I've read all about cutting the 'pea shooter' off and knew that wouldn't do anything, neither would drilling a few holes.
So I drilled a bunch of holes around the pea shooter, effectively one big hole. I cut the pea shooter off flush and then I stuck my dremel as far into the remaining tube as possible and cut it off about 2" inside the exhaust can. Since I had to grind 2/3 of the bolts that hold the end cap off, I just turned it upside down and put self-tappers through the holes so I didn't have the stock holes exposed.
Here's how it went:
It sounds great for my tastes. Much deeper and less huffing air than a few holes drilled around the pea shooter, but not as loud or barky as a two bros/other 'performance' can. It rumbles a little but isn't too loud. I'm really happy with the results.
I know your opinion on the matter from reading other pea shooter hack job posts. :wink2: I'm not saying this isn't a hack job, but compared to video sound clips of those, this sounds MUCH better.
Many people take a drill bit and drill holes into the baffles of a muffler. Harley guys, Suzuki guys, and so on. The problem with using a drill bit, and you see this when simply cutting off the "pea shooter", is that the flat hole tends to make a noise of its own. From whistling to a whooshing sound, even something that can be described as a chirping sound. That effect is why you often see tubes or extensions ( think pea shooter ) over internal transfer holes in mufflers of all kinds. Sometimes they use a die to make a flange on the hole to make a smoother flow.
You can eliminate that problem by using a punch instead of a drill bit to make a hole in a baffle. I have some long pry bars here that are tapered to a point on one end. I have one that is sharpened to a point. Put that on the baffle, a few smacks with a hammer, and you have a hole. Push it in further for a bigger hole. We done this on the 2004 DL 650 and is sounded MUCH better than a friends that simply had the holes drilled. Done this on stock Harley pipes on my Brother in laws bike. Not so much louder, just nice tone. If you are bent on drilling the muffler baffle, consider the punch method. This thread is quite a bit different from that, but it brought my mind back to it.
I've noticed it does have a slight whoosh/air chopping sound that I believe is the exhaust flow being interrupted by the sharp edge of the big hole. I'm sure the inconsistent edge from multiple holes next to each other isn't helping. Which way should it flare? Should I bend the edge of the hole into the muffler can or out towards the chrome end cap?
Here's the latest. I grabbed the edge of the hole with some channel-locks and flared it out towards the rear. It now matches the chrome end cap diameter perfectly. I also got some videos at idle.
Sounds good. More like a motorbike but there is something to be said for stealth. Noise was the one ongoing concern that lost us a few dirt bike venues.
That looks like a fun dirt road. You'l find an upload of mine at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ8YXSP682g I have a Mobius permanently fixed like a dash cam. Convenient but more vibes.
I like that louder rumble myself, but when I go to sell my V-Strom or trade it in, I don't want to loose value for a hacked up exhaust, I can easily remove my cherry bomb and put the stock exhaust back on unharmed
I thing Suzuki changed the internal design of the mufflers every few years. My K7 has a perforated core that goes about 6 or 7 inches into the pipe with a gap at the bottom and then a flat bottom. I punched a big hole in the flat bottom and it's not a lot louder.
Rode a mates Yamaha V Star home for him the other day with Vance & Hynes pipes. Total 70 klms, boy was I ready to get off that bike away from the noise.
Sometimes loudness is much like all those selfies on FB, look at me look at me.........
I always go back and forth on whether there's actually a safety benefit from a louder bike. More noise can't hurt, but in my experience it's the size of the bike and the amount of reflective crap on your bike that really changes the amount of road presence to other drivers.
Either way, OP's exhaust mod sounds good, nice work.
I've got LEDs shining in the face of oncoming traffic, black reflective tape on the forks, side cases, and swingarm, a white helmet, and hi-vis jacket, and super bright LED blinkers/tail/brake/license plate bulbs. None of that works when you're directly next to someone in a 6 lane highway and they can't see you.
Sorry to revive an old thread but do you have the pictures you took during the process still. I watched your videos and really like the sound that you achieved. I would love to see the pics that you took so that I could do the same to my exhaust. Thanks in advance.
I did this just about exactly as he states in the first post, about a week after he posted. I'm still happy with it and lots of people tell me it sounds better and ask what brand exhaust it is. It was a bit louder than I would have chosen but beats the hell out of the sowing machine before. I took it in steps and started it after each change. You need to get the sharp edges out of the flow or it sounds hissy and I couldn't stand it. A half hour with a hammer and some patience and I'm very happy. The biggest pain is grinding down a Dremel disk small enough to fit inside the pipe to cut it off inside the can. I had to use three disk because the first one was already worn.
Ok. so pretty much what you guys did is take the chrome cap off, cut the pea shooter off so that the dremel can get in the "baffle/silencer" further, take a dremel and stick it as far as you can down the baffle cut it then took a hole saw or something that is about the same diameter as the hole on the chrome cap, about 2 inches or so and then drilled it out so you can take the silencer piece out. correct? I have a hole saw so I wont have to use a drill and make multiple ugly holes and just make one nice perfectly circle hole.
Pretty much what this guy did (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgJYoVraK7s) only I would like to take more of the "core" as he calls it out and make a nicer hole in the back.
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