Running with no muffler right now

Hey guys, I'm running without a muffler right now and I'm loving the sound of the v-4 untapped. After reading some of the comments people have been putting online about back pressure issues and burning valves, it has made me skeptical now. I know bikes with the ECU's and cat and emission systems make running a straight pipe safer. But on the 3rd 90-93 gen bikes, we have this huge collector right before the muffler. What the heck is it and I know the 94-97 bikes got rid of it and buying slip ons for those years is soooooo much easier! I personally like running without the muffler because I can be heard while splitting traffic (I live in Los Angeles). But I'm also considering taking some of the baffles out of the muffler because I ride everyday to work and the noise IS TOO much for highway riding. Any suggestions?

 

NO ONE appreciates the excess noise as much as you do, and lane splitting is a lame excuse.

Civilized people run with mufflers; punks don't care, which is why so many Harley riders have straight pipes.

The proppa thing to do is buy a slip-on.

 

Well the first half was your opinion is irrelevant to what I was asking, but I like your suggestion at the end about getting a slip on for my bike. Which is pretty much impossible to find. I don't have $800 to get one shipped from Europe lol

 

I think you need to read this link and go buy a slip on or put the stock exhaust back on...

NEW California Exhaust Law

Enough damage has already been done; next they'll try to bring smog tests and higher license fees or go after older bikes. I lane split in CA also, they only hear you after you pass. I travel on one of the busiest stretches of freeway in the Bay Area so traffic is very thick. From San Francisco to the East Bay takes 50 minutes to travel 15 miles splitting traffic all the way. If you want them to see you flash your high beams.

 

Think I'll agree to disagree. :wink:

While I can understand someone not a regular city commuter or familiar with the art of safe lane splitting in a citys slow moving Citys CBD might say that, I contend a louder than standard ( read not stupid loud eg HD slashcuts ) exhausts do save lives. I have wittnessed at least twice pedestrians walk in straight in front of and get splattered by lane splitting peddle cyclists through backed up stationary traffic, this is simply because they did not hear them and were obviously too dozy to check the gap between the cars properly on the other hand have also wittnesed many occasions pedestrians step back after hearing motorcycles ( including mine ) before seeing them.

People need all the tools they have at their disposal when navigating a city and hearing is one of them, I put it that laws wouldn't need to be made to make Electric cars louder if this wasn't true.


" Electric cars and noise
The sound of silence
Sound generators will make electric and hybrid cars safer
May 7th 2009

WHEN cars run on electric power they not only save fuel and cut emissions but also run more quietly. Ordinarily, people might welcome quieter cars on the roads. However, as the use of hybrid and electric vehicles grows, a new concern is growing too: pedestrians and cyclists find it hard to hear them coming, especially when the cars are moving slowly through a busy town or manoeuvring in a car park. Some drivers say that when their cars are in electric mode people are more likely to step out in front of them. The solution, many now believe, is to fit electric and hybrid cars with external sound systems. "

 

You can lane split with a muffler too, as most of the noise you are making if you at least have the headers on, is directed towards the rear not towards the front or sides where most of the lane splitting danger comes from. All you do when making that much noise is piss non riders off, and some riders for that matter. Noise is the crux of nearly all efforts to restrict or even eliminate motorcycles all together.
I know I am a rider, and it annoys even me to no end when one of my neighbors on a cruiser goes by and even with all my doors and windows shut, and the TV on, I can hear him but not the TV. There is just no reason for that. It is obnoxious. Your enjoyment of your motorcycle should no infringe on anyone else's enjoyment of their home. Used to be another neighbor with a KTM Duke, but he either sold it or moved cause I don't hear him anymore. And yes, I feel the same way about loud cars, but run into them much less. Even when I am on the road, and my windows are rolled up, with the radio or iPod playing, your motorcycle should not be loud enough to overcome my radio. If it annoys me, and I ride, I can't imagine what non riders are feeling.
Years ago, a buddy and I were in either King's Canyon NP or Sequia NP (I remember the exact trip, but we went to both). We stopped at a visitor's center, and were walking around enjoying the scenery and serenity, it was a holiday weekend so it was fairly crowded. Another group of motorcyclists, cruisers, probly Hardleys but I don't remember exactly, maybe 4-6 of them, who were parked at the far end of the parking area got on their bikes and started them up. LOUD, annoyed everyone around us parents are suddenly having to shout to talk to their kids who are right next to them. As they leave and stop at the stop sign right near the ranger station, several of them rev their engines to prove how tough they are. Seemingly thinking everyone was staring at them with envy instead of disgust and annoyance. Every person within ear shot was immediately complaining about them to each other -- once they could be heard again. I distinctly heard someone as the ranger why bikes aren't banned from NPs. Slowly my buddy and I make our way to our bikes, both having stock mufflers. Our bikes were at the end of the parking lot closest to the visitor's area right near some occupied picnic tables. So significantly closer to the area where the people are. People are giving us dirty looks and muttering. We get to the bikes, put the lids on, and as we lifted them off the side stands, kids and even some adults covered their ears, a few people even got up rapidly from their picnic tables seemingly before they would have a dozen or so giving us dirty looks. We push the starter buttons, and people are still holding their ears, cause they think we havent' started them yet. As we swept in front of the ranger station to leave, you could see people look at us amazed, because we we no louder than the average car. They could still eat, they could still talk normally to their family/friends/Mr. Ranger Sir. You could see and even feel a great sigh of relief that our enjoyment of the park, was not going to infringe and block their enjoyment of the park.

Simply put: Loud pipes risk rights.

 

Then it is simple, put your stock one back on until you do have the money for what you want. Hopefully one of the quieter slip ons.

 

I commute a day or two or week now, at my previous job I did it probly an average of 4 days a week (I could wear my jeans and workboots at work, and a baseball cap to cover my helmet head where now I have to be in a dress shirt and pants and shoes, and comb my hair). With the previous job, for a while I actually had no car, so it was 5 or even the occassional 6 days a week in all weather. I had a stock muffler for most of this time, and now have a pair of Staintunes with the noise suppressors in. My commute for both jobs is/was along 580 and 680, both listed as one of the 10 most congested commutes in CA. Total time is nearly 6 years. Total accidents during that time when lane splitting is exactly 0. Loud exhausts don't help, paying attention to what you are doing is what matters. I know when I do take the cage, I rarely hear a lane splitter until they are already past. Occassionally if they are really loud, I hear them a little earlier, but still usually not until they are right on top of me. 95% of the time I see them first.

Heck, I just remembered even my job a couple before the one mentioned above I had no dress code, and commuted for 2+ years usually on the bike, my route was on 880 along the east bay (= really ugly). That again was on a bike with a stock exhaust for nearly the entire time. There was a time when I bought a used bike that had a 2 Brothers exhaust on it, and it was a couple week before I bought a stock exhaust on Ebay and installed it back on the bike.

The idea that when riding your stock motorcycle you would be as quiet and unobtrusive as a bicycle is just silly. Plus from the sounds of it, and I admit is isn't clear, you are talking about splitting to the front of the line when cars are stopped at a light or stop sign and my experience is that the bicycle are going forward into the cross walk to be able to either blow the red or to be out in front of the cars. This shouldn't be the case when you are on a motorcycle, you should be stopping before the crosswalk -- regardless of the pipe you are running.

All the talk I have seen and heard about mandating electric and hybrid cars make some sort of noise when under way resolves specifically about pedestrians not hearing a car coming. I would suggest that the noise involved in a stock motorcycle is just as loud if not slightly louder than most stock cars. The idea of saying the quest to make electric cars and hybrids make some noise when under way for pedestrian safety in anyway suggests you, or anyone, should run their bike with no muffler or a louder aftermarket one is just utterly ridiculous.

 

First to be clear I only meant a bit louder than standard aftermarket exhaust eg your Staintunes ( maybe spuds out ) and yes that is exactly what I am talking about slow ( 5-10mph ) lane splitting long rows of grid locked slow or halted central busines city traffic to the front at the lights. The sound of you coming through slowly also helps notify most cars that there is a motorcycle around making them head check their mirrors or pedestrians crossing mid block between stationary cars another reason to look for something unexpected moving between them.

Central City commuting sporadically over the last 35 years tells extra exhaust noise has helped me many times in this situation. When I had my previous VTec with standard exhausts I had more problems of slow moving cars doing last second inexplicable lane changes, was watching them think of moving before they moved so didn't hit any but I found with my Gen 5 which I've had for the last 6 years this has never happened. Admit this may be as much to do with the loudness of my GDCs as its aftermarket end can but hay whatever works for my safety is good.

 

I believe the new law here in CAlifornia is for 2011 and newer....none the less, put your dang muffler back on . till you find a more suitable replacement.. your perpetuating bad reputations for all of us when you crawl through traffic in first gear at 30mph. thats why people seemed to always want to hit bikes...

 

Exactly right, crusty. The new law affects 2013 bikes and newer but if people still ride around with obnoxiously loud bikes it will only be a matter of time before they target the rest of us.

 

agreed, surfer.... the new law is a stepping stone.... first the new ones have to comply then they start cranking the years down..and then they rules lawyer the older ones off the streets..kind of how they did my truck...it ran beautifully, didn't smoke at all... It would pass AZ emissions like a brand new car... brought it to California and I couldn't get it to pass got wavered for the first year, then the year after that it wouldn't pass... had to sell it to the state..that was pretty much the only option they gave me...

 

So, some loud ass biker rides past someone, possibly and older person but not necessarily, and is so loud that they scare the shit out of a driver who makes an error in driving and causes and accident. Doesn't happen daily but it probably happens as often as a collision caused because someone did not hear the bike. My wife's brand new Civic has to be stood right next to to hear it. Why is that model of car not involved in a disproportionate percentage of collisions?

Or they either arrive home from work or go to work in the wee hours of the morning and wakes the whole neighbourhood, interrupting needed rest before they head out to drive on that crowded highway. My neighbours did not hear me go to work when I left at 0300, nor do they now hear me come home at 03:00. Including during the summer time when all the windows are open. But they do hear that Sombich next door with his Subaru with his loud fucking rally type mufflers on a car that has never been driven in a rally.

I think he has a small penis too.

BTW. For 17 years, years ago, my primary vehicle to commute to and from work was a bicycle. Only close encounters I had were a couple where the people nosed out onto the roadway in front of me from a side street or driveway. I was wary of this and never collided with any of these tools. That was corrected with a flashing front light. And I used the flashing red light on the rear day and night. As far as a pedestrian being hit by a passing cyclist, I suggest two people were negligent here. First the cyclist should not be barrel assing passed stopped traffic. Second, the pedestrian, whether he has the legal right of way or not, has an obligation to be sure his path is safe. Open your fucking eyes and look at what is around you. Tun down the ipod.

If you are going to lane split, make no mistake. There is a substantial increase in the risk to your becoming involved in a collision. Whether or not it is your fault has little significance. You loose. Drive accordingly.

 

are you sure your a Canadian?

 

All the way baby

 

Isn't the correct way to phrase the question, "are you sure you are Canadian, eh?" ;-)
You know, just so he could read it?

 

So how many dudes here have fired up a VFR without the can? Even at a couple of grand the sound waves bouncing off the sides of cars would have cagers BSing on cells, having lunch, reading theNational Enquirer and plucking thier eyebrows all at the same time, a wakeupcall for a half a mile.

This putz who is running without a can IMO, is putting ya'll on or is looking for lawyer whilst the CHIPs are looking for him.

Just for fun pull the can off your bikes sometime. and run it up to seven grand. Sound like Indy..


Any truth to the rumor that John Cleese will play the lead in the new film "The Life of Randy" ? Sargeant Preston of the Royal Mounted had his dog King. Randy had a Schwinn or a Huffy I guess.

 

If that didn't seem so damned familiar, I might be offended.

 

You know I agree with Randy, even if they don't have a real hockey team in the NHL in BC. We are all in this together, guys. When you blow by Joe Public you are not helping our cause, our image is bad enough. The biggest issue off road for land use is noise and in Ontario there are very few places left to ride. The bike doesn't need to be loud. People love the sound of my stock VFR. Be aware and be a pro. Your neighbors will appreciate it.

 

The Vancouver Canucks.....many time a brides maid....never a bride. I think a lot of them are Queens though. They play hot all year long but when things heat up during playoff time, they run and fall down like pansies.

Na na na na.......Na na na na........Vancouver.......Good bye

BTW. When was it when Toronto last won the cup. Fairly recently wasn't it....in '66 when Frank Mahovolich played? And Montreal won it only 10 fooken times since then... Montrefuckingal!