Make stock exhaust have more Grunt

[nugz]

Was wondering what it takes to make a set of stock exhaust have more tone with out making it sound bad. Have seen some things on here about drilling piggies. Wondering what this in tales and what it sounds like.
Any info would be great.
Thanks,
Nugz
Sturgis SD

[R J]

Ya cut the piggies off, they already has a hole in em.

There isn't really too much you can do to a stock set of pipes without making them rattly sounding.

I drilled out the rear baffles on mine, then drilled out the one way up in there, then changed the extension,

NO like, so I got a set of MarkT's early on glass paks.

They were ok at 1st, then they burned out and when I tried to replace the glass pak, the interior had rusted pretty bad and fell apart.

Then I got a set of Vikings, and they have been on there for over 100K, and still seem to have the same tone as when new.

Twist the grip and they will talk to ya till ya back off the grip..

[Thunderbolt]

cut the three small pipes off that stick out the back of the muffler.  One has a nut attached, you might want to leave that part on, ie don't cut that one off as far as the other two.  Get you some 18" Airflo stacks and drill them to match the screw pattern of the OEM tips.  Put those on and try it, see how you and your passenger like the sound for a month or two.  If that isn't loud enough, pull the tips back off and drill through the small pipes (most call these the piggies, like 3 little piggies ya know) into the back of the muffler, then put the tips back on and try that for a while, that will probably be all you need to do.
Look at shop talk for glasspack mods or buy some Cobra or TBR or MarkT pipes if that isn't loud enough.
Good luck.

[fudgie]

I cut my pigs off and drilled the rears years ago. Decided to do the truck stacks. While I had it apart I decided to just cut 3" off the whole lenght of the exhaust. Perfect!  Its definitly more beefy sounding. I can be heard 3-4 miles away now. Its not to loud but a deep sound on the road esp as it gets up to speed. Passed a car in MI few weeks ago. We were doing 75ish when we stopped at a rest area. Real old couple stopped. I passed them a few miles back and he told his wife 'that sounds like a 6 cyl.' So he had to stop and see for himself. He said that had a nice deep sound as we passed him. Sweet. $150 for the stacks. Sure beats the $$ for straights.

[Tundra]

Some options...(shop talk is your friend) Lot's of good reading, you'll be an expert.
  I did this...http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/easymod.htm

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/noteasy.htm

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/truckstackinstall.htm

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/Pipes101.htm

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/jkpacks.htm

http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/QEpacks.htm

[BF]

There are steps involved in order of tone/loudness that you can do the stock pipes. 

First is to cut the piggies off.  It will deepen the tone a bit, but it doesn't make it any louder....just a bit more.....mellow. 

If you want to go further, the next step would be to drill the rear set of baffles.  That makes it a little louder.  Really a nice tone I think without making it too loud. 

Here's my bike with piggies cut and rear baffles drilled......

Honda Valkyrie - LED turn and tag light modifications	powered by Aeva

After cutting the piggies and drilling the rear baffles, the next step would either be to go ahead and drill the front set of baffles too.....or perform the "Ragnar" cut.  The ragnar cut is basically gutting the rear of the pipes by removing the baffles in their entirety. 

If you've done the Ragnar cut and you still want more.....then you could drill the front baffles.  If you go that far, you'll have to do some carb mods.  Research shoptalk for more details. 

Here's my bike after the Ragnar cut (front baffles are untouched).....

Honda Valkyrie - after Ragnar Cut	powered by Aeva

You wanted to know what it sounds like, well....that's what it sounds like.......BEEFY.   

IMHO, the Ragnar cut is about as far as I want to go modding the stock exhaust.  It's loud enough when your gettin' on it without being obnoxiously loud.  And at idle or cruise mode, it's really not all that loud (compared to Harley loud), but when you open up the thottle a little is when you'll get a smile on your face.   

[X Ring]

Some options...(shop talk is your friend) Lot's of good reading, you'll be an expert.
  I did this...http://www.valkyrieriders.com/shoptalk/easymod.htm

So did I.

Marty

[bigdog99]

cut p[igs, drilled front and rear bafles 1/2", 4"x18" semi turn outs.  you have to tell your wife its Throaty. !

[Ferris Leets]

Why? These bikes are perfect as built.  Anything you do is going to hurt the performance.  So why mess with it?

[Flat6Valk]

ok, here is what I did on one of my valks.  CAP THE PIGGIES!  Then drill 3 new holes 5/8 inch equally spaced next to the piggies on the rear of the muffler can.  If that isnt loud enough drill another set of holes equally spaced again.  All of these holes need to be drilled so that they are within the area of each piggie (the muffler can is divided into thirds by interior veins.

The advantage doing this is if you do not like the sound the piggies are not ruined and you can weld a patch for the holes drilled.  When you cap the piggies you are not using the silencers.  It worked for me.

Good luck

[MarkT]

NO like, so I got a set of MarkT's early on glass paks.

They were ok at 1st, then they burned out and when I tried to replace the glass pak, the interior had rusted pretty bad and fell apart.

First I've heard of this, RJ.  First off, thanks for being an early customer, and supporter of my venture.  Now the other side - Ya might give a seller the chance to address a problem before doing it yourself, giving up, then running down the product in public.  Not too fair, doncha think?

The packs I use are Cherry Bombs from Maremont, manufacturers of these performance glasspacks for over 50 years.  They are designed for V8 automotive use, and in our application, they are seriously underutilized and overbuilt, such that they typically don't get hot enough from this small engine to burn out.  The shells and internals are carbon steel, but of heavy gauge, so yes given enough time and moisture they could rust, but expected to be beyond the lifetime of any one motorcycle.

Even so, I still build the systems with easy glasspack replacement designed in, just to circumvent any buyers potential concern over this issue, from the earliest versions - though I have never heard of anyone actually needing to replace them.  I've heard of folks who had an opinion that maybe it was louder, but nothing supported by either measurement of sound levels or brought to an expert - like me - who knows what new ones sound like.  I can count on one hand the number of folks who have bought replacement paks, and all of those were buyers stocking up for future need, in case "you get hit by a truck."  So your report here is a first, and in statistical parlence, "outside the bell curve."

[MarkT]

On the "ragnar cut" - PLEASE don't do this.  I have more ragnar ruined silencers in my junk pile behind the barn - hundreds of pounds of them.  The silencer cores sell at $90 a set - you're ruining them with that mod. You can capture exactly the same volume and sound, by cutting off the back 7 3/8" of the muffler, and installing a set of stacks from Airflo.com. Now you have a reversible loud mod, as the back baffles are gone - but you can insert the cut off muffler segments - now designated "silencers" - back into the stacks and pin them in place with a single screw in one of the tip mounting holes.  They are easier to insert if you remove the skins - not hard, I do it pretty quickly on my lathe, but even without such machinery you can cut off the skins with even a $20 Harbor Freight angle grinder with a cutoff disc. VOILA!  Lotsa sound when you want it, with a reversible mod so it's easy to go back to quiet for long road trips - preventing the dreaded DRONE.  Here's what the silencers look like.  Of course you can insert then further inside - and I do, so they are pretty much out of sight.

[Tundra]

There are steps involved in order of tone/loudness that you can do the stock pipes. 

First is to cut the piggies off.  It will deepen the tone a bit, but it doesn't make it any louder....just a bit more.....mellow. 

If you want to go further, the next step would be to drill the rear set of baffles.  That makes it a little louder.  Really a nice tone I think without making it too loud. 

Here's my bike with piggies cut and rear baffles drilled......

Honda Valkyrie - LED turn and tag light modifications

After cutting the piggies and drilling the rear baffles, the next step would either be to go ahead and drill the front set of baffles too.....or perform the "Ragnar" cut.  The ragnar cut is basically gutting the rear of the pipes by removing the baffles in their entirety. 

If you've done the Ragnar cut and you still want more.....then you could drill the front baffles.  If you go that far, you'll have to do some carb mods.  Research shoptalk for more details. 

Here's my bike after the Ragnar cut (front baffles are untouched).....

Honda Valkyrie - after Ragnar Cut

You wanted to know what it sounds like, well....that's what it sounds like.......BEEFY.   

IMHO, the Ragnar cut is about as far as I want to go modding the stock exhaust.  It's loud enough when your gettin' on it without being obnoxiously loud.  And at idle or cruise mode, it's really not all that loud (compared to Harley loud), but when you open up the thottle a little is when you'll get a smile on your face.   

BF...  Way to go with the you tube and sound. That's what these newer guys are looking for. I think they know they want to do something, but are reluctant cause it's allot of work and they don't even know if they will like the sound of it. If your not located around other Valkyrie riders with differant modifications, it can make it difficult. Mark T probably has more experience with Valkyrie exhaust than all of us combined and a great resource here. He's helped me out with his posts and web-site MANY times and doesn't even know it. THANKS MARK
Thank God for the VRCC and it's members,  it's been a great journey and learning experience for me

[R J]

NO like, so I got a set of MarkT's early on glass paks.

They were ok at 1st, then they burned out and when I tried to replace the glass pak, the interior had rusted pretty bad and fell apart.

First I've heard of this, RJ.  First off, thanks for being an early customer, and supporter of my venture.  Now the other side - Ya might give a seller the chance to address a problem before doing it yourself, giving up, then running down the product in public.  Not too fair, doncha think?

The packs I use are Cherry Bombs from Maremont, manufacturers of these performance glasspacks for over 50 years.  They are designed for V8 automotive use, and in our application, they are seriously underutilized and overbuilt, such that they typically don't get hot enough from this small engine to burn out.  The shells and internals are carbon steel, but of heavy gauge, so yes given enough time and moisture they could rust, but expected to be beyond the lifetime of any one motorcycle.

Even so, I still build the systems with easy glasspack replacement designed in, just to circumvent any buyers potential concern over this issue, from the earliest versions - though I have never heard of anyone actually needing to replace them.  I've heard of folks who had an opinion that maybe it was louder, but nothing supported by either measurement of sound levels or brought to an expert - like me - who knows what new ones sound like.  I can count on one hand the number of folks who have bought replacement paks, and all of those were buyers stocking up for future need, in case "you get hit by a truck."  So your report here is a first, and in statistical parlence, "outside the bell curve."

Mark, I do think you misunderstood what I said, or was attempting to say..     There was no way in hell I was blaming you or your product for it rusting up and breaking off.

As I told my son later was why in the hell didn't we use the torch more instead of brut force on the coupling.

I did not blame you for anything.    So ease up a tad here.    Thanks Brother.

[SANDMAN5]

Why? These bikes are perfect as built.  Anything you do is going to hurt the performance.  So why mess with it?

Wrong. I've had 2 Valks, cut piggies and drilled rear baffles on both of them. ZERO performance
change, positive or negative. Drilled the front baffles on one, liked it! Current one has cut
piggies, drilled rear baffles and Interstate exhaust tips...like it!!! Would like to drill front
baffles but my wife says it would be a little too loud for her. Maybe for my birthday she'll let me?

[BF]

I bit of clairifacation on why I did what I did to my pipes.  Expense.  

First off, the mods I've done haven't changed anything on the performance.  It runs as it's always has.  

My goal is a set of Mark-T's pipes......to me, that's always been my ultimate goal.  But in the mean-time, I can take my pipes up a step at a time to see what I like, or if I've gone too far.  It doesn't cost any $$ to hack up the stockers and you can get a nice sound level out ot them for no money.  

I've got my own set of priorities inline for the mods I want to accomplish on my bike.  First is a fairing, seats, shocks, new bags, trunk, paint and a few other goodies.  Pipes from Mark-T are on the list, but they're at a lower priority than the other projects that I'm wanting to get completed.  So far, I've got a huge pile of parts piled up in my garage for my bike's make-over (including a Woody's fairing, a Harley trunk, etc) for later this summer.  I'm just waiting on a set of Mustang saddlebags to get here before I start stripping down the fat girl. 

I'm still aiming for a set of Mark's pipes, but it might be another year or so before I'm ready to purchase a set (save me a set Mark  ).  In the mean-time, I like what I've done to mine.  

[MarkT]

NO like, so I got a set of MarkT's early on glass paks.

They were ok at 1st, then they burned out and when I tried to replace the glass pak, the interior had rusted pretty bad and fell apart.

First I've heard of this, RJ.  First off, thanks for being an early customer, and supporter of my venture.  Now the other side - Ya might give a seller the chance to address a problem before doing it yourself, giving up, then running down the product in public.  Not too fair, doncha think?

The packs I use are Cherry Bombs from Maremont, manufacturers of these performance glasspacks for over 50 years.  They are designed for V8 automotive use, and in our application, they are seriously underutilized and overbuilt, such that they typically don't get hot enough from this small engine to burn out.  The shells and internals are carbon steel, but of heavy gauge, so yes given enough time and moisture they could rust, but expected to be beyond the lifetime of any one motorcycle.

Even so, I still build the systems with easy glasspack replacement designed in, just to circumvent any buyers potential concern over this issue, from the earliest versions - though I have never heard of anyone actually needing to replace them.  I've heard of folks who had an opinion that maybe it was louder, but nothing supported by either measurement of sound levels or brought to an expert - like me - who knows what new ones sound like.  I can count on one hand the number of folks who have bought replacement paks, and all of those were buyers stocking up for future need, in case "you get hit by a truck."  So your report here is a first, and in statistical parlence, "outside the bell curve."

Mark, I do think you misunderstood what I said, or was attempting to say..     There was no way in hell I was blaming you or your product for it rusting up and breaking off.

As I told my son later was why in the hell didn't we use the torch more instead of brut force on the coupling.

I did not blame you for anything.    So ease up a tad here.    Thanks Brother.

Not really saying blame is what we're talking about.  Others read this site, and anything that could be a negative and is not answered will likely be remembered as a black mark.  So I had to answer.  Really, I haven't heard of such a thing with Cherry Bomb packs in a Valk exhaust, and in particular I have not heard you had an issue. But you may have special conditions most don't - like I'm thinking you have really high miles, and Iowa does have some humidity.  Anyway, back then I didn't document build details like I've been doing in recent years, but I suspect your exhaust was built with muffler clamps, meaning a swap out of the packs would have been pretty easy.  And I sell the replacement packs at $30 - pretty cheap.

[R J]

NO like, so I got a set of MarkT's early on glass paks.

They were ok at 1st, then they burned out and when I tried to replace the glass pak, the interior had rusted pretty bad and fell apart.

First I've heard of this, RJ.  First off, thanks for being an early customer, and supporter of my venture.  Now the other side - Ya might give a seller the chance to address a problem before doing it yourself, giving up, then running down the product in public.  Not too fair, doncha think?

The packs I use are Cherry Bombs from Maremont, manufacturers of these performance glasspacks for over 50 years.  They are designed for V8 automotive use, and in our application, they are seriously underutilized and overbuilt, such that they typically don't get hot enough from this small engine to burn out.  The shells and internals are carbon steel, but of heavy gauge, so yes given enough time and moisture they could rust, but expected to be beyond the lifetime of any one motorcycle.

Even so, I still build the systems with easy glasspack replacement designed in, just to circumvent any buyers potential concern over this issue, from the earliest versions - though I have never heard of anyone actually needing to replace them.  I've heard of folks who had an opinion that maybe it was louder, but nothing supported by either measurement of sound levels or brought to an expert - like me - who knows what new ones sound like.  I can count on one hand the number of folks who have bought replacement paks, and all of those were buyers stocking up for future need, in case "you get hit by a truck."  So your report here is a first, and in statistical parlence, "outside the bell curve."

Mark, I do think you misunderstood what I said, or was attempting to say..     There was no way in hell I was blaming you or your product for it rusting up and breaking off.

As I told my son later was why in the hell didn't we use the torch more instead of brut force on the coupling.

I did not blame you for anything.    So ease up a tad here.    Thanks Brother.

Not really saying blame is what we're talking about.  Others read this site, and anything that could be a negative and is not answered will likely be remembered as a black mark.  So I had to answer.  Really, I haven't heard of such a thing with Cherry Bomb packs in a Valk exhaust, and in particular I have not heard you had an issue. But you may have special conditions most don't - like I'm thinking you have really high miles, and Iowa does have some humidity.  Anyway, back then I didn't document build details like I've been doing in recent years, but I suspect your exhaust was built with muffler clamps, meaning a swap out of the packs would have been pretty easy.  And I sell the replacement packs at $30 - pretty cheap.

Yes sir, it was with muffler clamps.   The piece that the muffler fit over rusted through.     That is not a fault of the product in my book.......


I do not blame you or your work for this rust through.

Case closed as far as I'm concerned.

[Big Tom 10628]

Why? These bikes are perfect as built.  Anything you do is going to hurt the performance.  So why mess with it?

Never rode one with a set of Vikings correctly installed Didja?