Couple of questions ...my 02' XX has Two Brothers Racing exhaust cans, C4 style (large round ports). The bike had them when I bought it. They are just too loud for my tastes and I have resorted to wearing ear plugs for the time being but it's such a hassle putting them on ...sometimes they don't fit quite right so I've had to pull over on the highway a few times to adjust them. I'd rather buy some baffles for the cans so that they have a good tone ...a bit louder than stock but much less noisy than they are now.

Anyone know of some good baffles that fit my application? I've seen some on eBay but not sure they will fit. I don't mind having to drill holes but I would prefer not to have to weld baffles to the ports, if possible.

Also, anyone know approx. how many miles we can get on the XXs as soon as the fuel guage indicates the fuel is nearing empty (flashing bars)? My Aprilia would get about 20-25 miles once the reserve kicked in.

Thanks in advance for the info!
Steve

I don't know about the exhaust. I got Leo Vince pipes.. Might wanna try repacking them... Plus I never ride without ear protection.

My 02' will start flashing at around 215 and I have gone to 240 and only put in 5.89 gal. This is not fast paced high speed runs..

If I go to the mountains and play.. at 140 she starts blinking and I better quit playing and find a gas station by 155 or 160 I normally never leave 3rd gear in the mountains, and also downshift to 2nd for some tighter stuff..

Do what I've done on my '97 and going to do on my '01... change the gearing. Lower rpm's are much easier on the ears. At what RPM does the exhaust bother you? Mine was 4k.

No, actually the lower the rpm, the louder the rumble. My pipes are deafing for sure ...I don't think re-gearing the bike would help, and to boot, that would cost more than baffles.

I've got the a set of two bros slipons and mine aren't overly loud at all. They definatly have a rumble but I don't wear ear plugs.

Maybe your pipes need repacking....

Thought about repacking them but the bike only had 9300 mls. on it when I first got it and the pipes were LOUD from day one. I can't believe that they need to be repacked at 9K mls ...and I'm not sure if these pipes even have that many miles on them. I don't think the previous owner installed them right after he bought the bike. Sounds like wearing ear protection is more common that I thought. Maybe I'll just keep wearing the plugs since it will save my hearing over the long haul plus it's the cheapest alternative to nothing.

Your bike gets better mpg than mine. I do mostly highway commuting in San Diego on highways that are fairly hilly but not mountainous by any means, I'm not hard on the throttle, average around 80 mph, and my guage starts flashing around 175 miles on a full tank (filled to the brim nearly). I thought that was worse than expected. So it sounds like I might have another 20-25 miles once the fuel guage flashes, huh? That's good to know. Thanks for your insight!

Steve



You have the same thing I have then. I will say that of all the bikes I have owned, this is the first time I have had after market pipes. Maybe I'm just not use to how loud they can be. How many miles do you have on your pipes? Is repacking based on age/mileage of the pipes?

Hate to to this, but...




and sound in a vid if you have it!

If you go to the TBR website they have repacking kits that come complete with new poprivits.

The PO of my bike took out packing when he first installed them, so they rumble very nicely. Unfortunately he used screws to put the cans back together, which stretched out the holes drilled the carbon fiber cans. I had to use some JB Weld to fill in the holes, no problems now.

My suggestion would be to by the repack kits... it's short money ($20) , and you can tune it a bit to see how you like it.

TBR repack kit

That's interesting, you must need repacking. I've got the Two Brothers Stainless oval cans (C5?) and while they have a nice basso rumble, they aren't overly loud at all. Some of the most mellow cans I've heard actually, which is why I picked them, because I didn't want something overly loud either (D&D oh my god...). I'd look into the repacking kit too. I also wear earplugs all the time when riding, it's not the exhaust that will get you, it's the wind noise.

Got over 20,000Mile on mine so far.... they got a little louder than new but hardly noticable.
Unfortunatly loud isn't much of a discription as everyone thinks loud is something different.

OK then ..there's got to be something up with my cans then. If you have similar model cans and yours are mellow, mine should be similar to that and they are very loud ....I can post pics but I don't know how to get a sound bite. I don't have anything that can record a bite and then download it to a PC.

I'll get the repacking kit then ....thanks for the link Organ Donor. I'll see if that works. I should be able to post my fuel mileage tomorrow, too, when I fill up tonight. I think my mpg is not that great for some reason ...like low 30s. Maybe it's the side bags (Corbins) adding some weight.

There is a chance that the previous owner actually removed all the packing.. I've heard of a number of squids on some of the boards doing this for a 'better' sound from the pipe, generally failing, but proud of their motorcycle maintenance prowess.

Following up the mileage side note, I think I hate you all..
I'm getting a MAX of 140 miles before the light, and have been able to force myself to take it beyond 160. At that, It's taken ~5.5g, so there was a little more there, but not another 75-100 miles.. Mostly cruising down the highway, and associated surface travel to get there, doing my daily commute.

Not sure on this. The guy I bought the bike from was in his 40s and told me he used the bike for longer trips here and there. He didn't appear to be the squid type of rider ...plus the bike is set up for sport touring (Heli bars, Corbin hard bags, tank bag, etc.). I asked him about the sound of the pipes when I fired her up at his place ...he didn't think they were too loud (maybe afraid to pooch the sale of the bike to me) but that he did wear ear plugs but it was b/c of the wind noise. He might have taken the packing material out.

Let me ask this ...when I look down into the pipes, I see absolutely no packing material. Only a big hollow chamber. Is the packing material in-between the outer metal of the can and the inner holed piece of metal or should it be visible when you look into the can? As mentioned before, I have never had after market cans before and never really looked inside of any can I've had on my bikes so I don't know this.

As far as your fuel mileage hey allen, yours sounds low to me. Has your bike been remapped or had other tunes performed on it?

looking into your pipe you should see nothing..

The packing material sits between the outer exhaust can wall and the perforated metal core..

You should see all the way through it unless there is a baffle in place. Which the 2 bros. don't have

OK ...then my pipes probably just need repacking. It looks like the baffles and the repacking kits are about the same price. I'm wondering what would be the better option. To repack the cans, I'll have to remove the cans, then pop out the rivets, install the packing material, and refit everything together. I don't have a rivet gun so I'd have to invest in that, too. For the baffles, it would take less time to drill a hole and install those and to boot, the baffles will last as long as the cans do whereas if I repack the cans, they'll need to be repacked again down the road. Should I go with the baffles??

As far as the fuel mileage, I was way off. I thought I was getting low 30s at best but my calculations show that I'm getting 39.33 mpg. That's great! I filled the tank up to the top, just below the lip in the tank opening, reset the trip odometer, road the bike and at 176.8 miles, I refueled the bike to the same point I filled it the first time and I filled 4.495 gallons. The fuel guage was flashing at 175 miles. What is the capacity of the fuel tank on the 02' model (I could look it up but I'm lazy I guess). I thought it was 5.5 g or so ...if that's the case, I had another 40 or so miles left before the bike was dead empty. That's good to know.

Steve

Installing baffles is going to restrict the flow of the pipes. It's going to cost you some power but I wouldn't want to guess how much I can't see it being a huge loss. I don't know why you'd have to repack your cans so quick but with over 20,000 miles on mine they definatly don't need repacking yet, if anything I want them to get a bit louder.

The two bros pipes have a nice sound on the bottom and don't really start making much more noise until about 7K RPM. Have you ever heard a Bird with after market pipes? I'm just trying to gauge if your pipes are accually loud or your just not use to the little extra loudness of the two bros. Cause maybe repacking them won't change it.

I have a digital video camera ...I wonder if I video/audio tape it, could I post a wave file up here? I'll try that and see if it works. I want you guys to hear this beast. When I was fueling up last night, my debit card wouldn't scan at the pump b/c the strip on back is worn so I had to go inside of Costco and get one of those cash cards ....as I rode from where the pumps are to the store location, I didn't put my earplugs back in and the roar of these pipes was horrible after having worn the ear plugs for several weeks. My ears were ringing ...there has got to be something wrong with them. The guy who bought my Aprilia back in Jan. had a 98' Superhawk with single sided Two Bros can and while he test rode my bike, I followed him on his bike and the sound of that pipe was totally bearable ...it was a real nice mellow sound. No ear plugs needed on his. Mine is at least 3 times louder than his. I'm just afraid of pissing people off when sitting at a light or riding up right next to them when sharing lanes or when leaving/entering my family saturated neighborhood (along with damaging my ears).

Steve

I think you just answered your own questions...
Two slip-on should be quitier than a signal race can.

You need a repack kit as it sounds like someone was a dumb ass and took out the packing of the pipe. Have a look at all the rivets, do they look factory?

I looked at them last night ....they appear to be stock and untampered although my eyes are virgins for this. I think it would be hard to tell based on the rivets. I may run by my service shop and have the guys there tell me what they think ....they would know best and they are usually very cool about talking to customers about this sort of thing.

Thanks for all the help! This just confirms my suspicions about these cans.

Thanks again,
Steve

One other thing, I don't think anyone mentioned yet.

I assume you checked for leaks. As it would make it louder forsure...

No, I haven't ...great point! What's the best way to check for that? Condensation leaks? Pressure testing?

Look for carbon around the connections of your header to your mid pipe and your mid pipes to your cans..

fuel capacity of an 02 is 6.33 gallons...

Max I ever put in was 5.89 gallons....

You can't get every drop out of a tank. You could run the bike empty and remove the gas tank and probably get a pint or so of gas out of it.

You'd have to take some plastics off but you should see signs of it pretty easy. With bike running if there is a leak that would cause a large differenace in sound you should be able to feel it on your hand. Run you hands close to the pipes expecally around connection points.. best to do this when you just start the bike the pipes get hot real quick.