[AK Mike]

While I'm still trying to decide if I'm actually going to take the leap and get one of these beautiful bikes, I'm tossing around ideas of how I might want to tweak it from stock.  That has me wondering if there might be a more quite silencer out there.  Yes I know... I can hear the gasps all the way up here in Alaska.  I am one of the anomalies who actually prefers a more quite ride.  And I know that the stock pipe is generally the most quiet option.  But I wonder if any of you good folks have come across anything even more quiet.

Don't hate me because I prefer a more peaceful ride 

[9fingers]

I don't hate you but I seriously doubt if you could find anything quieter, other than to buy a 1987 Honda TLR200 Reflex, the quietest and most underpowered (for it's engine size) bike I have ever ridden. And that level of quiet was largely due to the restrictive exhaust. I have so far purchased 2 NOISIER silencers for my 500 and the one from Hitchcocks was way to loud for me. I don't think you will find anything quieter than the stock catalytic pipe and if you did, the power loss would be a deal breaker. Both of the noisier pipes I purchased allow more power, easily felt, especially in the midrange, and one may be a bit louder, but it sounds great.
9fingers

[Bmadd34]

I agree with 9fingers. You will be hard pressed to find a quieter silencer other than stock. Heck, the valves are louder than the stock silencer at certain RPMs.

[Mad4Bullets]

No judgement on your quest for a quieter ride, and that's from a guy with an open pipe BSA Gold Star style muffler with no fiberglass packing.  So who am I to reply then?  Well my bike sounds incredible but there's no denying it's very loud.  Sometimes I wish I'd opted for something quieter. Good thing I wear ear plugs when I ride. Now back to you.  I'm not sure where you live in Alaska but I've recently been following a guy who flew down to Seattle to purchase his new Himalayan.  My sense was that this was the nearest dealer to him, so I have no idea how convenient a dealer is to you, but I'd suggest that if it's a convenient option that you take a long test ride with a stock muffler.  It might not be as loud as you think. It's a big heavy unit with ample baffling and may suit your tastes just fine.  The majority of muffler options are typically more of an open architecture to increase performance, but there are options out there with removable exhaust tips that allow you to add or remove fiberglass packing around the baffle. Adding more glass will certainly take the edge off the exhaust note.  I've included an image of a muffler option with a removable exhaust tip.  Note the small screws new the tip. This is just one of hundreds of muffler options for your bike.

[Mad4Bullets]

Not sure why the image didn't post, but you'll be an expert in no time.

[AK Mike]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Yeah... I figured that the stocker would be the most quite option, but I just wanted to confirm.  I am willing to give up the few extra hp for the extra peace.  Heck... this is a slow bike anyway intended to be ridden leisurely.

And yes MadforBullets... I have been in contact with Justin who rode that Himalayan from Seattle to AK (I actually considered doing the same thing and I'm still thinking about a Himalayan).  And that dealer in Seattle is the closest RE dealer to me.  I do all maintenance on my current bikes, and would do the same with a RE.

Thanks again for the input.

[tooseevee]

Thanks for the quick replies.

Yeah... I figured that the stocker would be the most quite option, but I just wanted to confirm.  I am willing to give up the few extra hp for the extra peace.  Heck... this is a slow bike anyway intended to be ridden leisurely.

Thanks again for the input.

           You won't find anything quiEter than a stock RE muffler. The government makes sure of that. AVL was the same; 15 pounds (that's a guess) of Sssshhhh and so quiet (restrictive) that the engine could just barely exhale.

[Guaire]

You may want to try a stock muffler from a Harley Davidson Sportster XL883/1200. Very good quality, good sound, but not really loud. Here's previous post:
https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,24978.msg287801.html#msg287801

[AK Mike]

You may want to try a stock muffler from a Harley Davidson Sportster XL883/1200. Very good quality, good sound, but not really loud. Here's previous post:
https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,24978.msg287801.html#msg287801

Thank you sir for that link.  Lots of good ideas there that I might try if the day comes.  Much appreciated.

[Beardo]

Being that motorcycle exhaust is federally mandated to 80da, I doubt a stock Harley muffler would be worth the effort. In fact, I know it isn't. It is what the previous owner installed on my 2013.

Stick with stock, ear plugs and full face, if it is that much of a bother.

[mike_bike_kite]

I prefer quiet exhausts too but I find the stock exhaust quite acceptable.
I live in a city and loud exhausts just aren't fair on everyone else.

[GlennF]

I suppose you could take the stock exhaust and add some slip in baffles though you are going to be increasing back pressure which may cause issues for the ECU.

Note that if bikes are TOO quiet its a safety issue for pedestrians. Electric bikes often have artificial noise makers to counter this problem.

Have you actually taken one of these bikes for a test ride with a full face helmet on ? Is it the volume that upsets you or the pitch of the exhaust ?

[AK Mike]

I suppose you could take the stock exhaust and add some slip in baffles though you are going to be increasing back pressure which may cause issues for the ECU.

Note that if bikes are TOO quiet its a safety issue for pedestrians. Electric bikes often have artificial noise makers to counter this problem.

Have you actually taken one of these bikes for a test ride with a full face helmet on ? Is it the volume that upsets you or the pitch of the exhaust ?

Yes... I am aware of the "loud pipes saves lives" argument, (which I don't agree with), and maybe if I lived in a congested urban environment I might think different.  But I don't, for the same reasons why I don't like loud bikes, I don't like loud places.

I have ridden the bullets before, and it's certainly not the worst for volume.  But, I'm always looking to have my bike be as quiet as possible.  The two bikes I currently have are very quiet stock, and I have left them that way, (a Suzuki TU250X and a Honda NC700X).  I test rode two Zero electric bikes this past year and was blown away.  I seriously want one, but can't quite afford them yet.  I also own an electric car (a Nissan LEAF), and the first thing I did when I got it home was to disable that artificial noise maker that you mentioned.  If that nanny feature was ever put into an electric bike, I would do the same.  Every motorcycle and car that I have ever owned has a noise maker built right in for when you need it... it's called a "horn".  If I ever need to announce my presence to unwary pedestrians, noise is only a thumbs distance away 

Anyway... I appreciate the idea of the baffles and I might just look into that possibility.  Thanks!

[9fingers]

AK Mike, Kudos for driving an E vehicle. Though I can't imagine taking away the "thump" of my bike and trading it for near silence. It is one of the things that I LOVE about my Enfield. Just curious, do you also have solar panels? My neighbor has a solar home, and charges his Bolt with the panels, on sunny days of course.
He also has a passive design, earth berm home, and his energy bills are near zero. Probably we will almost all be driving E cars in the USA within 15 or 20 years.
9fingers

[Desi Bike]

I know there isn't much space at the inlet of the stock torpedo but I wonder if packing that entrance area with packing would make it even quieter or just choke it even more.
I still run my stock one myself.  It's loud enough for me and quiet enough too.

[9fingers]

I think if one really wanted to make the stock bazooka quieter a post mounted in the exit of the exhaust would help. I don't know why but my first bike, a Honda CT70H, when I was 12, had a removable baffle that was really just a divider, perhaps 1/8" thick, just a mini post, and that thing made it a lot quieter.
9fingers

[AK Mike]

AK Mike, Kudos for driving an E vehicle. Though I can't imagine taking away the "thump" of my bike and trading it for near silence. It is one of the things that I LOVE about my Enfield. Just curious, do you also have solar panels? My neighbor has a solar home, and charges his Bolt with the panels, on sunny days of course.
He also has a passive design, earth berm home, and his energy bills are near zero. Probably we will almost all be driving E cars in the USA within 15 or 20 years.
9fingers

There is a long story when it comes to me and solar panels, and I won't write a novel here.  But I'll summarize with... I just finished building a new home... built entirely myself over the past 10 years in a remote patch of land on a mountain side in SE Alaska.  I had designed in solar panels and a wind turbine in my original plans, thinking I could tap it into the "local" grid (have to run a long line from the nearest power pole) and do net-metering with the power company... the same way it works in the rest of the country.  It was only after I started construction that I was informed by said power company that they would not accommodate net metering (which I still think is illegal).    So I was faced with having to arrange for a very large battery bank to be completely off the grid, or tie into the grid without generating my own electricity.  In the end, I decided to just tie into the grid... at least for now.  I might still try and persue net-metering through legal channels, or I might try a battery bank as the technology changes.  I engineered the house in such a way that it would be easy for me to retrofit.

So for now, I charge from my town's local utility... the electricity is all hydro generated via water that cascades down a mountainside from an alpine lake.  So at least it is very green.

The LEAF is nice enough, but I currently have a reservation for a new Bollinger B1 should they ever actually go into production. 

[9fingers]

Interesting and somewhat typical how the power company wants to be totally in control. It won't be long till you can go totally off grid with affordable storage. And I commend you for the backwoods build.......a fantasy of mine, but I am getting too old to do it. I did design, draw, act as GC and spent the last 18 years finishing my current home. But it is a custom built modular, to my specs, and rather large............one reason it is not done yet...........And we get our power from a local co-op that relies heavily on renewables. We have a large solar farm up on the mountain near us and our co-op buys all of their capacity. And our electric rates are the lowest in the state. My son is an engineering student, about to graduate, and he is fully on board with building an off the grid home in a rural area, to get away from it all when he needs to. Of course, I taught him how to do it. We should probably get back to talking about bikes. Looks like I am going to have some custom cams made and add a PCV and auto tuner. I am guessing I will pick up around 4 HP, depending on if I change out the airbox for a low flow cleaner, and if I want to go to a more free flow muffler than the one I am running now. The Hitchcocks Goldstar pipe is just way too loud though.
9fingers

[GlennF]

With regard to the off-topic solar discussions - in Australia the supply networks have been pushing for years for a fixed daily supply charge to apply to all consumers that can connect to the grid whether they actually do connect or not, basically to discourage people from going renewable.

Thankfully they are being ignored.

It gets better - the current insane plan to thwart renewable energy is to have tax payers build a heap of coal powered generators and gift them for free to energy companies to run, apparently according to politicians that is going to save households money ?  It is basically a shell game where your power bill will go down but your tax bill will go up but some people seem to be sucked in by it.  Note, before people start raving about leftist greenies this insane proposal comes from the far right of our conservative party.

[Alan France]

The standard silencer is the quietest no doubt about that. Noise regulations! Try Hitchcocks the U.K. specialists or Armour. Both do after market silencers but as far as Im aware they are less restrictive than standard and will therefore be louder.
 I ride miles on my bikes with standard exhausts without ear plugs and do not have any issues. Alaska riding must be fun- like a huge Scottish Highlands on a grand scale