Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Step by step baffle removal instructions

I took out my baffles today. It took two hours total, but it was hard work. Extremely frustrating, confusing at times, grueling hard work at times, painful at times (my bruised hands are testimony to that.)

Because this is a subject lots of folks are interested in, I’m posting step by step instructions with images to help a bit. I hope that the Bonneville America community finds this helpful.

I used a 1 3/8” hole saw to cut into the baffles from the rear of the pipes. This was the easiest step of the process, but required a trip to Lowe’s to get the hole saw. Make sure your hole saw cuts metal. The one I bought at Lowe’s cost $10 and worked like a charm:



The pipes looked like this when I started:




And like this when I was done with this step:



NOW the fun starts. If you read other posts on this message board, it sounds like you can just wiggle the baffles and whack the welds them with a screwdriver and they’d pop out. This was NOT THE CASE for me.

Wiggling them back and forth started the process. The hardest part for me was finding an appropriate tool to crack the welds. The biggest screwdriver I had was not long enough to reach the welds. I looked around my garage and found these huge nails. I mean huge. Here’s a picture of the nails next to the baffles and a ruler. You can see that whatever you use to crack the welds has to be at least 8” long:



I used a combination of wiggling the baffles back and forth with a pliers, banging the nails through the welds and the inner bracket, grabbing the baffles with a vice grips and pulling, banging the nails through again. Ultimately what worked on one of the baffles was putting the sharp side of a chisel inside the baffle and banging on the other end with a hammer. This pushed the baffle into the exhaust pipe and finally broke off the weld. The second one came out due to twisting with a vice grips.

At the end of the process I was exhausted, sweating, and my hands were hurting, but when I turned the key and pressed the ignition button, it was all worth it. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The new and improved exhaust note exceeded my expectations a hundredfold. I was planning to have an aftermarket exhaust installed to give the bike a more masculine sound, but no reason to do this now. I would describe the new and improved exhaust note as warmer and richer. I also have a digital audio file of the new sound. If someone can tell me how to post it, I’m happy to put it on here.

These are all the tools I used:



Here is how my pipes look now:



Hope this helps! If you need any additional info, let me know.

Joe

Great write up! Thanks for the contribution

Me thinks this belongs in the tech vault!

what year and model is your bike? My pipes looked nothing like that from the inside. Probably accounts for some of the differences in what you've read on here and your experience.

thanks for the thorough post!

My bike is a 2008. Just bought before Memorial Day.

None of the pipes I have done looked like that either.

I was about to bring up this very topic in a new post, but since it's already being talked about here...

I recently went from a 07 to 05 TA, both with long TORS. The pipes on the 07 looked just like what Joe posted. However, the 05 looks quite different. Recessed three or so inches inside the pipe is a plate (baffle) with a single pipe (less than 1" in diameter) coming through the center. Is this how other's TORS look? The reason I mention this, is in another post I commented that the 05 sounded significantly quieter than the 07 dispite having the same (or so I thought) pipes...ok, and 75cc less. Did Triumph change the construction of their TORS at some point?

And for the other half of the post, how do I make the 05 TORS louder? Has anyone posted the process for baffle drilling/removal for these earlier sets of Triumph pipes? I do appreciate the sound of the 05 pipes, but it would be nice to get back a little rumble from them.

I'm about to make the big step myself.After reading your artical....I went hummmmm what if I cut my 1 3/8" hole saw in half & weld a 12" piece of 1 3/8" pipe between them[making a 13 1/2" hole saw]using the baffle as a guide.And instead twisting & beating,cutting the baffel at the base.I ride a '07 America & I'm hopeing the inside baffel base is sitting less then 12" inside........wish me luck!

Might have to make a new post as I think no ones reviewing this one anymore.

I'd like to hear the audio file of your exhaust; but I can't tell you how to post it. Maybe someone else could. Also, are your pipes modified stock or TOR's. Thanks.

My pipes were stock pipes before I took out the baffles. Now I suppose they are modified stock.

PM me your email address and I will send you the WAV file. Same goes for anyone else who wants to hear it.

will this work on a 2008 america?

UMMMM , This was done on an 08 , and I am getting ready to do this to my 08

i have 2006 america 790cc does any one know if i cut my baffles out do i have to change my jetts out or leave them alone, i think they are stock jetts?

Ohh you'll be rejetting for sure.

what jetts would use

Try Pat's jet calculator.


And a search.

What if you gutted the pipes on an 09 version, would
you need to buy a fuel commander to alter the EFI?

I currently have a carbureted Yamaha, and one of the
biggest reasons I stopped at removing the first baffle
is because removing the cats and final baffle required
a rejet, which I neither wanted to bother with, or pay for.

on my 07 daytona675 i had to have it remaped when exhaust was upgraded,im thinking same as....?both have EFI

why can't I see the pics on the baffle removal. I tried the tech vault with the same results.

My neighbor gave me his slash cut pipes off his '05' and I took 2 of the 4 baffles out. YES 4 are in there. Anyway, it sounds great. Not too loud, nice thump. Having said all that, I don't think taking just 2 baffles out should make a hairs difference in jetting. I know their pretty lean from the factory, but I can't believe that they are THAT fine tuned. OK, so I'm going to call my dealer tomorrow and make sure. Will keep you informed. BTW, runs great too!!!

Took 2 baffles out of the pipes my neighbor gave me.1st one took 2.5hrs. 2nd one took 20min. Now that's learning from your mistakes! Sounds terrific. Called the dealer and no need to re-jet. Still gets enough back pressure for scavaging. After a weeks riding it's actually getting a little louder. I didn't want obnoxious. Now, I can hear it going down the highway and actually helps me keep a steady speed. BTW, I used a sharpen chisel and a long screwdriver(sharpened) to simply punch slot around the baffles. They weren't on the bike. Plus could not believe how easy they were to swap out. 15min.
Ride on all.
Phil

I'll just run stock pipes.

Long "rebar" rod and a mallet. pop off the pipes. if u have a saw horse clamp it down with the tail end facing up and the front that connect to the headers, let that sit firm on the ground. helps if someone holds it steady while you put the rebar into the pipe and hammer away. the baffles are only tac welded so when u hit the weld they come off. I removed 3 baffles from each ( I beleives there's 4 total?) Gave it a loud harley sound. Not too obnoxious though.

Then untwist a wire clothes hanger and leave a hook at the end to fish out each baffle as u remove them.

When they are done make sure you rejet the carb especially if you're doing a air intake modification also.


More air needs more fuel.

OK. I'm new to this forum but I got up this morning, read this article and decided to modify my exhaust. The directions are dead on. It took me about 3 hours (took my time) but I got it done.

I used a 2 1 3/8" hole saw blades (one for each pipe...about 9.50 from Home Depot, made by Rigid), a hammer, vice grips and a long thin flat head screw driver.

Drilling was a pain but it was easy compared to all the banging and pulling I had to do to get the baffles out. Once you've drilled through the back end of the pipe, take the screw driver and use it to pop holes into the weld plate (about 6" inside the pipe end). After you've put enough holes through the plate, the baffle will start to sink into the exhaust pipe. Use the vice grips to pull them out. Sounds deeper and chunkier and saves you 400 bucks.

Ride safe.

Hi PT,
Please send me the recording of your pipes, my email is jvetiv@hotmail.com, thanks

Ditto, can't see any of the pics

Here are a few pics of my 07 Speedy with LONGS hope they help.

Why do I have a feeling tax dollars paid for those x-rays?

All i can say is I'm REQUIRED to maintain my proficiency and i needed some "practice". :bjavascript:void(0)usted:

I'm not judging, I would take advantage too!

right up to the point i saw the xray pics i was thinking i gonna do that as i got a couple of days off i did it on my old bike but that didnt have all the grill inside

It's really not that bad. I've taken out the first 2 so far just using a piece 3' piece of steel rod cut at a 45 on the end & a hammer. Really didn't take long and everyone's advise here helped a lot just tying to make my small contribution to the cause.

As contributions go, that's a pretty good one...

ok first I tried everything and cant see those pictures. second did you do that to the stock pipes with the tapered ends or where those different pipes? can you e-mail me the pictures wja.dma@verizon.net

Nice x-ray pics there Matt!! Certainly demystifies the innards of those pipes.

I'm having problems pulling up your pic's. Would you email them to me?

Is there a trick to viewing the photos in here, all I can see is red X's.

Thanks

the link is probably broken, or server issues on those pics

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~matt_l/exhaust.htm

Web site from NZ that shows the baffles extracted and the sound you will get.

Hate to contadict... but when I went to the house of the owner of that site, I was in Australia!

But that's how I learnt to remove baffles... from Matt's site.

I just removed all the baffles from my 2005 America stock pipes... Did loads of research on here and elesewhere, reading about hole saws, extenders, hooks etc...

I just took the cans off and beat the living sh*te out of them with a half inch across 5 ft pole

Very quick, precise and quite effortless. Regardless of what you hit first wether its the tube or the plate welded to the sides.. it all shifts after a few good taps... 10 mins each can.
They do sound really purdy now

My picture links don't work anymore, and I can't seem to edit the original post, so I'm reposting in its entirety with new links to the pictures. I no longer can locate the audio file, sorry 'bout that guys.

I took out my baffles today. It took two hours total, but it was hard work. Extremely frustrating, confusing at times, grueling hard work at times, painful at times (my bruised hands are testimony to that.)

Because this is a subject lots of folks are interested in, I’m posting step by step instructions with images to help a bit. I hope that the Bonneville America community finds this helpful.

I used a 1 3/8” hole saw to cut into the baffles from the rear of the pipes. This was the easiest step of the process, but required a trip to Lowe’s to get the hole saw. Make sure your hole saw cuts metal. The one I bought at Lowe’s cost $10 and worked like a charm:



The pipes looked like this when I started:




And like this when I was done with this step:



NOW the fun starts. If you read other posts on this message board, it sounds like you can just wiggle the baffles and whack the welds them with a screwdriver and they’d pop out. This was NOT THE CASE for me.

Wiggling them back and forth started the process. The hardest part for me was finding an appropriate tool to crack the welds. The biggest screwdriver I had was not long enough to reach the welds. I looked around my garage and found these huge nails. I mean huge. Here’s a picture of the nails next to the baffles and a ruler. You can see that whatever you use to crack the welds has to be at least 8” long:



I used a combination of wiggling the baffles back and forth with a pliers, banging the nails through the welds and the inner bracket, grabbing the baffles with a vice grips and pulling, banging the nails through again. Ultimately what worked on one of the baffles was putting the sharp side of a chisel inside the baffle and banging on the other end with a hammer. This pushed the baffle into the exhaust pipe and finally broke off the weld. The second one came out due to twisting with a vice grips.

At the end of the process I was exhausted, sweating, and my hands were hurting, but when I turned the key and pressed the ignition button, it was all worth it. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The new and improved exhaust note exceeded my expectations a hundredfold. I was planning to have an aftermarket exhaust installed to give the bike a more masculine sound, but no reason to do this now. I would describe the new and improved exhaust note as warmer and richer. I also have a digital audio file of the new sound. If someone can tell me how to post it, I’m happy to put it on here.

These are all the tools I used:



Here is how my pipes look now:



Hope this helps! If you need any additional info, let me know.

Joe

Have taken out 3 baffles love the sound but a bit loud do i need to rejet and what size jets, sorry if this has already been posted

First of all, welcome to the forum. To answer your question, you should rejet.
Here is Dinqua's jetting calculator which is a good place to start with jetting. This is not the absolute answer but as I said, it's a place to start with jetting. The BEST way is to jet and dynorun. Or the seat of your pants dyno can help.

thanks for the reply will get round to changing the jets will it do any damage in the mean time running it as it is..

No damage right away. You've got a some time but don't wait for months to go by, you know.
Do a search on this topic and you can learn more about the topic....quick ways to rejet by dropping just the bowls, how to read your plugs by looking at the color, etc...

sorry still really confused ive had so many contradictive advice (not on here)dinqua's jetting guide says 130 main 42 pilot jenks bolts said 135 main 42 pilot 1 shim
free flow air box, some guy who sold jenks bolts the company said 120 and maybe 1 shim but get it on a rolling road, and then some chap who used to tune triumphs and worked for triumph said you can't chop out the stock pipes like that your going to do more damage with no back pressure
I am at my wits end please help

SUPER EASY BAFFLE REMOVAL un bolt silencer throw into trash can go to local muffler shop select some chrome tips the length diameter and style of choice pay go home and bolt on.

look you dont need back pressure. my america will leave a black mark down the street how ever long you want. All i did was install the unifilter, remove the snorkel, install 130 mains, shim the needle .9 mm, turned out the jet screw to 2 1/2 turns out from closed, and remove the silencers.
I installed some 18" turn downs. I beat a 1200 sportster off the line and he could never make the distance back threw all 5. I stayed ahead of him 1/2 a bike length. I know you dont want to hurt your bike but trying to beat out the baffles or punch an over sized hole in them is way out there. I put 22" x 3 1/2" slash cuts on my friends bike $105 for both. at a muffle shop and my 18" turn downs $40. For the price of performance replacements you can go to a custom exhaust shop and have some thing completely unique built.

Yes this is true, you will have to tune the bike afterwards. However thats not to difficult either if your local triumph dealer is cool. The tech will tell you what he has been doing to get the best results. Your bike may differ to an extent, but its a good way to start. I also live at sea level here in texas, down on the gulf. you dont have to dyno one just ride it. If you have been riding long and understand mechanics of it all you'll befine.

My exhaust does not look like the posted photos: 2006 Bonneville America
They are slash cut and the inner (smaller) pipe is about 3" inward.
Would the same baffle removal method apply?

yes you would have to get the power commander and retune.

Many thanks dude great stuff! Now to get the inner one out lol

I did this and yep its easy then i got the idea of more mods so slash cut my pipes now thinking of removing the next baffle will i need to re jet or would it still be ok

You'll need to re-jet.

No you don't need a Power Commander. There is a little program called Tune Ecu available now that allows you to change the maps on an EFI bike at home with a laptop using a $20.00 Vag-Com cable that you can order from several places.

If you only remove the end plate and the first baffle you won't need to mess with it.

EFI=TuneEcu
Carbs=Jets

thanks for that i will

Thanks for the info! I did mine 2008 America yesterday,sounds great!

I just Mangled the ****** out of my 05 America stock exhauste. I'll post pics as soon as I can but it looks like I'm going to have to buy new pipes for the sound I need. I didn't even get the first baffle out because it was so much bigger and deeper then I thought.

There is a set of TORs on Ebay right now for $99, if you want a quick fix?

Hi everyone this is my first time in this forum. after reading about baffles I did remove one baffle from each stock exhaust pipe, Bike runs and sound better but still quiet...I may go for the second one or drill holes in it.
my bike is 790cc 2006 AMERICA and is my first bike.
little bit apprehensive about re-jetting my self but willing to do. thank you all for great advice