Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Better Sound From Stock Pipes

Can someone give me the cheap, quick & dirty on how to improve the sound on an '06 America w/ stock slashcuts? How do I take out the baffles.. how many should go.. do the pipes have to come off the bike and do I need to adjust anything afterwards?
I have been reading about so many different methods & that my head is spinning.
I am but a simple man.
Thanks

Find one of the hole swas here on the site, have them mail it to you, and you mail it to the next guy.
Then rejet according to the jetting calculator on my site.
Yes, the pipes will have to be removed, takes all of 3 minutes.

You might consider to remove one or two baffles first, then reinstall the pipes and test drive for a few hundred miles or a week. As Dinqua mentioned, the pipes go on and off the bike very quickly and easily.

I took two of the four baffles out of the stock '05 speedmaster pipes, and they sound pretty throaty right there. I wouldn't want to go much louder myself, for on the longer rides, very loud gets very old very quickly.

Believe it or not, there are those times when I wouldn't mind having the stock sewing machine on crack original sound back.

Dinqua, I tried to download your calculator, but my Mac can't run it, is it an Excel Document?

I took out one baffle and not sure if I need to re-jet. It also sounds throatier from the right side as opposed to the left.

I was just in Canandaigua on my road trip, stayed at the South Bristol resort or gold course hotel....beautiful riding up there and will be back soon.

Cheers,
Charlie

Charlie, you were here and didn't stop in? Who do you think you are, Grump?
Anyway, you were about 6 miles from my house at the Bristol resort.
And, no, you Mac users are SOL! You're gonna have to find someone with windoze and ask if you can please use their computer.

From what I've sensed your looking for in volume, you need to get 3 baffels out. I think you may still want the fourth in.
At 2 baffles out you should not need to re-jet. At 3 out You should still be ok but may need to re-jet (no biggie).
You should be able to adjust your mixture screws and be ok.
Have you mod the airbox or done anything else to your bike?
I had 2 baffels out and holes drilled in my 3rd and 4th and did not need to rejet. That is why I think 3 out will still be ok. You WILL have to turn your screws out though.
I ran with only 1 baffle for a bit, but I wanted more and gutted the pipes. Except for the reducer in the front of the pipe. LEAVE THAT IN for backpressure. You'll see it, it shrinks the pipes inside diameter down to like an inch.

The sound is a personal preference,I used a 1/2 inch bit,drilled around the edge of the first two baffles with holes close together and each baffle poped right out their not much thicker than a soup can.Then I put four 1/2 holes in the third plate around the tube in the baffle.I got a nice throaty sound with out any high speed rasspyness.I did have to go up one size on the main and ajust the piolt screw.I did mine without removeing them from the bike, you have to secure them some way to drill, might as well let the bike hold them for you.It`s not that hard if you`ve got your bike jack from Sears or Pepboys by now.All or any part of this can be done in stages till you get the sound you`er looking for.

I banged out my baffles with a long peice of rebar and a mallet...take out 3 from the back of each pipe

Dinqua,

I have no idea who I am! If I had known you were so close, I would have asked you over for a cocktail, maybe ask to use your windoze computer so I can re-jet my bike....please can you tell me?

There was a big house being built on the road to Bristol Inn, mission type, very nicley done...

It seems throatier from the right pipe...is that a worry? One baffle out on each.

Charlie

A good general size jet is the 130s. They are suffecient for a lot of different configurations.
Next time you get this way, give a shout and i'll have you over for a cocktail.

My left seemed a bit louder also, My carbs were out of synch a bit. (left was lower than right). I synched them and It still seems a tiny bit louder, but it's close.

Sorry to sound dumb, but to gut the pipes, what is required? A large hole saw to cut the welds on the rear of the pipe? Also, does the reducer on the front of the slip-on produce enough back pressure by itself to make rejetting unnecessary? I've tried to find exploded views of the factory pipes so that I could see what the heck is in there - I'm a little afraid of ruining something - this is my first bike.

There is a small tube, about 3/4" diameter that runs between each baffle, there are four I believe, but the tube is ofset on each one, gives it the backpressure.

No, the reducer is not enough to keep you from rejetting. (Unless you like running like a slug)
If you take out all 4 baffels you will need to rejet. Have you done the airbox mod yet?
130 mains are working for me with tbs needles. It worked fine with the stock needles but I was getting picky. I want to up the pilots to 45's just because of a small backfire I get at throttle off decel.

Don't be scared to rejet, it's not that hard.

So will gutting the pipes require a hole saw at the end of the pipe, removing the welds and pulling the baffles out?

I did find a good site that walks you through rejetting. Did you have any gains in hp with this modification?

Definalty a gain in h.p.! You will notice it.
Heres a thread on getting the baffels out.
http://www.bonnevilleamerica.com/forums/...p;page=3#115182
Welcome to the site...

For what it's worth...I just gutted my pipes yesterday - they sound incredibly loud and low - a buddy of mine actually did the work, tacked in a piece of pipe on the ends to keep the perforated liner from doing anything strange. I also just ordered jets from newbonneville and am really looking forward to seeing what kind of power increase I will reap. Low end is terrible (as expected) but man does this bike get some attention now!

Yep, No baffels is the shiznit ain't it?
Enjoy!

Without rejetting will I run the risk of damage to the engine? I know from engine class that a lean mixture is a hotter mixture - it doesn't run too terrible, I'm at around 3,000 ft. elev. Any feedback on this would be appreciated. I have a week or two before my new jets arrive and I still want to ride the bike.

As long as you did not change anything with the air filter you should be fine. Just don't jerk your snorkle till you get your jets. Think about Thunderbird Sport needles as well: worked great for me.
Mike Sr.

I took out the first set of baffles myself by drilling a few 1/4 inch holes on either side of the 1 inch baffle pipe. After a few taps each baffle pipe came out quite easily.
The hole saw idea is a good one but it's a rather expensive option if you have to make one.
I had to have the bike re-jetted after removing the first set and still liked the sound but not near as much as the sound when I took out the second set.
To get the second set out, I did nothing more than get a 18" steel pipe with inside diameter dimensions a hair wider than the outside diameter dimensions of the baffle pipe. I placed the 18" pipe around the baffle pipe and gave the pipes a few taps, a few twists, and they're free.
Use a coat hanger with a hook formed to run though the
pipes to help pull them keep them from falling backward.
The sound is incredible and suits the bike very well.

Kick the last 2 baffels out for some nice low end.
I know... It's a matter of taste.

I am playing with the screws as we speak. Bunch of confusion on which direction to turn them, but now that's cleared up.
So far I am at 1 1/2 turns out and I still get a little pop (baby backfire) I think it's almost there though.
They did help on idle. Big time! It was a tad bit hard to start before I put the 45's in. Now, no problem. She gets grunting right off the bat and want's to be riddin.
If I snatch the throttle to quick, it wants to die for a second?? I think that may just be my mixture (which I'm still messin with). I'll keep you up on it. They also gave some better 1/8 - 1/4 throttle get-up.

few questions. i took out 1 baffle from each pipe and am about to take out 1 more from each. i noticed that my right side cylinder and pipe get way hotter than my left side. is that due to the jets. i haven't adjusted that jets just the baffles. the spark plug looked fine of the left but its just running alot cooler than the right. and the whole bike is running a little sluggish maybe do to the left cylinder.

Metal Man,
Welcome to the site......

If you are going to be playing with these motors you really need to follow the progression of modifications.
You can find everything you need to know in the tech vault but a quick rundown would be:

1 Remove AI. Get a kit from Brent at NewSpeedmaster.com.
2 Sync your carbs.
3 Adjust your Mixture Screws. You can get this info from Pat's (Dinqua) site in the Tech Vault.
4 Sync your carbs
5 Change out or modify your exhaust.
6 Sync your carbs.

I think you can see where I'm going with this....do one thing at a time.

Good luck

Best advise

Go to Pats, web site and download the step to step instructions (with pictures) to do your carb work.

Make sure you order all your parts before you begin, make sure you buy the replacement set of carb screws Brents web site and replace the philip heads screws.

Do one mod at a time this way if something goes wrong it will be easier to back track and fix.

I pulled the first and second set set of baffles out and re-jetted.

Use Pat's carb caculator for the proper jets. The air mixture screws have to be turned out at least 3 to 3 1/2 turns to get rid of the backfire.

I just took out the first baffle then put a couple of holes in the next ones till I was happy. I have not done the AI or had to change the carb settings. I like it the way it is.
Cheers

man i just took out the second set of baffles for that 2 out 2 in sound. and it sounds bad ******. i think something was clogged in my left carb because it wasn't running that great before after taking out the first set of baffles. but all of a sudden when i left it idleing, i heard a pop and then what i guess was the carb clearing out and walla it runs just fine now. i deffinetly notice some preformance increase and the sound is awsome compared to stock. and i haven't spent any money doin any of this to my bike.