Noise

I never said I didn't want it louder. In fact, I stated that if that was a side effect of adding a pipe to help smooth out the bike, and increase its performance, I didn't care. That wasn't the point of my original thread, though. Now, you be honest, you just like to argue, don't you? You don't even have to agree with the point you are defending, it's the argument that you like. That's not a bad thing, I like arguing as well. Keeps the mind working.

Finally, a recommendation for a pipe. Did you get any performance increase out of the Two Brothers pipe, or did the bike run better/smoother?

Robert,
Keep this in mind. I hate to admit this but I think it's relevant to the discussion.

Coming home late one evening on a local (country) 4 lane. I'm close to town so I'm not keenly paying attention to my full surroundings, just what is in front of me, which happens to be nothing. I'm in the far right hand lane. I must have jumped 6 inches off my seat as a guy and girl on a hog with an extremely loud exhaust blew past me in the left lane. I hadn't been checking my mirrors like I normally would, and never saw them come up on me until they passed me. Never heard them until they were a few feet in front of me. I hoped my jolt was not to evident, if it was I'm sure they got a chuckle out of me.

The point is, keep in mind that a loud exhaust will only effect whats behind you. Unless your in a city or area where sound will "bounce" in front of you, only the people behind you will get a chance to enjoy your loudness. Just my 2 cents.

James O

I run a stock pipe actually. I know someone who had a two Bros can, and it was wayyyyy too loud for my tastes. When the packing burned out of it, approx 5k miles, it was like being by a weird sounding harley. I have to agree with Kbasa, fine tuning your bike will take out the surging 99.9% of the time. The factory spends a lot of time and money tuning the exhaust for the best ratio of mid to high range torque and hp. It is also illegal to tamper with the emissions systems on your bike, which includes removing the cat/con. If loud pipes save lives, shouldnt they be facing the front of the bike, and not the back?

loud pipes

So, can you all stand one more opinion?

Mine is this: there is only one reason to install a louder pipe - because you like it! If you like it loud don't apologize, just do it. (Don't ask me to ride behind you though, cause I'll be passing your noisy butt)

Steve

>You see, that is the reason so many cars hit us, the drivers are not trained to see bikes.

Believe what you want, I hope it works for you. As for myself, I believe that the only way a car will hit ME is if I let it drive in front or over me.

Robert 123456 said:

Finally, a recommendation for a pipe. Did you get any performance increase out of the Two Brothers pipe, or did the bike run better/smoother?

Click to expand...

dude, my first reply recommended the staintune to make the bike louder! i daresay, youve failed to give me props.

If memory serves, at the beginning of the last Iron Butt Rally, an individual with a K-bike and a Two Brothers failed the noise check and had to install a quieter exhaust in order to compete.

First, sorry for the delay, props to Username. Second, I never said I didn't like the added sound. I did say it would be a welcome side effect of adding performance to the bike. Third, I never said I wanted obnoxiously loud, illegal, neighbor disturbing sound from my bike. In fact, noise level is one of the variables I will factor into my choice of equipment. I have had several bikes in the past, where I added a pipe for performance and while I won't deny that it increased the sound level, it never got to the point where I was waking neighbors. NOWHERE IN MY CHAIN OF RESP0NSES TO ALL OF YOUR DID I INDICATE THAT I WANTED OPEN PIPES. You all seem to think that changing the pipe to an aftermarket unit will give me deafening noise levels, and that the factory tunes the bike to its potential, or that I don't need (or have the right to want) any additional performance. Well, here's an update for you all, the factory tuning is dictated by several factors, and performance is not their main concern. There are many compromises when tuning a bike for mass distribution, and technology advances in the five years since my bikes production mean that I can increase my performance, with some compromises (sound level is one), which I do not mind accepting.

SteveO, if it will get all of you people to stop trying to convince me that the stock pipe, catatylic converter or fuel injection settings are perfect, and cannot be improved, ok, you are right. The only thing I want out of all of these modifications is to make my bike louder. The louder, the better. I may hood up an electronic amplifier with huge speakers behind my bike, so I can increase the volume even more.

And dlearl, if you believe the only way a car will hit you is if you let him, you are naive.

Now, if you guys want to continue arguing, that's ok with me, but I suggest we meet somewhere over a couple of beers, and maybe a barbeque (did I spell that correctly?). At least then, we can see each other, and socialize. And maybe by then, I'll have decided on a pipe and chip, and you can see that while the noise level has increased on my bike, it is nowhere near the obnoxious level you all seem to think I am in search of.

Loud pipes piss people off.

I think loud pipes are like farting when you leave a room. It may be enjoyable for you and make you think you're helping your health. But the people that you left behind are going to do everything they can to keep you from coming back.

Loud pipes take rights. Plain and simple. Most of the motorcycle specific legislation we have is the direct result of loud pipes. Doesn't matter if it's the flatulent bark of a boxer, the rumble of a Vtwin or the buzz of a sportbike. To onlookers and non riders, they're all the same.

And we all pay the price. If you want to be safe in traffic, stay out of blind spots and watch your own back. By relying on someone else to hear you, you're transferred your safety responsibility to them, which is a total cop out.

Don't get me started on flashy lights, bright clothing and all the other gizmos BMW people hang on their bikes. We're still responsible for ourselves.

YMMV.

so robert, uhhh, welcome to the forum.

youre new here, so we need to cut you slack, but i think youve hit on something most of us here are fairly religious about. if youve been around a while, you'd quickly see the strong emphasis on this board (that your topic definitely evoked) towards being a *highly* defensive rider, and being mindful of and resisting offensive behavior. most of what we were doing was letting you know that about us, but it is easily construed as an attack requiring defense. your presumption about gettng together for a beer is spot on. (provided you aren't going to harp on politics. ) i am part selfish guy, wanting to zip around town in a fun way, and part motorcycle ambassador to my community. there's a yin and yang thing going on with me, and as with all things in life, i seek the balance between the seeming contradictions. i think many of us do, and we try to share our philosophy with others.

i'm not blaming you, or trying to give you a hard time, but one of the ways to ask your question might have been, 'i've got a such-n-such, and i would like it to growl a little bit more when i ride it. i don't want to wake my neighbors and be a public nuisance, but i want to hear my bike. could those of you with aftermarket exhaust describe to me how your bike sounds now, and how you like it?'

the guy i bought my bike from told me that the two reasons he put the staintune on it were that it gave him a slight hp boost, which he admittedly never dyno'ed, and that he liked how the bike sounded. and then he said, 'the silencer is in the box with the stock muffler if you want to make it quieter.' (i bought my bike from a great guy.)

i think that after we all piled on, and you defended yourself and all that good stuff, the above question is about where we ended up.

trust us, we're happy you're here, and we want to hear (har har!) the results of your bike modifications, how you like them, and what you've learned. thanks for having thick skin, and keep us posted on your progress.

No need for an explanation, or to cut me any slack. I wasn't getting defensive, and I like to argue as much as the next person (I am originally from the east coast, specifically New York and New Jersey, and lived in Philadelphia for a year, so I probably like to argue more than most). But if you look through the items, you will notice that I repeatedly stated that while it wasn't my main objective, I didn't mind a little added noise, in fact it could (may, might, there is a chance, the possibility exists, etc., pic your choice of terms that stat there is a possibility, no matter how slim) be useful to alert drivers around me on the road. My main goal was to aleviate the annoying surging that is apparently inherent in the BMW motorcycle line.

I do not think there is any way to state that I wanted my bike to be a little louder that wouldn't have had the effect you have witnessed. That is not a critique, just an observation. If I was actually upset that someone was trying to argue with me, I'd have to take myself outside and kick my own ass. Wouldn't that be a sight.

And for the record, I can argue politics (or anything), and I have no political affilliation (spelled that wrong, didn't I?), so I don't even have to agree with the point I am arguing. Call me a Sophist. But I don't need to argue politics, so that is not an issue.

Robert 123456 said:

..... My main goal was to aleviate the annoying surging that is apparently inherent in the BMW motorcycle line........

Click to expand...

Did I miss that in the original post?

If that is the case, an easier and cheaper way to deal with surging is to install a Techlusion R259 fuel controller.

I doubt just changing a muffler will eliminate surging. You would have to change out the chip in the ECU, to really make a difference. There is considerable evidence that the surging is caused by overly lean fuel mapping.

The Techlusion changes the injector pulse width, effectively richening the mixture where needed. It definitely solved the surging problem on my bike, as it has for many other 1150 owners. Along with a good tune-up, the Techlusion will eliminate 99.99% of the surging.

While your on the subject of louder pipes..I was wondering if people with louder bikes have less impacts with the critters that wander the hiways and by ways? This last summer as I was traveling back east riding on slab just outside Charleston Wva.
doing a speed that usually gets me out of most people's blind spots quicker than they can "get me" a couple of deer started approaching the side of the road. I was had if the continued across the slab so I hit my "FIAM" horns and they both scurried back into the woods. Which made me wonder if riders of those loud obnoxious bikes had fewer incidents with critter run ins.

When cars quit running into other cars and only run into Motorcyclist I'LL believe they are out to get us. Like so many other things accidents happen.

noise (begets beer)

Robert - I like your idea for a few beers. If you make it to Ohio this summer for the national, I owe you one (or two). I'll find you - just blip your throttle a few times!
Cheers, Steve
(Truth be told...I've owned some obnoxiously loud bikes in my time, and loved them. It's just that the grayer I get the more I seem to like soft jazz, acoustic rock and quiet pipes. Go figure!)

LeRoux, the Techlusion seems to be the choice of the majority of the responses. Thanks for the input. My original question was whether the chip would work by itself, or if a pipe was necessary (I think, it's been so long, my memory is fading). The Techlusion seems to allow either configuration (with pipe, or no pipe), and saves $$ as well.

jd, I have the loud horns, and they work well, except those occaisions where I am taken completely by surprise by the actions of a box driver, and my first impulse is self preservation. By the time I think of the horn, the idiot is usually so far behind me, I would be honking at some innocent party. Be nice to have the ability to direct the horn to the offender, and nobody else, maybe in the future...

Steve-o, I'm going to hold you to the beer offer, but while I may change the pipe for various reasons (cooler sound, not necessarily that much louder, better looks, loss of catalytic converter, etc), I don't think I'll be going to an excessively loud one. Let's face it, if I really wanted a loud, fast race type bike, I'd have bought an R1100S (or something from Japan, Italy or Great Britain), not an R1150GS. Fact is, I agree with most of the noise averse responses to my question, but I do like my bike to sound cool (yes, it's shallow, but I can't help it). Since I don't have the patience own (read that; spend every weekend tweaking it to get it running right, then have it break while on a ride) a cool, classic muscle car any more, the bike is my escape.

To all, thanks for the arguments. Believe it or not, this is my idea of fun.

Glad to hear that Robert. We are a very passionate bunch in the forum, and it looks like you will be a good member. Welcome and enjoy!

So, I passed the initiation?

And, if you're going to fart, it is probably better to do it when you are leaving the room (better for the perpetrator of the fart, that is).