[Adrian II]

For tuning with the replacement exhaust, start too rich and adjust in small increments until it gets just right? I don't see how you can avoid some heat discolo(u)ration of the pipe, like I posted earlier, GET THE PIPE CHROME-EFFECT CERAMIC COATED if it bothers you.

I think I like the sound of the Goldstar that H's sells the best.

I actually had one of those (see my picture above). LOOKS nice, but WAY too loud, even with the sort-of baffle fitted. I tired of it fairly quickly. Also the construction is not the best, I noticed a split in the muffler body where the locating bracket was welded, after not a huge mileage.

May I suggest casting the net a little further if you want a Goldie loudener? Your best option would be to track down the offering from a proper BSA specialist who can provide you with a version which has the correct internals for the classic "twitter" on over-run, as well as a better mounting bracket. You might even find one which doesn't have to be shipped from the UK.

Will still be loud, though...

A.

[Blaqkfox]

Well I recon I’m definitely rich enough now 😂.

Yeah I’ll do the ceramic coating probably. Is that something specialized I need to find someone to do or are we just talking like the generic ceramic spray detailed they sell at auto parts stores?

To be honest I’m not a fan of the way the gold star looks. It just seems to be the most popular and from what few videos with good sound quality I could find it sounded the best to me, a nice deep thumping.

I’m not really concerned with loudness too much, unless it’s like insanely loud like a straight pipe, I mean I live in the country so I’m not going to be bothering anyone and motorcycles are hard enough to see on the road so a loud exhaust to me is a safety feature, but I do still want to be able to hear my music over my coms and like be able to hear if I’m on a phone call.

Goldie loudener? First I’ve heard of it? I’ll check that out. I did see a video of a RE with a BSA exhaust and it sounded pretty good. BSA are rare as heck around these parts though. Boss has a few BSA mufflers in the shop here he said but wasn’t sure if he would let them go. I could probably find ones on eBay or something but I think there’s a big knock off market for those?

Or maybe I’ll just get some generic cone muffler off eBay or whatever.

I was curious about the one on H’s just labeled “1950s style”. It looks basically the same as factory but the silencer is the shorty type. Have you ever heard what one of those sounds like?

Honestly I don’t care, it’s more just so it won’t be blue anymore and have a nice sound and not run too rich or lean is the end goal here.

[Adrian II]

Their "50's Style" are quite loud too, a straight through type with a bolt-in baffle which doesn't do a lot. If loud doesn't bother you or the people you meet (including your crazy neighbour), OK, it will drown out a lot of the tappet noise.  Can't guarantee THAT one won't blue, either.

Goldie loudener - sorry, British humour, my term for an ineffective muffler.

A.

[tooseevee]

So today I switched to a 17.5 pilot jet and a 120 main jet. To recap all I've done is delete the baffle in the header pipe.

The bike was hard to start until I found the right fuel screw setting of course.

I too rich now though...

Granted I am about to buy a different exhaust since this one is all blue now. How do you tune it in without turning the new exhaust blue?

           I don't know what you've done since the 11th, but I would have left the carb the way it was when you took the pictures of the plug on the 11th & then left it until you got a different more open muffler, put THAT muffler on, run it a while & THEN look at the plug to see what just that ONE change (the muffler) did. You hafta resist doing more than one thing at a time. If you make TWO changes & it gets better, you don't know which one did it.

           Better yet to do actual plug chops, but I know what a pain in the ass THAT is.

          Have you removed the little spark delay box? If not, you Can & then you can put THAT out of mind. 

          Your plug in your last pictures is not that far off from being "just about right" for an AVL with a CV carb. 

[Blaqkfox]

You can just remove the spark delay box? Like it won’t be too advanced or anything? Wait, didn’t we say that was only for delaying spark on the initial start up / while the starter is turning over anyways?

Idk it’s pretty rich, getting a lot of popping now when I let off the throttle when it’s under load.

Didn’t fowl the plug out on the first test ride so that’s good.

Went to a swap meet today and picked up a BSA muffler from my friend for just $10. Super happy about that, gonna get it on tomorrow if it doesn’t rain and see how that effects thing. I figured for $10 I had to try it lol.

Got a nice Arai helmet too for just $50!

There was only one royal there (I didn’t bring mine), a 1972 bullet with a Diesel engine which was very well done up and in the judging line up. I’ll have to share some photos later

[tooseevee]

You can just remove the spark delay box? Like it won’t be too advanced or anything? Wait, didn’t we say that was only for delaying spark on the initial start up / while the starter is turning over anyways?

            The spark delay box has nothing to do with advancing or retarding ignition TIMing PLUS you have the green TCI box which, supposedly, (I've had my doubts about this over the years) prevents the First spark from driving the piston back down backwards before it gets over TDC.

            Ignition timing is triggered by the immovable Hall Effect magnet that goes around with the crankshaft. Advance & retard are done by the TCI box. Timing is not easily changed on an AVL 

            I removed my delay box many years ago while cleaning up the left side case & the whole wire loom stem to stern & like the side stand switch, never missed it.

[Blaqkfox]

So I installed that BSA muffler out of curiosity



I was surprised how restrictive the stock bullet muffler is... this photo is taken straight on. The tiny inside pipe is offset for some reason. Some engineer somewhere thought that was a good idea im sure.



The BSA exhaust also has some sort of baffling going on here, so I wasn't sure it would lean things out or not, but the openings are a bit bigger so I decided to try it...



I just used some more of my Honda CM parts I had laying around and an adapter pipe from the local auto parts store that I cut down and cut slits in so it could squeeze together. I didn't really care how it looked, this was just for testing purposes...



It took me FAR too long to get this to mount up with what I had on hand. I had to cut the slits in the BSA muffler deeper so the mounting bolt could reach the factory mounting spot. Even then I could only get one bolt in, which is a shame actually because the mounting holes are perfectly spaced for this to work, I just accidentally cut my adapter piece too short .



But it looks pretty decent I think!





Of course im going to improve the basket situation and clean it up looks wise. maybe remove the adapter pipe, they were really close in size, so maybe weld them together or figure something out that looks a little better there.

But the bike seems more happy with it and it sounds pretty good. Not that classic thump thump sound, but it sounds alright.

I had a hard time starting the bike, found out the spark plug was fowled from running it super rich after re-jetting the other day. Luckily I had one more plug on hand, so here's what the new plug looks like with only like 10 min of ride time.







A lot better looking than it was before I think. So I think the new muffler is leaning it out to a good point now. Ill have to put more run time on it to really say for sure. The ceramic on the plug is white on one side and black on the other so I can't really tell if its too rich or what yet. But happy to see progress!

[Blaqkfox]

I am happy to finally be reporting the spark plug is starting to brown a little bit! I mean its still pretty white, even more so than it was in the previous photos, but I mean its got less black marks on the ceramic and is now turning a light brown. I think ive finally got it dialed in!

[Adrian II]

I would be happy with that.

A.

[Blaqkfox]

Yeah I am, I think this is about as good as it’s gonna get- or rather as good as I care to get it lol

I did end up adding a 14.5 inch long slim steel bar to run from that larger factory mounting mount on the frame back to the flimsy oem mounting bracket for the silencer since I could only hang one bolt in the muffler, so that added a lot more rigidity and spaced it out so my header isn’t touching my oil filter housing, it’s still incredibly tight right there, like 1mm or less clearance. I assume they’re just like that though, I noticed the oil filter housing cap has a part grooved out for clearing the pipe.

Anyways, all that’s left to do now is figure out my headlamp dimming on bright, get some hood mirrors, replace my broken clutch lever bracket, and dig into the inner primary  cover to replace a gasket- boy that’ll be a job- but hey it’s rideable now so I’m happy

[Blaqkfox]

So, turns out the petcock bowl filter was really clogged up with rust and debris from the old tank liner that failed. I noticed last time I rode the bike it felt like it was struggling to get fuel. It had been awhile since I rode the bike and I changed some other things so I couldn't tell if it was just bumps in the road or if I was getting tiny repetitive fuel cuts... turns out it was fuel cuts... it got really bad to the point the bike wasn't ridable and died and I pulled over to find no fuel in my in-line filter. The petcock couldn't keep up with the flow rate needed because of that I think and was causing a lean condition.

I also think I had exhaust leaks out the wazoo. I finally got the correct header pipe gasket and when I went to install it I realized my Honda CM gasket wasn't fully sealing. Which is surprising because they look to be the exact same dimensions and I couldn't feel any air from that area. I could however feel air strongly on both sides of my makeshift adapter pipe for the BSA exhaust I installed.

On top of all this I realized I had no gasket where the two halfs of the airbox mate.

So now the bike has a new header gasket, airbox gasket, the petcock is clean, and I remade my adapter pipe for the BSA muffler. It now mounts better too. Still a very small exhaust leak where the BSA muffler mates up, but im gonna roll with it for now.

I have not had the chance to ride the bike now that all that is fixed but well find out tomorrow how it goes! Hopefully it won't go too rich now that all thats fixed up lol

I did check the plug out of curiosity and it finally looks as it should, but it may have been those strong fuel cuts as I got close to home making it look less rich than it will be now that everything is cleaned and has proper gaskets. Tomorrow will tell!