How to make my bike a little quieter
How to make my bike a little quieter
I have to head to work at 3:30 in the morning. Anybody have any thoughts about how to make my bike quieter on start up and fast idle? It's a KLR 650 with an aftermarket muffler. It's not straight pipe loud, but a thumper is going to thump.
I'm currently looking to see if I can find an additional baffle for the exhaus. That I can just slip in real quick on startup.
I've talked to my neighbors (the ones I care about) and so far they haven't said it's a problem, but they did say it woke them up once or twice. So I figure it wouldn't be bad to try to do a little something.
Any thoughts are welcome
Put the factory muffler back on.
There are no aftermarket mufflers for the KLR (or pretty much any bike) that are as quiet as factory. Most people equate noise to power, but especially in the case of the KLR that's not true unless you have done significant other tuning work to the engine. Like, a big bore kit and porting and polishing the head, and/or high lift cams.
Now, what is true about the KLR's factory muffler is that it weighs a goddamn ton. So there's that.
Failing that, you're on the right track to get one of those insert baffles you can stick in there and anchor in place with some setscrews. There really isn't any other realistic option. I guess if you have a welder and are a dab hand with some sheet metal you could make your own.
That is kinda what I thought. I don't have the factory muffler. I bought it with the most Chineseinum aftermarket muffler I had ever seen. Which promptly fell apart on me. So I had to buy a real aftermarket muffler.
I will keep looking for that baffle or maybe make myself one.
Alternatively, fiberglass wool. Or stainless steel lathe shavings. You can pack it into the can, but there's a right and many wrong ways to do it.
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/how-to-repack-a-muffler-or-silencer
Thanks for considering. If only more motorcyclists cared. It's a real nuisance for people who are not into internal combustion engine sounds.
Indeed, props to OP for caring about their neighbours. In some countries motorcycles are banned on certain roads because of the nuisance.
When riding through built-up areas I try to keep the noise down on my ICE bike (which isn't that loud to begin with, BMW R1200RT), but ideally I take my electric bike. So much fun to ride without disturbing other people's peace and quiet. That also means that I can ride it any way I like, because hard acceleration is about as quiet as normal riding.
You could play with a supertrapp muffler. Allows adjustment by way of removable discs to calibrate noise and performance.
Put the factory muffler back on? 😁
Just kidding, what's the story on the mufflers, is the factory one quiter than your aftermarket?
I've seen baffles removed, and some aftermarket have removable baffles so you can put in what u need...so I'd think you'd be able to baffle it a little.
A ooooold trick to quiet down a hot car was to stuff steel wool into the muffler and wire it in so it wouldn't blow out. Get it inspected, leave, cut the wires and the steel wool blows out.
Maybe you could pack a metal tube with steel wool, make it so it slides into the muffler and use a simple bailing wire through drilled holes across the pipe to retain it (or hitch retaining pins could work). Easy to remove.
It will affect mixture, the additional backpressure will make it run a little rich, but that won't hurt the engine.
The pita factor is having to do this every morning, then take them out, stow them. I'd probably end up leaving them in, being lazy.
I don't have the factory muffler, but I like the steel wool idea it seems easy and cheap. And being in KLR Rider I like cheap.
You may be interested in my answer to "How do exhaust mufflers work?" on Quora.
Would pushing it for a bit be an option
I might go there, but I don't know if I can push past my roommates car. There is about one motorcycle worth of width between his car and the wall. I absolutely do not want to scratch his car it is the first nice car he has had in his life.