Drilling Holes in Pipes

[Fishbein]

I can't afford new pipes, etc. right now. On my Honda Shadow ACE I drilled 4 - 5 holes in the exhaust pipe and it made them significantly louder. I didn't notice any decrease in performance, if anything an increase. The Rocket III (Touring) is much more sophisticated and complicated...the pipes are very quiet...would it be crazy to drill holes in those pipes? It would probably make them louder, but would it affect performance? Fish

 

[Billythebiker]

Personally if I were you I would hold off and wait for a cheap 2nd hand cat by-pass to come up for sale

 

[REGULATOR]

you have the touring, I had the regular model,
on mine when I had the stock pipes, I drilled 4 equal holes around the stock center and through 2 levals of plates, it reved freeer and sounded a bit louder, not much better but louder..

Honestly, you have nothign to lose, but it also never hurts to wait until you can do it correctly..

plus once you start it never ends...

 

[dublflush]

You probably have a series of plates in those muffs, so try and find a realy long drill bit!

 

[tdragger]

I don't know if you will achieve what you are looking for since the R3T pipes have the cat material in each one. That's going to be the bottleneck in the flow and drilling the muffler piece isn't going to make much of a difference. I'm not an expert but it makes sense to me.

 

[Fishbein]

Personally if I were you I would hold off and wait for a cheap 2nd hand cat by-pass to come up for sale

Thanks for the advice...it's running very well and I don't want to compromise performance at all, but I'm so quiet when I fly by people it ain't safe.

 

[Fishbein]

you have the touring, I had the regular model,
on mine when I had the stock pipes, I drilled 4 equal holes around the stock center and through 2 levals of plates, it reved freeer and sounded a bit louder, not much better but louder..

Honestly, you have nothign to lose, but it also never hurts to wait until you can do it correctly..

plus once you start it never ends...

If there were no risk that I'd harm the bike's performance, I'd try it, or maybe once the warranty expires...do you think it could have an adverse effect on performance?

 

[Fishbein]

You probably have a series of plates in those muffs, so try and find a realy long drill bit!

Thanks, I've got all kinds of drill bits, but not sure how long it'd have to be...

 

[Fishbein]

I don't know if you will achieve what you are looking for since the R3T pipes have the cat material in each one. That's going to be the bottleneck in the flow and drilling the muffler piece isn't going to make much of a difference. I'm not an expert but it makes sense to me.

Gotcha, you wouldn't do it, TDragger, then I take it....got some great pictures developed from the trip! I'll see if I can get them on the computer. Fish

 

[PaSoloRider]

If you mess up the pipes I can sell you my old ones cheap (I got the TORS on my touring).