Loud Pipes/Exhaust

[Catherine]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to riding and I'd like to have the added security of being heard on the road. Is there any way I can have the stock exhaust de baffled or drilled holes to make it louder? Has anyone done this? Any pictures?

I don't to spend a ton of money doing this, but what are my options.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

[tripleb]

I know you can drill a few holes in your stock exhaust or install a louder aftermarket can.  do a search on here for drilled exhaust and I'm sure you'll find something on how exactly its done.

[fred]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to riding and I'd like to have the added security of being heard on the road. Is there any way I can have the stock exhaust de baffled or drilled holes to make it louder? Has anyone done this? Any pictures?

I don't to spend a ton of money doing this, but what are my options.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

You can drill your exhaust and make it louder, but don't rationalize that it will make you any safer. If you want a louder bike because you think louder bikes are cool, fine, but don't justify it in the name of false security. Your exhaust points backwards and most of the danger comes from in front of you. There is no way at all that you will gain any safety by making your exhaust louder. You'll just get more attention from cops and annoy your neighbors. One of the POs of my bike drilled the exhaust and to be honest, I can't hear it at freeway speed. If I'm sitting on the bike and I can't hear it, there is no chance anyone else can hear it either. If you really want to be more safe go read this website http://www.highviz.org/. You want to be visible. It is not only legal to be visible, it works. Being loud won't get you anything in the way of safety.

[bobthebiker]

You can drill your exhaust and make it louder, but don't rationalize that it will make you any safer. If you want a louder bike because you think louder bikes are cool, fine, but don't justify it in the name of false security. Your exhaust points backwards and most of the danger comes from in front of you. There is no way at all that you will gain any safety by making your exhaust louder. You'll just get more attention from cops and annoy your neighbors. One of the POs of my bike drilled the exhaust and to be honest, I can't hear it at freeway speed. If I'm sitting on the bike and I can't hear it, there is no chance anyone else can hear it either. If you really want to be more safe go read this website http://www.highviz.org/. You want to be visible. It is not only legal to be visible, it works. Being loud won't get you anything in the way of safety.

you're absolutely correct here. loud pipes DO NOT equal safety, nor being seen/heard.  your explanation is spot on.
bright yellow/dayglow flourescent green vests will make you much much more visible.

[Catherine]

I've installed a headlight and brake light modulator.  A license plate frame with extra brake light. A Stebel Air Horn.  Now I just want to be heard better.

[fred]

I've installed a headlight and brake light modulator.  A license plate frame with extra brake light. A Stebel Air Horn.  Now I just want to be heard better.

That's all good. I'd leave well enough alone, there really isn't anything you can do to be heard better. It is a fundamental problem of your exhaust pointing opposite the direction you're moving. You could put straight pipes on the GS and still no one would hear you until you passed. It just isn't something that can be done.

[mach1]

not true When I removed my slip-on and just had and open pipe under the engine I took it around the block my wife was able to hear me leaving all the way down the street and coming up the street, I was gunning it BTW but if you loud you loud.

[Paulcet]

I was looking forward to riding the only twisty bit of road near me today.  But got behind some old fart who was more concerned with looking at what was outside his side windows rather than what was behind or in front of him.  After a half-mile of following this idiot, I pulled the clutch and revved the motor out of frustration:  He peeked in the mirror and pushed the speed up to 35mph.

So, puttering along at 25mph and 3500rpm there is not much noise from my pipe.  7000rpm at 25mph there was enough to make him look around.  I'm pretty sure that 50mph and 7000rpm the old guy wouldn't have heard a thing.  I know for a fact that a couple of V-twins in front of me on a Florida interstate were extremely loud, but when they were behind me (one of which was in my blind spot on the left) I didn't hear them.

[Teek]

The drilled stock exhaust  (search mufflerectomy) will make it sound like a louder, angrier, bad a$$ lawnmower, and it will be really fun for about 5 rides, especially if you re-jet and put a K&N lunchbox air filter on it, but after awhile it will be loudest only to you and really start to get on your nerves, and you won't be able to get away from it, and you will have to either plug the holes up (like my PO did) or get a nice Yoshimura can for it (like I did). I still have some growl, it's louder than stock but civilized, and the best part is it sounds like a motorcycle. 

[Roadstergal]

Loud pipes piss off the cagers and the neighbors; they don't save lives.  Be proactive and assume you won't be seen.  Practice emergency braking and swerving.  Practice bike control by riding in the dirt.  That will save your butt - being a noise polluter won't.

[bobthebiker]

Amen to that.    I'm running a quieter pipe (completely stock) on my 87 CBR because I wanted to be able to hear the outside world more than my exhaust. Plus I live in an apartment complex where I park right up in front of my apartment, and try to keep the noise down to have some respect for the neighbors and their children.

ALL loud pipes do is annoy others around you, damage your hearing in the long run, and kinda make you that much more fatigued from having all that extra noise to process and sift through while you're riding.   

Me? I like my pipes nice and quiet so I can enjoy more of my ride, plus I can then hear any abnormal sounds on my motor.

[gsJack]

Loud pipes do not save lives, loud pipes lose rights.  I had two incidents in the last two years that convinced me they are not heard from behind by other vehicles.  A couple months ago while riding on a hilly twisty road a mid size cruiser with very loud pipes came shooting past me on my right on a two lane road where I was about in the middle of my lane.  Same thing happened last year with a noisy big displacement sportbike passing suddenly on the right.  In both cases I did not hear them before I picked them up in my periferal (sp?) vision as they came up along side me.  Both my hearing and periferal vision are very good.

After 24 years and 370k miles of riding these things began happening only recently.  Seems to be there are a lot more jerks out there on bikes than there ever were.  I quit riding with big cruiser friends a few years ago when I got tired of hearing their noise.  Just remembered another incident where a loud HD passed me on the right.  I was following a group of those slow moving barges when he passed, could be he was just trying to catch.

Can't be watching behind in the hilly twisties more than you watch ahead but I'll be watchimg for them as much as I can now, they do this to avoid a double yellow ticket I guess.  Next one will pass on the left or in the ditch.

[Teek]

You too?! I was right in the center arc of a right hand turn on a canyon road with a steep drop on the right and smack in the middle of my lane where I wanted to be at that point, and was maybe two seconds away from setting up a little more to the right for the blind left hand turn around a mountain side coming up next, when I just caught an idiot on a Duc in my peripheral vision coming up to pass on my right! I had maybe half a second at the speed I was going to readjust my line, if I hadn't seen him he would have brushed me or had to go farther right into the dirt shoulder and or into the brush if lucky and off the cliff if not, and most likely he would at least have taken me out because I would have had no warning.

I have no idea what these a$$holes are thinking, because a canyon road is not a race track, and it's dangerous enough rider/bike/road versus oncoming vehicles/sand/deer/oil/rocks without other riders trying to kill us.  I need my focus ahead through a turn on the tight stuff we ride. I'm not rude, if I see faster riders coming up and they give me the time to get to some straighter stretch (usually 5-10 seconds) I pull right and wave them by, but not when it's 3-4 very tight and or blind turns in a row. I'm not that slow, but I'm not as fast as a lot of them because I'm careful. I've come around a blind corner and found a deer 3 feet from my right shoulder before. It made me think.

Now I have a bigger horn, but I wish I had a mini uzi full of indelible flourescent pink paint balls to nail these guys in the back to mark them as dangerous to others. 

Oh, POINT WAS, I didn't hear the bugger and he was right behind me!!!   

[toyopete]

Dear Catharine,
your idea of riding safer with an open exhaust is a very good idea, you need to do everything to add to your safety
even if it is a little.
specially when your driving trough densed traffic and between cars., wich often tend to switch lanes in heavy traffic or just before comming to a stop.
your driving a 2 cilinder, wich is not noisy to begin with. and wathever sound you can produce its lovely!
at cruising speed the bike will not irritate your ears, stationary its music...
so do it!

[simoniz]

I've posted this before, but when I added my K&N lunchbox, my stock exhaust sounded a lot beefier when I revved the bike up, but stayed quiet at low revs. No drilling required for that one.

I also recommend a FIAMM car horn (hi tone) on the GS if you want cagers to pay attention to you. The stock one is lame.

[toyopete]

stock horn is definately lame, sounds like some childrens toy...miep. miep,..

[commuterdude]

I disagree, there are a lot of bikes leaving the military base where I work.  You CAN hear the loud bikes coming as they enter your blind spot.  I think a good loud pipe, not earsplitting loud, but something that does sound like a motorcycle, is a good thing.

[bobthebiker]

the problem is, NOBODY  in their car is going to be listening for your bike, let alone even LOOKING for your bike.  at highway speed they have the wind noise, maybe their windows are up, and the radio is blasting so loud they cant hear over that anyhow, or they're so busy talking on their cellphone it wont register in their puny minds until you're embedded in the side of their car.   

LOUD PIPES DO NOT SAVE LIVES. they piss everyone off and help us lose rights as a whole.  plus you have to remember, its a paralell twin 500,  these bikes seriously dont make much noise.   your money is better spent on flourescent colored vests and bright colored gear to make yourself much more visible.

[fred]

the problem is, NOBODY  in their car is going to be listening for your bike, let alone even LOOKING for your bike.  at highway speed they have the wind noise, maybe their windows are up, and the radio is blasting so loud they cant hear over that anyhow, or they're so busy talking on their cellphone it wont register in their puny minds until you're embedded in the side of their car.   

LOUD PIPES DO NOT SAVE LIVES. they piss everyone off and help us lose rights as a whole.  plus you have to remember, its a paralell twin 500,  these bikes seriously dont make much noise.   your money is better spent on flourescent colored vests and bright colored gear to make yourself much more visible.

Exactly. People are also terrible at localizing sound. Even if they could hear that you are near their car, it is likely they couldn't tell simple things like which side of the car you're on or if your next to their car or the other side of the car in the next lane over. Add noise from other things and distractions and you're no better off than with quiet exhaust. Also, once you're near another biker with a loud exhaust an even worse thing happens, they hear a loud exhaust see one bike and assume all the noise is coming from the one source they saw as they run you over. Humans are not nearly as good at perceiving sound as they are at perceiving visual things. As a motorcyclist you need to play to the perceptual strengths of the people you're trying to get to see you. Move around, wear a color that contrasts with the background, realize which conditions people will have trouble seeing you... Sound is a dead end, people have a lot of trouble localizing sound, so why trust your life to it?

[bobthebiker]

and this is without even including the really elderly people who are lucky to hear their significant other screaming next to them in the car.