Any ideas on taming V&H slip-ons?

[Peg]

Sorry guys... I'm old, and my memories of the 800 are fading. That's 3 bikes ago now, and I've done many modifications since then to blur my mind. What worked on an 800 might not work quite the same way on a bike more than twice the cc's anyhow? And I never took any photos.

To the best of my recollection I had between 4 and 6 rows of the tabs left in place, and it had been suggested to me that if I wanted to bend tabs out of the way, I could do that by hammering some sort of drift through the center, since they wouldn't really need to be all the way flush... I just ended up just cutting them down shorter anyway, since I never thought of bending the tabs myself until it was suggested to me on a forum later. Much fun was made of me for not thinking of it.

And for JLO (who doesn't have the benefit of the PM I sent KCV) I had the drag pipe baffles welded into the front of the OEM V&H baffles, so that they protruded into the header pipes in front of the mufflers. I tried just bolting them, but the hammering they took in there soon loosened the bolt and had them rattling. That might not have happened had I got the right size, since they were not a tight fit in the baffle to start with.

I started out with them full length (too quiet & a little power loss) then cut them down progressively until I had the sound I was after. On a little bike like the 800, that was about where I could roll off the throttle down a hill and not have that dreadful "blat" sound. When I got to that point... it felt like I'd actually improved the low end torque a little as well.

I was very pleased with the result... and when I sold that bike, it was it's sound that sealed the deal.

Those drag pipe baffles are cheap as chips over there, less so when you have to ship them all the way down here... In your place I'd buy up a few of them and experiment?

[kc_voyager]

Took Viki for the first real ride with the baffles today, went with a buddy that has a Vaquero with V&H slip-ons, I didnt tell him about the baffles and let him lead. Before the ride I was thinking of tuning them (Opening up the flow) a little. We rode 140 miles, hit 100 mph a couple times, hard accelerations, it was about 50* to 70* through the ride. I had no popping on deceleration, engine temp was the same as his bike and if he had any jump on me it was very little, it could have been timing, gear selection at take off. I can hear a little engine noise but not as much as with the stock mufflers, they have a nice mellow rumble. I had put the stocks back on and the power loss was unreal so they came back off that day. I can hear the radio easily to 90 mph then wind interferes. They did cut that BLAT BLAT sound and probably cut the volume 30 maybe 40%, before the ride I was thinking too much, but after, I think it will be perfect for long rides but leave me a rumble I love. Thanks Peg, would love to ride in New Zealand, from pictures its BEAUTIFUL!!! Thanks again

[toogun]

Originally Posted by kc_voyager

Peg I received the baffles today and was wondering if you ran them as they came or did you tune them?

Curious to know what length did you go with?

[kc_voyager]

1.75 x 8 inch long drag baffles the same ones Peg posted "like these" in his post.

[mprtrpr]

I've been worried about the noise myself. The V&H touring duals on my 1500 Nomad were VERY loud behind the bike and there is a mod of welding in cut-in-half washers to make kind of a cross flow muffler that is supposed to mellow them. I was thinking of trying the same thing with the slip-ons if they are too loud. http://www.gadgetjq.com/vhbagger_shhh.htm