TOPIC:

Whats the deal with exhaust baffles? I pulled my exhaust off to clean it the other day and I thought I would check the baffle. Its a race baffle and way too loud,sounds like a tractor ( or a Harley!) and there is nothing in it, No glass. Just a straight perforated tube. If I wrap some glass around it,will that make any difference to the sound?
The bike got dynoed like this. Would I need to retune it if I wrap it?

Pressure on the upstream side of the baffle would increase if you wrapped it.

hardrockminer wrote: Pressure on the upstream side of the baffle would increase if you wrapped it.

That's true but the sound will go from SHARP to MELLOW.
Bill

I'd wrap it.
Steve

Definitely wrap it,I’d blown all of mine out and it was 117db,it dropped to 105db after and sounded much nicer.

Davido, Noman Hyde do the road baffle for the works system still, and as you have an original with the riveted badge it's worth the cost. when i got my thou it had the race baffle in, i put a road baffle in and i have not had to re-jet it.
normanhyde.co.uk/media/catalog/product/c...95/r/o/road_baff.jpg

Not saying not to wrap any baffles
But consider this .
When freshly wrapped it will sound mellow and Im sure you will tune the bike to run its best at that time .
Then over the next season the baffling wrap will be blowing out your exhaust slowly but surely.
This will change the sound / and restriction of the pipe .
So now the tune will change again .
My pipes I have used in the past I removed the wrap packing and just ran it clean.
The point becomes find a correct clean baffle which gives you what you want and tune it once
Dave

Thanks for the info everyone. Kevski,I was looking at the road baffle and I might go for that at some point but 60 quid!! The Harris pipe is great looking and really suits the bike but the chrome is worn and pitted and very tired looking. That and the shitty engine paint let the rest of the bike down. I might go for a new s.s. system in the future. Also,Ive spent way too much on this build already and to be honest,I just want to ride the bugger.
Dave, if Kevski was able to switch from a race to a road baffle without retuning, then surely wrapping therace baffle would be less restrictive? On top of that, rewrapping it every year or so shouldnt be such a big deal. The wrapping Ive seen on the interweb is pretty cheap. ( 3 years of wrap for the price of a road baffle!!)
Ill see if they have any in my local shop and maybe give it a go. Cant hurt. If it deadens the sound a bit,I can get out on the road,see how it runs. Ill let you know.

The packing I bought was a mat. I don't expect it to fall apart like the old style.
Steve

That baffle was designed to be wrapped.

Well I wrapped the baffle today .Cant say its a huge difference. I think its taken the harshness out of the sound,thats about all. Im going to run it like this for a while and see how it goes.

Like Baldy said, that type of baffle is meant to have a mat wrapping. Once it's wrapped with mat designed for exhaust, it will last for many years. Home-store material for insulation etc. might disintegrate quickly. I use the Moose brand wrap and it seems to work well.