[Beezer]

Recently bought a Virago 250 for the wife's starter bike. Turned out the engine was ailing and beyond repairable. Bought a nice low milage replacement engine off ebay.
Got a very nice Shadow in the mean time.
I began to look things over to plan on the engine swap that's when I noticed.....

That rear pipe is a decoy. It does nothing but sit there and look nice. It doesn't even touch the rear jug. The mufflers are joined together and aren't really mufflers. There's a 1" tube connected to the rear jug and it makes a couple of bends, terminating into the real muffler, also piped in to the front jug. The whole assembly tucked under and behind the engine. The exhaust system is really a decoration. Non functional.

 

[5l1mm]

really?
why would they do that?
so if you remove the "exhaust" does it still run the same?

 

[Bobolto]

You'll never have a problem with them Bluing ... lol

 

[mikebte]

That is funny. All for looks. Hope that is not what made you buy a new engine

 

[Leathel]

Does the rear cylinder even work or is that a decoy as well, I cant see where it would exhaust...

 

[Beezer]

Does the rear cylinder even work or is that a decoy as well, I cant see where it would exhaust...

Yeah, it's got a little 1" tube going down to the common muffler. The muffler is sort of a box affair with two inlets and a pair of outlets dumping into the decoy chrome mufflers. That's not the funniest part. The previous owner even drilled out the baffle plate thinking it would make it louder or give it a deeper tone. Truth is, it's muffled well before it gets there.