As you may already know, the main cause of a motorcycle’s sound is its exhaust system. Some motorcycles are very loud, and many people who aren’t that into motorcycles don’t find their noise pleasing.
Fortunately, in order to save these people’s ears, there are a few ways that you can significantly reduce your exhaust system’s noise. These are fairly cheap methods, and you’ll be able to complete most of them by yourself.
How to Quiet a Motorcycle Exhaust
1. Seal Gaps and Leaks
The first thing you should do is inspect your exhaust system carefully for any small leaks. Even the smallest hole can make your motorcycle a lot louder. Once you’ve found any leaks, you’ll need to seal them. Before you proceed, make sure your motorcycle and its exhaust system have cooled down, as this will prevent you from getting hurt.
There are two ways to go about sealing exhaust system leaks, depending on their size.
Sealing Small Leaks
The most common reason for small leaks is rust. The smaller the leak, the better, because this will make your job much easier. All you’ll need is exhaust tape to completely seal each hole and make your exhaust much quieter.
Sealing Large Leaks
If your exhaust system has large leaks, you’ll often hear an unbearable amount of noise, compared to that produced by smaller leaks.
To seal a large leak, you’ll need to get a patch and an epoxy that’s resistant to high temperatures to complete the job. First, you must properly clean the exhaust, and after that, you should measure the size of the leak so you can cut the patch to the size that’s required to seal it. You should always add a few extra millimeters to your leak’s measurement, in order to ensure that your patch will seal the leak completely.
Once you’ve measured the leak, it’s best to apply the epoxy to the patch and then add the patch to the hole of the exhaust pipe.
2. Change the Bullet Muffler
Most motorcycles have standard bullet mufflers that are often loud, but there are also various bullet mufflers that are known for their quietness. Many of them will look just as “cool” as standard mufflers, while allowing you to reduce your motorcycle’s noise level.
If you’re interested in one of these, then I suggest that you take a look at louvred, perforated and chambered bullet mufflers. Perforated ones have holes that will deaden noise, but louvred ones are usually even more effective at reducing noise, because of the materials used to create them.
In my opinion, the best mufflers of all are chambered ones, as these naturally produce a lower tone, and the chambers will effectively absorb unwanted sounds.
3. Obtain a Full Case Muffler
If you’re looking for something else that can decrease your motorcycle’s sound levels, then I recommend going with a full case muffler. When it comes to these, you’ll have two options you can choose from.
The first is a single-chambered muffler, which is wrapped by a single chamber that will commonly come with some baffles. These baffles are mainly made from metal, with holes packed with stainless steel.
On the other hand, there’s the dual-chambered muffler, which is a muffler that’s divided into two separate parts. This enables each one to cancel out unwanted noise.
4. Get New Pipes
If you haven’t had any success with the previous methods above, then you can simply try getting a new pipe.
Base on the type of exhaust system you have, there are many different pipes that can be added. For instance, if you have a dual-exhaust system, you can get yourself a cross pipe. These drastically reduce a motorcycle’s noise level by mixing the exhaust and the sound from the two systems.
Also, I recommend that you get an exhaust tip, as these typically lower the noise level by adding fiberglass and extra insulation to an exhaust system.
5. Use Extra Wraps
This is one of the cheapest and easiest solutions you can use to solve the problem of your loud exhaust system. There are custom-made wraps like these ones available, which are made from high-quality soundproofing materials and can withstand high temperatures. You can simply add these to the inside and outside of your muffler, or even wrap one around your exhaust system’s pipes.
6. Try a Custom-Made Deadener
Another name used for a custom-made deadener is a resonator muffler. Due to its fiberglass construction, it’ll absorb the loud, unwanted noise coming from your exhaust system. Moreover, because of the stainless steel design, one of these will likely last you for a very long time.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide has given you enough information to help you solve your motorcycle’s noise problem. Some of the above solutions are quite inexpensive and simple to apply, while others demand more effort and time.
If you don’t have any plans this weekend, regardless of which solution appeals to you, why not get some coffee and get your day started by dampening the sound of your motorcycle exhaust system?
In the event that you also need to deal with a noisy jeep, you may be interested in this article about soundproofing a jeep wrangler. If you have questions about anything we’ve covered, feel free to let us know by leaving a comment down below.