Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods My carbs are louder than my pipes.

I installed the FREAK to my America and rejetted the carbs with 130 mains and 45 pilots. I have one shim on each needle and stock pipes. Now, when I roll on the throttle the carbs are louder than the pipes. Is this normal or am I going to blow the carbs off my bike?

While I have not yet fully tuned the carbs or balanced them, it is running fairly well.

P.S. Thanks, Dinqua, for your handy website! I only screwed up one thing: I didn't have enough beer on hand!

I did the Freak and ran for a month or so with TOR shorties before getting Epcos. It will not hurt anything to run like you are.

Sounds pretty friggin awesome, don't it?

Doing the Freak introduced a whole new aspect of my Bike's personality; At Wide Open Throttle, it sounded like I was going into orbit, freaking awesome!

A good pair of aftermarket pipes will fix that.
Won't do much for the beer shortfall though.

That sound is your carbs screaming "TOO MUCH AIR....LET ME OUT". They are just begging for a set of SS spares, Scepters or Thunders to let them flow like Niagra Falls.

OK here's the thing, I like the idea of more air, better combustion; but I don't like noise I dont want to have to wear ear plugs, what is a guy to do

fullface helmet?

I use full face in the winter but in summer the half face is a must. I tried removing the snorkel but I could not see much difference other than the noise from the carbs. I drilled out the first baffle, (by drilling down the pipe) did not want to change the look of the pipe might cause a problem during inspections; but this action did not make much difference. Man its a pain when the old ears wont take much noise....wife says the bike doesn't sound like a motorcycle, she is used to my VTX 1800c which I traded for the Speedmaster. Like the Speedmaster much better easier to handle. Oh well will keep trying... ...

I repacked my burned out D&D's with "Silent Packing" from Vance & Hines. You can wrap 1 full sheet on each baffle. Total cost $16 bucks. It made them much deeper sounding & doesn't get real noisy until I hit about 4200 RPM. At highway speed & a half helmet the pipes are just a rumble.

BTW: My freak sounds like a vacuum cleaner under the seat when it starts pulling hard... I love it!

Sceptres with the 1.5 inch baffles make a nice rumble not
as loud as Sceptres with out the baffle.
Mabybe the 1 inch baffles would suit you.
They still would breath great!!

I agree that the FREAK absolutely requires exhaust work. When I had my silencers off completely (yes, just headers), she would go from 60-100 in about 2 seconds with much more to give. Much more. She pulled as hard at 80 as she did off the line, if not harder. After my hearing came back and I had my largely stock pipes back on (one baffle and the reducer removed), I now have no top end, i.e. anything over about 5k RPM. Erstwhile she sounds like a demon loosed from the pit of Hades. And that's cool.

So, the last thing (hahahahahaha) I need (need?) to do is throw on a pair of Thunderbike pipes, and maybe the Nology 45k volt ignition system. That is, before I get into porting the intake and, of course, new cams. But, I digress...

All of this is to say that if you spend the clams for the FREAK, you need to spend the clams for pipes if you intend on getting the full effect. And of course, in doing both of those things, you will need to rejet. My recommendation for rejetting is to buy every jet you think you could need. After dropping at least a grand for the FREAK and pipes, another couple clams to Brent/Bellacorse for all them jets that you don't know if you'll actually need is the simple cost of doing business.

Other mods I did that made a noticable difference: Thruxton needles, drilled slide, side-gapped plugs and a tach because without a tach you have no idea what your actual RPMs are. It wasn't until after I had my tach that I realized I had never since even gotten close to redlining her.

I'm also running DynoJet slide springs and some stupid Vortex "valves" as well as a perhaps even more stupid "platinum injector" all because I want to be That Guy who has the most differentest mods.

My girlfriend thinks I'm either insane, but hopefully just obsessed. I tell her if she wouldn't be so critical the voices would talk to her, too.

A pair of these http://www.epcostainless.com/Triumphspeedster2003.jpg will make your intake a lot quieter.

Those pipe headers must glow impressively at night?

Or, maybe it has something to do with having a handsome man ride it all the time?

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So, who's the guy you lent your bike to?

it sounds to me like you are running lean and need to jet up
a bit.

Pulled out all the baffels and problem solved for me!