Noise level chart of various aftermarket pipes and mod pipes

[ehallspqr]

I am going through this conundrum of picking an aftermarket pipe or moding a stocker for more sound and performance. Everyone has their personal reasons for putting on a louder pipe. Some just want loud, some are only interested in performance gains and some like me just don't want their Buells sounding like a sewing machine going down the road. So I am looking for slightly to medium louder pipe and am looking closely at the Buell Pro race pipe. I was wondering where pipes like the Special Ops, Hawk and Drummer fall in terms of loudness. There is also a mod where you cut a small access hole and drill a hole in the outlet pipe. That also seems to increase noise/flow/backpressure without being much loader than stock. A deeper low Harley rumble a bit louder than stock would be perfect. Perhaps a list of pipes and the noise level from quiet to loud? So stock, then the Buell Pro race?

 

[Miami78]

Having grown up riding harleys, mostly an '82 shovelhead, I just wanted my bike to sound better...when looking to replace my stock exhaust I didn't really care about performance, but of course didn't want it to run like ****...just wanted to get rid of the lawn mower sound of the stocker.

If I were to rate the volume of the exhausts with the stock being a "1" and the d&d being a "5", I'd put the race at a "2" and the spec ops at a "4". The spec ops and d&d both have a heavy amount of bass, and I preferred the sound of the spec ops, especially at idle, just over the d&d.

 

[SMDUB1]

Put some headphones on and go to Exhaust Shoot Out and listen for yourself.
Hawk however is not on this one but you can hear his on youtube youtube hawk

I am a specials Ops fan [up]

 

[Miami78]

I was very unimpressed with the sound quality on the exhaust shootout...but I guess it's a start if you can't hear them in person. I found there to be a huge difference between the recorded sound and live.

 

[ehallspqr]

SMDUB1, thanks for the Hawk Youtube link. I just started checking them out and I heard they have different levels of baffles. Listened to a bunch of YouTube vids of various exhausts but there are so many factors that affect what you are are hearing on them. I agree with Miami78, listened to Drummers online and then in person and the experience was totally different. From listening to most performance exhausts online and in person the one that gave you some sound but wasn't to loud was the Pro-series factory race can. People often compare the Spec Ops and Hawk so they must be similar? I am buying a XB12X with a stainless Drummer already installed. The guy said its probably a bit louder than the standard which is fairly loud so its probably coming off. Will pick up a stock can for now and look around at the other options.

 

[SantaFe]

I read the eval that American Sportbike did on all of the brands and chose the Buell Race pipe for my XB12XT. I like the sound and it is a little quieter than the Drummer and nothing like the Micron or D&D which is rude!

Because I had to disconnect the valve, I lost a little mid-range but gained a bunch up top.

You can find the ASB article on their website. It was well done and very thorough.