don't take the piss.

[avgas]

I actually dissagree???? Mabey im nuts.
While most slash cut jobs are not tuned ..... there are exceptions to the rule.
Moto GP has proved this, drag ways have proved this, speedway has proved this and the industrial sector (graders, diggers, rigs etc) have this tied to a T.
Sometimes flow is better than backpressure.

[avgas]

Ram air Kwackas make beautiful induction music from the air boxes
The best induction noises in the world.

[scorpious]

my personal preference has been to leave the pipes standard and spend the money on suspension mods. stuff that makes others think you might be faster vs stuff that actually allows you to be faster.


I am totally with you on that one!!!!!!:Punk:

[scorpious]

When you can sneak up behind someone and they dont hear you till you've got the horn on...thats the exaust I want!

[Ewan Oozarmy]

I am totally with you on that one!!!!!!:Punk:

Agreed re the suspension - out of the shop suspension settings always need to be tweeked for the individual rider.

Whenever I've changed my cans I've always had the bike dyno'd and jetted to take advantage and always seen improvements over stock.

My current bike gained 6bhp + 7 lbs torque + -15kg weight (therefore better power to weight ratio).

[bimotabob]

Agreed re the suspension - out of the shop suspension settings always need to be tweeked for the individual rider.

Whenever I've changed my cans I've always had the bike dyno'd and jetted to take advantage and always seen improvements over stock.

My current bike gained 6bhp + 7 lbs torque + -15kg weight (therefore better power to weight ratio).

That is a HUGE weight reduction - esp if that figure includes the weight of the new system.

My last bike was a RG500 with aftermarket pipes and mufflers, saved weight and gave power but was even louder than stock (which was noisy)
Bugged people a lot as it was loud rattley and poppy all the time - even low revs/idle. I hated warming it up late at night.
My new bike even with a RS3 yoshi is quiet - EXUP lowers the exhaust noise
quite a lot at low throttle openings.
Harleys sound okay as long as they have an exhaust and not drag pipes - when they go past at speed I'd like to know the db level it's crazy.

Regards

[Ewan Oozarmy]

That is a HUGE weight reduction - esp if that figure includes the weight of the new system.

It is a lot - the bike has twin cans - and the Akrapovics give off a lot less heat too which makes for a much more comfortable ride in summer.

[Hailwood]

As a Harley rider, I thought I would add my bit......I have changed the pipes to Screaming eagle pipes which are louder than standard and sound so much better. Yes they set off car alarms when i ride past. They have been passed by VTNZ when they did a warrant. I got them because a V Twin needs to be heard.

I agree though that some of the short drag pipes are way too loud..too harsh a sound.

I have no worries with anyone hearing me now though as I installed a new horn today....128db mini beast horn...now let someone cut me off......:Punk:

[Clockwork]

Well. I'm no oil painting, I have a decidedly average sized cock and a retiring personality. I don't/can't ride my bike hard enough to justify spending any money on performance enhancements but I love the attention my TBR exhausts get me and still consider it worth every cent I spent.

Plus, it was the easiest 10kg I'll ever lose.

[Pancakes]

Just out of interest

http://www.scorpion-exhausts.com/Bikes/soundzone.php

[skidMark]

stock cans are ghey ub3r loud all t3h way.

[scracha]

I have no worries with anyone hearing me now though as I installed a new horn today....128db mini beast horn...now let someone cut me off......:Punk:
I won't cut you off bubba

[more_fasterer]

I know this is gonna be an echo echo echo, but there's loud and then there's too loud.

Example: My NC30 has a remus can. Even though it's an absorption type, it's still quiet enough that the RGV250 belonging to my cousin (and flatmate) is louder on stock pipes at low (warming up) rpm's. It often cannot be heard if I'm cruising along.
When I wring its neck, it sounds better but still not intrusive. If you're following close behind it's a glorious, defined sound - clue the cliche "like a race bike".

My mate's stock NC30, sounds terrible in comparison. Quiet, restrictive, flat, yuk!

Too loud is when you're a block away and the exhaust is making your ear-drums rattle. Too often it's a harley or imitation that's making the din.

[dmouse]

whats loud sound is defined by reverberation and the more reverb the more sound you get, now if you want a deep base sound get a bike with a good sized piston and stroke like a harley and you get a good solid sound get a four cylinder or more with a short stroke and you get a rattle like a tin of bees the only multi cylinder car that i like the sound of is ferrari and give me the whompa of a good old british bike or the next best cousin a harley any day over the rattle or hum of a jappa my two cents worth.

by the way i have shotgun pipes with extra long baffles and still enjoy the music that they make even flat out you can still hear the differnt tone from each cylinder clearly.:done: