I added Quiet Baffles to my V&H BSS and I think I'm happy with them. It sure knocked the heck out of the volume, and the song is quite different now too.

The new sound is throaty, and the loud combustion thumping is gone. I had a bit of a challenge doing this all myself last night.I hadan occasional need for my wife to hold the hanging end of the pipes while I got frustrated trying to align header pipes back to the cylinders while keeping those crush gaskets in place. Taking my time, I got everything done and test-started after two hours and change. The bad thing was it was after 10pm last night when I started-up the bike, and it wasn't until today's ride to work before my first real "test".

My BSS pipes must be part of a new design for V&H; having built-in bungs for the O2 sensors, and their new "power chamber" connection between the two pipes. The set-screws for the baffles are no longer hidden behind the heat-shields, so after taking the tips off, it was very easy to remove the standard baffles. Gravity was all that was needed to pour them out of the pipes after removing the set screws. I never had to remove the heat shields. I probably didn't HAVE to take the pipes off the bike, but I didn't know exactly where the baffle screws were, and so many times have read that they were hidden behind the shields. Not any more.

Getting the Quiet baffles in was a little more "sporty". Rotating them into the tail-end of the pipes, going with the wrap-direction of the fiberglass made it easier. One went in very easy, the other one gave me problems. Eventually I succeeded gettingit inserted and screwed into position.

I loaded the new map into my FuelPak, and re-checked my throttle position calebration. All of that was a piece of cake. My decel-popping is all but gone, but now I have a bit of a pop between gears as I up-shift. I will call V&H today and see what they say.

Now I have to add some miles to the bike, letting the tape burn-up that was wrapped in spots on the Quiet Baffles. Also, I'm told that the pipes will get a little louder as some of that fiberglass blows out some. The other thing that bugs me, is now I hear all those stock noises on the tranny again that I suffered with until the BSS went on the first time.

"Hanging" the pipes back on the bike again was the WORST part of the job. I hope I don't have to do that too often.

 

I never had to take my BSS off the bike just to change baffles. The 02 sensors and powerchamber has been around for a while.

It is harder to get the stock baffles out after you have run them for a while. I thought you were against the baffles as your mechanic told you not to bother? What changed your mind?

 

Yea my indy did everything in his power to talk me out of the Quiet baffles back in August. I've been running the BSS with thier standard baffles since then. I will absolutly say that there is nothing wrong, and probably nothing sound-illegal,with running the standard BSS pipes. There is a significant db lowering of sound with the Quiet baffles. My observations cannot detect any improvement or degradation in performance by the seat of my pants. Stage 1, by itself, did all the wonderful upgrades.

I've been quietly working my butt off trying to come up with the correct combo to mount my new video camera. I've used a couple of different mounting points with no "quality" success on speeds above 40mph. (I'm pretty picky by the way).

Something I noticed immediatly back when the BSS first went on was an increase in vibration. I had new sensations in the handlebars and floorboards that weren't there with the crapy stock pipes. I'm sure that vibration is throughout the bike, but mainly feeling it where mentioned.

One of my goals (hopefully) was to knock-out some of that vibration by adding the new baffles. The jury is still out on that one, but maybe I do feel a slight difference (or really want to). Shooting some new video will be the real test as I can "see" the video jitter I'm trying to remove when I'm on the throttle, regardless of speed.

I am finding it quite a challenge to isolate a camera mount from "motorcycle effect". I have pretty much corrected for wind effects causing shake (which I can also spot on playback), so now I'm chasing down the vibs.

I think I will be happier when some of that fiberglass blows out.

 

" I got frustrated trying to align header pipes back to the cylinders while keeping those crush gaskets in place."

The Gaskets are sort offinger pressed into the exhaust port first, then line up the pipe, What was falling out of place?

 

I was trying to "form" them to stay in (on the cylinder side), but it sure didn't seem to take much bumping before they would lean out of alignment, or drop away altogether on me. Getting the flange-plate to align was another issuefor me. The whole exhaust assembly had to be angled-up first, to get the flange plates to clear cylinder fins,rotate the plates to align with where the studs were, then lower the angle (of the exhaust assembly) so that bothstuds would pass through the flange plate.

The crush gaskets, not so crushed yet, kept it difficult to get enough stud-threads through the flange to start the flange nuts. All of this times two (for each cylinder) had me back and forth several times before I got BOTH pipes happy at the same time.

I removed the right-side floor board, but the rear bracket (for the board) was not perfectly out of the way when I went to lower the exhaust into place. Throw-in fat fingers, kneeling on concrete, muscle fatigue, mostly solo efforts, and less than perfect self-confidence, I had a pretty good recipe for crap going sideways on me, and a deep respect for why we all pay such high labor rates at the steelerships. Ha ha.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad I did it myself, but just don't cherrish the thought of doing it again real soon.

 

They press into the Cylinder head pretty tight... Cant see them falling out... Ya better check for leaks.... The cross over does make them harder to lineup 4 hands are always better than two

 

Thanks for the heads-up Trotter!

Is there a fool-proof way to check for leaks? I tried blowing cigarette smoke around the flange mounts, looking for a disturbance. (but it was pretty dark outwith alight breeze, so I'm not convinenced I proved anything with that test).

With that said, I'd expect lousy performance wouldn't I if I had a leak? (LOTS of pops, decel issues, etc). I don't really have any issues.

I spoke with V&H this afternoon regarding my up-shift pops. They've got me changing a value in Mode 23 to correct. I have no decel popping anymore the way I did with the standard baffles in there.

Your comments are very appreciated. Thanks.

 

I usually just take a ciggy and hold it up around the flange and watch for disturbance. While revving it. When I put a new gasket in I usually start it with my finger to hold it in place and then I have a little wooden dowel that I use to push it in one section at a time until it's all the way in... this will allow you to slide the header pipe in and get enough thread shown thru to start the nut. You should also use the screaming eagle gaskets if your running V&H pipes.

You won't really have crappy performance but it will be louder. After about a month of riding retighten the header nuts and you will see a difference then also.

 

Poor Boy, I feel your pain. Changing the baffles is troublesome. I didn't dismount my headers, just put the *** on a lift and it was easy to get to everything. I used a feeler wire to aline the holes and it's wasn't too bad.
When I did mine, I noticed a decrease in low end power immediately and not much decrease in noise so I pulled them out and ran open until I put the S&S cams in and the pipes got noticably louder. Back to the stock baffles and all is well.
Sometimes you gotta keep doing something til you get it right.
Happy motoring!
Marsh

 

Thanks guys for all your input. I will double-check for leaks and prepare myself to do over again if necessary.

Next time I'll make sure those gaskets are "inserted" well before proceeding.

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