Exhaust questions

Hi guys,

This is my first post here - seems a great website! Bit of background about me first: after tottering about down byways on my Honda XR-125L for a couple of years I decided it was time to have some fun on road, so took my DAS and bought myself a k5 SV 650s in the summer. Absolutely love the bike, so much fun and easy to handle which seems to be a lot more practical on the roads in reality when compared to the bigger bikes around.

Anyway, I apologise my first post is full of questions - I know its never a good start! I've looked everywhere for answers so hopefully I'm not asking stupid ones at that!

As much as I love it, I want it to sound better, but not stupidly loud. I purchased a carbon can co exhaust off of ebay whilst drunk on a friday night (oh dear!) and intend to run it with the baffle in (I know I know!!). Since sobering I don't have the nerve to cut a perfectly good 2 year old exhaust on my pride of joy, so found some downpipes on ebay quoting part # 127. Firstly is for the curvy or pointy exhaust system - is there a difference??

Also, its dawned on me I don't know how many miles the can has done, so it may not have any wadding left in it. How do I tell, and how do I replace it if necessary?

I've only ever worked on cars in the past as I've yet to own a bike long enough to require proper work, but what's required when fitting the exhaust on a motorbike (referring to the whole system, not just the end can)? Do all the joints need puttying? The tolerance between the pipes seem very tight making putty unnecessary/bloody difficult to use.

Many thanks in advance for any replies,

John

[Biker Biggles]

Hi.
Curvy downpipes dont fit the pointy.Most people do cut their original pipe,and you should have got a link pipe with the can.You can also reconnect the old can with a sleeve.Ive not needed to use putty,and Ive not repacked a can,so cant help there.

What biggles said.

Just wondering, why do you not want it to be stupid loud? There is no better sounding engine note than that of a sporty V twin! get it out

Ive cut my exhaust, trust me once you have an after market on you wont go back, you save weight, gain a little power and get a great noise! Oh and itll look the NUTS! They arnt really that loud with the baffle out...

Im not 100% sure about the SV in particular but on some bikes you need a gasket for the connection to the head, other than that the joints tend to seal well enough tbh.

Im guessing you havnt heard another SV with exhaust on with baffles out? well if you think Ducati then you wont be far off of the noise!

Hope i helped there.

Hi guys, many thanks for your help.

Basically I don't want it TOO loud because when I'm out and about and hear some of the ridiculously noisy bikes going past I think 'Jesus Christ! And we wonder why we feel persecuted by the general public!'. Usually its the people with the loudest exhausts that insist on speeding in built up areas and revving the nuts of their bikes which doesn't help our cause and is *#*#*#* stupid - its the same mental attitude of a chav in a nova with a 5" exhaust. rant over .

However I also like and want the sound of a decent engine and lets face it the standard exhaust sounds just a little sewing machine poo! So somewhere in between & I'm a happy chappy! Also, what doesn't help is that being a student I keep my bike at home with my parents and the neighbours aren't overly impressed (to say the least!) with the 3 motorbikes we have already have in the garage, so I don't want to make things any worse (OK, I can't afford to ). I don't suppose a slip on can on an SV 650 is gonna be THAT noisy with the baffle out compared to a lot of the bigger bikes.... Is it?! Nah....

I think I'm gonna stop being such a pussy and cut the pipes - out of the 15 or so bikes I looked at, it was the only one with a standard exhaust (and that wasn't the reason I chose it either, it was bloody tidy - factory fresh!).

I'm still interested in the wadding issue though... I don't know the mileage of the can, hence how do I know how much wadding there is left in there? Also how do I replace it etc?

Cheers, John

You won't know how much wading is left until you drill out the rivets and open it up-its then a case of replacing the rivets and doing it back up.
husky

Just as I suspected, many thanks husky03!