loud pipes save lives

Can't hurt? So what you're saying is everything on the road should be loud for safety. It's not to each their own. You tell a 3rd shifter he has to deal with your noise or a mother dealing with a kid with ear infections that finally has her kid asleep when you come by and lay out your freedom whether they want it or not. Your loud pipes are nothing more than a penis extension and if you truly believe it's safer go look at some of the statistics before you puff all up with indignation. The noise causes fatigue but hell you don't need to be on top of your game while driving anyway and many people get freaked by the sound of some popping belching machine suddenly on the side of them. Then I guess you'd just blame the other guy when they freak out and cut over into you. You're a "fuckin" 24 years old and a mechanic and you are asking if you can gut a exhaust system? Priceless. Oh and if you get away with it in Chicago good for you and the good citizens of that fine city but go a lot of other places and YOU will be dealing with it and you think you're broke now? Wait.

If all you wanted was simple answers your question would have been simple.
Gut the exhaust and you get a horrible sounding motorcycle that runs the same. You will most likely have to rejet the carbs and play with them to get them right if you can get them adjusted.
Go on e-bay and win a auction for an aftermarket set but you may still may have to adjust your carbs.
Motorcycle BoneYard? (Junk yard)
By a new aftermarket..eat rice cakes for a year.

You could have saved yourself a lot by just doing a search of the archives , as NONB said this argument has played here more than the Rocky Horror Show. Just wait till we get into guns, politics, religion or tastes great or less filling. Fur really flies then. Then again sometimes these jump-ups are fun.

Actually when I'm driving I find besides the annoyance factor of a loud bike, many times I'm actually completely completely taken by surprise when one gets near me. Seems like you'd hear one of these garbage things from a distance, but many times for me I don't hear them til they're right up on my bumper and can be a sudden jolt of "WHAT IN THE %$#$" Seems to me other drivers getting a sudden jolt of 100db noise is never good for anything other than at the best get a bad feeling towards motorcycles and at the worst cause them to jerk in surprise and who knows from there. They may jerk and swerve right into you. So to me my take on it was loud pipes are good for nothing. I never had particularly loud pipes but have had the Kerkers and such and there is not one bit of difference in how many cars are aware of the motorcycle with the Kerker vs a stock pipe.

I don't care what people think as long as they see and hear me, my pipes have saved me many many times and is way louder than my horn. I don't think my paint makes me hard to see.

Mark

I might get lit up here but what the hell. This is exactly the problem today. What sounds cool to you irritates the hell out of others. And you enjoy it? Why? Because it focuses attention to you! Its all about you and your 15 minutes of fame. Pissing off some guy next to you in a cage that cant hear because of your loud ass bike. Just like the Punk with the loud booming bass stereo in his car or the Jack Ass that mows his lawn on Sunday. Lets get home from our little bar hopping tour at about 1:30 am with your no baffle thunder bike. Waking up people to let them know the Bad Ass Biker down the street is home. Sorry I dont get it. Buy a 4 into 1 header on EBAY for about 150 bucks. You can find them all the time. Pull out the Baffle and your 4 cylinder inline will be so loud you can hear it for miles at about 5500 rpm. When you start and idle it the ground will vibrate so much you can feel it in the house while it warms up. This should compensate for your other short comings in life that the gene pool left out. Your neighbors will give you that: Thats The Ahole With The Loud Motorcycle Look you are looking for. Plus the Cops will follow you for no reason then pull you over for some BS infraction and you can argue your loud pipe theory with them as they write you up. This will also put you on there radar as well. Just My Opinion....I can feel the bricks coming...Love...Russ

I have one unbaffled and two baffled bikes. Of the two baffled one has an alpine radio with a fairing. Sometimes I am not in the mood for the open exhaust, so I ride one of the others. Loud pipes will make you fatigued a lot quicker. I can see both sides of the fence here. But I do respect my neighbors with the loud one when I can. My mood usually determines which one I ride. No matter what you do you will have to rejet. I would jet for a baffle because sooner or later Johnny Law will be paying attention. You can always remove the baffle in 2 minutes and ride loud then put it back in. Plus a baffled exhaust lets you hear whats going on with that antique motor.

Mortarmanmike wrote:

like i said, to each his own. i personally really like the harleys with the exhaust you can hear from 2 miles away, i think its sweet. thats me, you dont have to like it, i'm not asking you to like it.
No, you're just forcing them to listen to it.

I distinctly remember being passed by a harley and as he went by, the loudness level hit threshold of pain in my ear nearest to his bike.:ohmy:

And that was with a helmet on. That SPL (sound pressure level) had to be WAYYYY higher than 110 dBA. Probably more like 130 - 140.

Not too long later, I developed tinnitus and hearing loss although it was probably due to an accumulation of noise, not a single incident. These days I just glare at people who mumble..... which seems to be everybody in the world.:laugh:

Actually Bountyhunter, I was just responding to dakota's comments.

I have tinitus as well but I'm pretty sure its the result of too much shooting not motorcycle exhaust. I also believe that long term high frequency sound of air thru my helmet probably does more to damage hearing then most exhaust. My old helmet really whistled but the exhaust kinda made it so that I didn't notice unless I consciously tried. (completely off topic)

for the love of god people CALM DOWN. ok, i should NEVER have used this title for this tread, my bad. it should have read 'how do i rip out stock baffles'. and yeah, i'm a mechanic, and i must be handicapped because you know motorcycle and car exhaust systems and mufflers are SOOOOO similar that i should be able to do it blindfolded. i didnt come on here to be flamed about my personal taste in bikes, if you want to contribute to the thread, then help me out and give me some pointers on baffles, headers, mufflers, good websites to get stuff from, etc etc etc. dont come on here just to bash me because you feel bad for my neighbors, or about how i am compensating for other things, or how johnny law is going to be all over my ass. i get it, i dont care, thats not what the thread is about.

rtdakota2001 wrote:

ok, just as a safety thing (and because this is America god damnit) i want to get this bike of mine louder. right now its just a stock 1980 KZ1000 shaft. anyway, optimally i would like to just gut the stock mufflers and go with that because its free . if that's not possible, anyone have any links for some good lookin pipes that are basically straight through or at least wicked loud? i do A LOT of downtown Chicago riding for work and whatnot ( i have season White Sox tickets) and i already feel that people just DO NOT see me. so, loud pipes might get their attention and increase the likelihood that they will see me, and not kill me. any advice is appreciated guys, and the more links (products, sound clips, etc.) are greatly appreciated. thanks again!

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rtdakota2001 for the love of god people CALM DOWN. ok, i should NEVER have used this title for this tread, my bad. it should have read 'how do i rip out stock baffles'. and yeah, i'm a mechanic, and i must be handicapped because you know motorcycle and car exhaust systems and mufflers are SOOOOO similar that i should be able to do it blindfolded. i didnt come on here to be flamed about my personal taste in bikes, if you want to contribute to the thread, then help me out and give me some pointers on baffles, headers, mufflers, good websites to get stuff from, etc etc etc. dont come on here just to bash me because you feel bad for my neighbors, or about how i am compensating for other things, or how johnny law is going to be all over my ass. i get it, i dont care, thats not what the thread is about.

You are right you should'nt have titled it that way. But you did because you wanted to incite your new neighbors at KZRIDER.COM. By the way welcome to the site. How about some pics of the bike. And please understand that alot of what I posted was tounge in cheek. Also I am an opinionated Ahole. And if a topic is posted like Loud Pipes Save Lives again I will most likely crack on it again. Kind of like Hanging out in the fast lane so people have to pass on the right or putting ketchup on a hot dog...LOL...Lighten up a little....Russ

You don't get it. You're not the only one reading these threads. Besides who is getting excited? Like I said it's old ground we are covering. So lets say some other guy is thinking the same thing as you. But lets just say he is not the caliber genius that you are and has not figured out all the ramifications of doing it. OR lets say they do care about how they are affecting others. Some do you know. You seem to want to focus this thread to your wants and desires and nothing else. Believe me it don't work that way round here. At least not in my experience. Your questions get answered and then it's everyones thread. You have a big group of motorcycle educated good people who are genuinely interested in all types of bikes and they are willing to go an extra mile for each other and those who ask for help. They do a great job too. So when you ask a question prepare for answers from around the dial. It might spur a great debate or a tense one for that matter but I've yet to see a full flame war go on. Seems to me you got your answers and clarified your stance on the extra's...You don't care. But you whine that people are flaming you. These threads usually answer the posers questions. You don't care about the rest then ignore it. But you do say odd things like I'm a f'ing 24 year old mechanic so I don't have money...then make a statement like I know JLaw will be all over my ass and I don't care. That is just screaming for a great big WTF!

How bout using a truck horn. And what type of mopar do you have I've got a 69 Chrysler T&C Wagon with a 440BB

Be careful about homemade exhaust mods. You may end up with a bike that it dangerously slow. Example:

Regarding his pipes, 2 weeks ago Darkangel wrote: I cut them from the collector..i have a few pics here on the forum...and you can see how they look.

Today Darkangel wrote: Well the bike is running very lean, i have NO power, and she idles very rough. There are pod filters on the monster, and strait header exhaust, and i am getting ready to baffle that. But yes, I want power, i get to a stop sign, and she can bairly cross the street because she has no power, so yes.I really need help figuring out what size needles i need and all of that. BTW i hate dealing with carbs,but some point in life i need to over come that....