no mufflers

[Guest BIGGERJIM]

hello all

i was just wondering if it would do any harm riding without the mufflers

i have staintune on the bike,but i just wanted to experiment.

 

 

 

thanks big jim

[gstallons]

If you are under 21, it will be wonderful!!!!!!!!

[Guzzirider]

Did it when I was about 20 years old- took the silencers off the Lario to respray them one night, plan was to get up early and refit them in the morning before I rode to work.

 

In the event, I woke up too late and decided to ride 7 miles to the local army base where I worked with no silencers- like armageddon, so noisy it was unbelievable. The rush hour traffic parted like the Red Sea as I filtered through, no danger of not being noticed!

 

Silly but fun

[Guest ratchethack]

Jim, I haven't done it, so I can't tell you from personal experience what happens on a V11.

 

However, your Guzzi has been tuned for a certain amount of back-pressure in the exhaust system. The back pressure is created by a very specific "pressure wave signature" determined by the length, diameter, volume, shape, and other aspects of all components in the system. Positive and negative waves "echo" back up into the head, in combination with the extractor effect of high speed exhaust gas momentum in the whole system, influencing exhaust gas flow and pressure on the inside of the exhaust valve before it closes, and within the exhaust system after it closes. In other words, when you make ANY change to the system, you're altering the quality of exhaust gas scavenging of the combustion chambers at the end of the exhaust stroke before the exhaust valve closes, and setting up a different pressure in the header prior to when it opens again. Removing all back-pressure past the end of the lower crossover wreaks havoc on the quality and density of the fuel charge during the very short time that both intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time (called valve overlap), upsetting the A/F ratio, and most often results in an over-lean, overly-hot running motor that detonates like a banshee due to contamination of the incoming fuel charge with exhaust. The torque and power curves generally take a very significant hit, and the most significant common effect is large torque and power loss. On many kinds of motors, running it this way for a length of time under power can cause the exhaust valves to overheat and fail. I've seen the results of this on an exhaust valve up close and personal on an air-cooled motor. It ain't a pretty thing, and it ain't exactly an inexpensive or convenient thing to recover from, though of course it can be done.

 

I wouldn't risk it, but that's just me.

 

If you want a cheap thrill, take off the staintunes and rev it in your driveway for a few seconds. When all the neighbors come out looking for somebody's head on a pike, you'll have already wheeled your Guzzi out of sight, and you can pretend to look up and down the street for the dastardly hooligan making all the racket.

[Guest BIGGERJIM]

thanks yall i knew i could count on yall for great answers.

i run it on the lift after i took the factory mufflers off

and man it sounded great,

then put the staintunes on and they sounded great also

was just wondering if it would harm it

the bike has worked out great after the tb sync and the new fork springs and fluid,

it is a great little bike, with a even better forum to gather info.

how do them harley's get buy with the pipes they run.

 

 

later bigger jim

[Guest ratchethack]

Hey Jim. Glad y'er havin' some fun.

 

The age-old mystery of how the Harley guys get away with open pipes (legally) is still beyond my ability to comprehend.

 

I've noticed that Harleys are often specifically tuned for running open pipes, so they don't over-heat. Someone with direct Harley experience can hopefully chime in here (I have none), but seems to me they must be engineered to tolerate really sloppy tuning better than other motors. I've often observed Harley guys following the, "when in doubt, richen it out" tuning technique, rich being lots safer (cooler running) than lean. Now this is just me, but seems most Harley riders are "in doubt" most of the time about tuning -- much the same's any other marque, for that matter. Ever ride behind a great, blatting Bloat-o-Glide with open pipes? Many's the time I've smelled one from way back when overtaking from behind, they're running so rich.

 

When your objective is to tune for maximum noise, I reckon effeciency and output ain't much of a consideration.

 

Ah, but to each his own, eh?

[Lamedog]

Jim: My '02 LeMans came with modified stock pipes. The previous owner removed the outer oval sleeve from the actual muffler, fabricated an oval tube 1/2" smaller ID than the outer shell, filled the gap with insulation and through-bolted the stock inlet and outlet caps to the lot. This is not vastly different from the MG Ti or some other unbaffled aftermarket pipes, except the ratio of diameters for the inlet and outlet pipe to the oval can is way off from optimal. He was a machinist (not a fluid mechanics guy) and did a beautiful job. Looked better than stock because the outlet cap no longer had the small exhaust pipe sticking out. The sound was wonderful - but horribly loud for a 55 year old guy with a family.

 

So I bought a set of used stock pipes from another forum member. Installed them and rode less than 100 miles before pulling them off and putting them in a waste bin. They are hugely heavy, made no noise and severely cut the bike's performance. (The bike had been tweaked to meet CO for the opened pipe and I didn't redo this, it also didn't have a power commander, so performance could have been improved a bit - but why use this as a start point?).

 

A week ago I finally stepped up to a set of MG Ti pipes, ecu and PCIII. Goodness, what a change. In my mind I had justified the Ti pipes by trying to be a responsible adult and not offend the neighbors. Oops, this didn't happen. In my opinion, the Ti pipes are no quieter than the completely open pipes. Tone is a little deeper and very beautiful, but not quieter (Either will be quieter than your experiment, however). Performance without the new ecu is bit better reflecting the improved hydraulics (presumably lack of a "sudden" entrance and exit at the oval. With the ecu, the performance is much improved over the original open cans. And adding the PCIII has added another large step in performance improvement.

 

Good Luck. If you elect to live loud PM me about a set open cans.

[Ouiji Veck]

Bloat-o-Glide

 

That'll get a little mileage around the ol' campfire this summer.

 

I gave 6 of them a "Nice day for it huh?" out side a pub I stopped at

on our first 70deg. day Thurs.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~silence~~~~~~~~ not even a nod.

 

Tough guys on Bloat-o-Glides, bandannas and sneakers..(really)

 

Is there a name for their mental disorder?

[Guest ratchethack]

Tough guys on Bloat-o-Glides, bandannas and sneakers..(really)

 

Is there a name for their mental disorder?

I b'lieve there is, Weej.

[jhh]

I b'lieve there is, Weej.

 

Why would they be tough? 99% of them are dentists and lawyers trying to look cool on their weekends off.

[macguzzi]

All harleys overheat it's a design flaw ie rear cylinder behind front air cooled nightmare in V twin terms come on ratch I want a big long explanation on the designs of V twins

[renato]

I never did own a bloat-o-glide (must be a FLHBOG???) We dont run our valves sloppy at the track?....especially when ya running mid 9s with a steet legal special.

[jimbemotumbo]

Open pipes work pretty much the same on HDs as guzzis. As ratch said, but in far more eloquent terms, it'll feck yer power. Drag pipes kill what little power the HDs make. I had an old shovelhead that was a reliable but slow beastie. It was so old that the only pipes made for it were drag pipes. Not only annoyingly loud, but my HP went into the toilet. Good riddance.

 

Eliminating back pressure (by itself) will burn your valves up and possibly more, due to excessively lean mix, so if you pull off the muffs for fun, I wouldn't do it for very long without considering mixture changes.

[Skeeve]

Open pipes work pretty much the same on HDs as guzzis. As ratch said, but in far more eloquent terms, it'll feck yer power. Drag pipes kill what little power the HDs make. I had an old shovelhead that was a reliable but slow beastie. It was so old that the only pipes made for it were drag pipes. Not only annoyingly loud, but my HP went into the toilet. Good riddance.

 

Well, the power was sh!t everywhere but at the one, resonant rpm that drag pipes are designed to favor, that is...