twinrider said:
The 12GS's exhaust meets the strictest existing sound regulations in every market it's in so it's obviously not loud enough to bother people. But it lets enough sound through to let you know you're on a motorcycle instead of an appliance. BMW may do a lot of things wrong, but they got the muffler right. ::008::
You're right, of course. The Beemer certainly isn't loud, and for that matter most Staintune pipes aren't, either, though I don't know if an adapted KTM pipe is louder than the dedicated pipe Staintune was making for the Super Tenere.
I was more referring to your allusion that louder pipes somehow were safer, and IMHO that's simply never been proven in any truly applicable way. So often over here in the states you hear (or see emblazoned on shirts and stickers) the ludicrous "Loud Pipes Save Lives" credo that so many H-D riders use with some warped logic to justify their wide-open, obnoxiously *LOUD* exhaust systems. Sad thing is that so many sport bike riders are getting to be just as bad, with some having truly ear-splitting pipes on their bikes. Without a doubt there's tons of profit in all those exhaust systems and noise. You need look no further than any moto magazine to see that exhaust systems are perhaps the No. 1 accessory advertised. But just because there's money in them doesn't mean that all social consciousness should be ignored.
There was a time when truly substantial power gains could be made by the addition of an aftermarket exhaust system on many, many bikes. However, these days the factory exhaust systems have gotten so good at producing both peak power and a broad power spread that it almost makes no sense to replace them. In fact, many aftermarket pipes actually make *LESS* power than the stock exhaust, especially if there is no proper adjustment to the fuel delivery. Where's the logic in that other than just to make more noise? I guess some folks who fall for that trap still somehow believe that "More Noise Equals More Power"... :
I've heard a couple of aftermarket pipes on Super Tenere's... One was *STUPID* loud (I won't mention brands here so as not to offend anybody), and I'm pretty sure from hearing it run that no steps had been taken to adjust the fueling to suit, which means the guy spent a bunch of bucks for his bike to run *WORSE* and be insanely annoying to everyone but him in the bargain. So far no slip-on muffler has shown truly significant gains on a Super Tenere - at least not when you figure power-to-weight ratio in the equation. Even with a set of header pipes, an aftermarket can, a re-flash, and a PC-V with autotune I think the most anybody's seen is about a 9 HP gain. That's blowing a lot of money to get about a 10% gain on a 600 lbs dual-purpose bike. If memory serves the biggest percentage gain of that (6 HP) can be had with just a Gen 2 re-flash and a set of Arrow headers (keeping the stock muffler), and then there is little if no increase in noise.
I dunno'... I guess it's turned into one of my pet peeves as of late because there are so many *LOUD* motorcycles down in my part of the country, and every single one of those pisses a lot of people off. People we don't need pissed off and complaining to the police departments, city councils, local newspapers, their congressmen, etc. One of these days I figure we are all going to end up paying the price.
Just for the record, I have an ECUnleashed Gen 2 re-flash running with stock headers and a stock muffler. I do have a set of Arrow headers here I've never put on, but I got them mostly because of the catalytic converter that comes stock on the bike. Cats put off a huge amount of waste heat, can often be detrimental to throttle response, and can have real problems with bad fuel. Putting on the Arrow headers won't increase the noise output to hardly any degree if you used with the stock muffler, so I suppose I'll install 'em one day and find out if they help. But the more I ride these days the more I want my bikes *Q-U-I-E-T*.
YMMV...
Thanks!
Dallara
~
