Not really...there's something at the end of the pipe just before it turns down but it's minimal, maybe an inch in length but other than that, the pipes are open. I saw it when I had my tires changed...the pipes have to come off in order to do that.
Just about all of the baffles in any of these aftermarket pipes are similar to the one shown in the video. They are just a straight pipe with holes along the sides that slides into the exhaust pipe. That's it for baffles.
My story about exhaust. I guess I should call this chapter 1 as I'm not sure how it is all going to go.
I was playing around with my exhaust on my VT1100T as I wanted to make it quieter as well. When I bought the bike it came with both the stock and a brand new Vance & HInes Dual Bagger Exhaust. The bike had the Vance & Hines exhaust when I brought the bike home and it was way too loud. So I put the stock exhaust back on but some person had drilled out the center of the last baffle on both sides. In effect creating a straight run for the exhaust. This exhaust was also too loud and gave running lean symptoms under some driving conditions. The diameter of this stock baffle is about 1 " in diameter and I haven't figured out a way to plug the far end of this baffle.
So yesterday I took the Vance & Hines baffles out. These pipes have about a 4" diameter so the only difference in the baffle ( compared to the one in the video ) is that the ends are bigger and these ones where wrapped with fiberglass matting. The diameter of the inside of the baffle is about 2" and in effect is a straight pipe within a straight pipe. About all the fiberglass matting does is lower the tone, but has no real effect on the overall noise.
So I did a search on the web and found a Utube video from a fellow in Austraila that had modified his baffles and it made them much quieter. Do a search on the web and you can watch the video. In simple terms what he did was remove the baffle cut the hole portion of the baffle at the mid point and welded in a piece of steel that closed off the baffle. So now the exhaust gas comes down the baffle, hits the blocked portion, is forced up through the baffle, over the obstruction and then back down the other side of the obstruction through the baffle holes and out the exhaust. So I did the same thing but didn't cut all the way through the baffle and then shaped it to fit the bottom of the baffle, welded it in place. So know I'm waiting for some new crush washers for the headers.
Once I can get these back on the bike I'll see if it is quiet enough for me. If it is still too loud, then I'm going to make a cone with small holes to fit in the output end of the exhaust or if I can find some small holed mesh, needs to have about 1/8" holes and line that on the rear portion of the baffle. The small holes in the mesh still allow lots of exhaust gas to flow, but makes the exhaust much quieter. This is the same principle of the Jegs cones ( do a search ) and if I can find some that fit I might give them a try.
So depending on how handy you are, you can try the above. If you mess up the worse case is buy another set of the stock baffles and go again.
Measure your opening ,Any baffle will fit in the proper diameter measurement, The smaller the opening of the baffle, the quieter the bike will be, I bought Rush pipes and ordered the 1,75" baffles. They are the quietest baffle But thankfully I did not order 2" or over, Way too loud. I have had Rush Slip ons before.
I haven't had much luck finding quiet baffles this size other than more of the same. The Vance & Hines pipes I have are about 3 3/4" inside diameter and the baffle measures approx 3 3/4 " outside with the inside baffle portion being around 2". The exhaust itself is just too big, has too much unbaffled space.
The last mod helped some so I'll keep working on restricting the inside diameter.
spent $140 on Big City Thunder Quiet Baffles:
epic FAIL.
Did absolutely nothing to quiet the open 2.25" V&H Longshots, on a modified VT1100C2.
Also they did emphatically NOT increase midrange power, as the company claimed.
Only injured my wallet.
An expensive mistake.
Sent those baffles to another HSN member who tried them on his bike and reported basically the same findings.
Spent $90 on V&H Quiet Baffles:
second epic FAIL.
Made the FlyinJenni sound like a sickly Yamaha 360 with 6" shorties.
Tried re-wrapping them with hi-temp ceramic insulation....a little quieter, but still that annoying high pitch cackle... like a $200 Frod Escort 4-banger with a $300 stainless resonator.
Still....the experience burnt me for $90.
Spent $78 on Smartpartz Hardcore Quiet Baffles:
you guessed it....
epic FAIL.
As soon as I got them outta the box, I thought: these have a 1" internal sleeve, that's gonna KILL power above 3000 rpm.
To my surprise, the power they kill is around / above 3600-3700 rpm or so.
But they had a fut-fut-futting sound that I HATED, plus they did zip / nada / zilch / nothing to quieten it down....and lost maybe 10 horses when you wind it upstairs....
just ( expensive ) loud fut-fut-fut flatulence sounds.
And flatulence still sounds like flatulence, even if your most recent meal was lobster and filet mignon....
Because I was determined to quieten the Beast so the Redhead can go along on longer rides, I tried a combination of two kinds of baffles.
Currently running the V&H in front of the Hardcores.
Yes. That DOES quieten it.
And no, I'm not crazy about how it sounds ( neither is she ), but it is effective in reducing her headaches after longer rides.
BUT: power is noticeably down, and the fan kicks on at nearly every stop.
Never did that before.
Pipes color and plug color are both OK, and it's not overheating ( so far )
but do I sound HAPPY?
Yep. Gonna yank em out.
Ordered and just rec'd: Drag Specialties Baffles w/ Fiberglas Wrap for 2.25" OD Exhaust , and paid $32, shipped.
Have not had time to try them, but they show some promise.
They have a larger 'flow-thru', so less power loss, but I'm not sure yet how much sound reduction they are good for....
I'm not proud of blowing this much cash on baffles, but hopefully someone here can benefit from my stubbornness.
FYI: my next bike will have 4 more cylinders and wear Ceramakoted SuperTrapps.
Udaymbetcha.
-Gnarly
( once a subversive reactionary, ALWAYS a subversive reactionary. )
With respect to the use of HD stock mufflers mentioned in the above link. Several years ago I messed around with putting HD mufflers on a bike and found that you have to go back to the older style before they had any kind of a 2 into 1 into 2 arrangement ( which is just about all the newer years ). The reason was that on a HD with these types of mufflers one side flows about 80 % of the exhaust and the other 20%. Without the balance tube arrangement they won't work on a bike. So in the end you need to buy 2 sets to get 2 mufflers you can use. Just posting as general info in the event anybody is looking at going this route.
Making some progress on the Vance & HInes Bagger mufflers. Have built and welded on a extension, about 4" long, with 16 1/4" holes and the end capped off that faces towards the header pipe. This forces the exhaust gas to go around the capped end and in through the 1/4" holes to get into the V&H baffle. Also have place 3 half washers in the main baffle portion about 1 1/2" from each other. The fiberglass packing was put back around the main portion of the V&H baffle ( as it was before I started messing around).
Took the bike for a short ride around the city and out on the highway. Still too loud in the city, but OK on the highway at speed. No problem with accleration, took it up to 85 mph, no hesitation, or backfire on decel etc. Changes so far haven't hurt power delivery. Next change will be to change the outlet end that is at the furthest end of the muffler from the header and to add one more half washer in the main baffle portion.
Weather starting to get crappy up here, so riding days will be a hit and miss afair.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
In 70*F weather today, fan ran more than I'm happy with, so before I ride again, I'm pulling my current two-baffle setup and trying the cheaper Drag Specialties baffles.
Louder, I'm sure.
But I'm NOT gonna risk overheating to quieten it down.
When you look at the stock exhaust on the VT1100T and measure the output end, the inside diameter is 1 " for both mufflers and they are a 2 into 1 into 2 setup which is much more restrictive than the Vance & HInes dual bagger with no cross over pipe, and each have a 2 1/8" output opening, you have a lot of room to play with. The V&H mufflers are longer and about the same outside diameter as the stock muffler so you have a lot of muffler volume to fill up. As long as you don't go any smaller than the stock muffler for an output you shouldn't have restriction problems. I don't know the stock output sizes of exhaust systems on other versions of this generation VT1100 but would assume they are similar.
They use this same V&H Dual Bagger muffler set up on a host of cruiser bikes of different manufacturers that have much more displacement than the VT1100. Most of the problem for me is that the baffle is a one size fit for all these bikes and therein lies the issue. We all like a little bit more rumble but to get the bike to run right the exhaust has to match the engine and it does need some back pressure. It is hard in (my opinion only) to get a metric cruiser to sound right. I know all about the crank pin stuff ( owned HD"s ) and Harley spent fortunes on exhuast systems to get the stock bikes to sound pretty good in my mind.
At the worst if I really mess it up I'll just buy another set of baffles or if I could get round metal disks, like the big diameter ends I'd have a go at making baffles. Then what I'd like to do is offset the insides of the baffle so that the exhaust gases had to travel further before exiting. That is the trick in tuning, playing with the length of the exhaust pulses to help in scavenging the spent gas from the engine. And yes a cross over pipe would help my efforts but I would need a better fabricator than me. For me its fun playing with this stuff. Thanks for your interest.
Keep us posted on your progress, please. I believe offset baffles (diversion) is the best answer.
Years ago while building SBChevy engines for circle track racing, one of the tracks (briefly) decided to implement a 'racing muffler' rule.
We had 3 to choose from.
According to dyno pulls, one only cost us about 25 hp @7800 rpm.
The biggest, longest, heaviest, spendiest, hardest-to-fit one.
The only one without any packing.
It was shaped like an oversized glass pack muffler, but had one continuous steel spiral around a central core, the entire length of the muffler.
Like an auger, inside a tube.
But halfway through the season, the neighbor who complained about the noise moved away, and they dropped the muffler restriction.
Thanks for all the input guys. I'll certainly look into these suggestions and see which one will best fit my needs. I have absolutely NO metal fabricating skills so I'll have to figure something out.
Unless I'm mistaken, isn't the 1100T a true dual system? It seems to me that the exhaust for each side looks like a 2 into 1 because of the heat shield at that point where the two pipes come down from the engine just below the swing arm bolt cover on the right side of the bike (facing forward). I may be wrong but I seem to recall that.
No the VT1100T's header pipes join together around the swing arm area and then just behind this joint the left side muffler ( as you sit on the bike) is connected. So in simple terms the two headers become one and then there is a y pipe where the two mufflers are connected. Very few bikes or vehicles for that matter, with dual exhaust don't have a cross over pipe of some discription, because it increases power. Something to do with balancing out the exhaust pulses travelling back and forth in the exhaust system.
The rest of this is just my thoughts and ramblings. Something I seem prone to doing.
If you think of a twin that has one cylinder fire, then it makes part of a revolution and the other cylinder fires and so on and on you have these pulses first blowing, then sucking, then blowing. With both mufflers connected as in the stock system the exhaust gases use both mufflers which allows the manufacturer to make them smaller and quieter with no restriciton or backfire problems.
If you look at a true dual set up ( no crossover or y pipe ) with 1 3/4" header pipes ( Vance & Hines ) that connects the cylinder to the mufflers, and then the output end is about 2 1/8" at the exit end ( with the baffle in the middle being 2 1/8" wide at both ends with in effect a 1 3/4" straight pipe between these two ends with packing on the outside) you can see that the exhaust noise will actually increase due to it being a straight run from the cylinder to the exit end of the muffler which increases in size. That gives the booming sound. Another effect of this type of set up is that on deceleration you get poping and backfiring in the exhuast system which is unburnt gas being sucked into the muffler and re ingnited. That is hard on the engine and wastes fuel. Engines need some backpressure to run properly. So the trick is to add back some backpressure and quiet the muffler without affecting performance.
So if you look back at the stock exit opening of being about 1", that is with both mufflers conneted together which greatly increases the volume of the mufflers. We don't have that same volume available for us with the true duel set up as each cylinder feeds one muffler. So in my view to make the true dual set up quieter and more efficent as well, we have to lengthen the baffle for a start and somehow disrupt the flow of exhaust gases to make them slow down a bit and travel futher before they can exit.
To date what I have done has quieted the exhaust at idle and at highway speed, but just off idle when you are acclerating it is still too loud. On decel at highway speeds there is no backfiring and the engine pulls strong when acclerating from 60 mph. So I'm making progress. My next effort is going to work on the exit end. I've seen some end baffles for these pipes that might work so I'll either duplicate that or try and buy a pair.
Update. I tried a few different things with the baffle, ( in addition to what I have already posted ) inserting washers at 45 degrees or putting a metal pipe cap ( with a 1/2 hole off center ) in the rear portion of the baffle. The cap fits pretty well and allows gas to escape around the cap as well as through the smaller hole. ( You need to drill and tap the cap so that you can mount it in the baffle ) All of these did quiet the exhaust a bit, but still too loud for me. For some the metal pipe cap would likely work fine.
The final solution for me. I cut a 3 1/2" metal disk, cut a 1" hole in the center. Put a 4" piece of 1" pipe, ( 2" in the baffle and approx 2" outside the baffle) with the farthest end angle cut to match the V& H slash cut mufflers. I drilled 36 (1/8" holes) in the portion of the pipe that fit inside the existing baffle and capped off the end so that the exhaust gas had to flow through the smaller holes and then out the 1" pipe. I bent and fit the disk to the rear baffle, then welded the pipe and the disk together at the midpoint of the pipe so that the smaller holes were inside the baffle. Then used 6 stainless steel screws to attach each disk to the baffle.
Took the bike for a 60 mile ride. Much quieter, good accleration and took the bike up to 100 mph on the speedo no hesitation, stumble or backfire on decel. I now hear more intake and engine noise than exhaust noise ( the single wall V& H headers contribute to this as well ) The final change seems to work fine.and no restriction problems with the current setup. The stock exhaust for this bike also has a 1" outlet, so all I did was match up with the stock exhaust. This last change couild be adapted to different size/length center pipe, smaller or more holes etc to get the sound you want.
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