I would like to have the loudest, most obnoxious savage there is. My 2001 Savage has 5.5k miles. Oil change at 500 and 1k miles with filter change is the ONLY maintenance I've done.

Question to anyone who knows what they're talking about: What other modifications, if any, should I do along with the straight pipe? Is a rejet of the carb in order? I really want to know if it's okay to put just a straight pipe with little or no ramifications. Thanks to all in advance.

Speaking from experience I think it is a poor decision. I have a heavily chopped savage with a cone filter and a cleaned head but few other perf mods. I tried the straight pipe for a while but it was way too loud and was making the bike run like crap. I put in a 145.5 main and stock pilot jet and put in a 3" baffle in my exhaust, the bike is running much better but sounds like a sewing machine going down the road at 85 mph. Still not a very appealing sound, and you will really look dumb when you get in a reving competition at a light with the Harley next to you. I plan on getting a more restrictive muffler welded in soon to solve the sound problem and then playing with the jets and carb adjustments until i find the sweet spot. Keep in mind everyone's bike is different (i.e. rider and bike weight, perf mods, age, oil used) and though we all have the same bike, what works on mine and for me may not on yours or for you.

Diamond Jims bike is the only one I have ever seen that ran well with a straight pipe, but then he is an engineer and spent months testing and retesting a dozen or more designs before he found an exhaust & intake setup that would actually work and sound good.
Ask MMranch and Oldfeller about how the bike performs on the curvy mountain roads of NC and on straight-a-ways in acceleration and top end speed.


His is a rather unique system.
Since I am currently in possession of the bike I may try to get some photos and spec's on his design and post it for the gang here.
That should at least help others go in that direction if they choose.

i say if u want pure ear drum rupturing sound screw a pipe all together and just have a small elbow at the end of the header pipe pointing out.  you lose out on performance though, need a little back pressure for torque.  if you got the scratch laying around, get a supertrapp with a ton of discs.  like 16 discs.  you can tune it by adding more discs to make it louder but still has the backplate to give some back pressure too and sounds balls.  def need to rejet if your doing major exhaust mods like that.  if your opening her up like that id go all the way to the relative top and get a 155 main 55 pilot, shave half of the spacer off, and tune the hell out of it.  at least she wont be thirsty when you make her sing  

I just put on the BCB pipe on my 2005.  The sound is awesome.  The performance is better.

Charon wrote on 08/19/10 at 05:57:37:


It's a nuisance to them for a few minutes or seconds, however long it takes you to pass. Straight pipe has saved me from cagers a bunch of times in traffic, one blip of the throttle and they are scared shtless.

whats the fun in being socially responsible.  the whole motorcycle culture is about expression and freedom.  loud pipes really arent that obnoxious unless your laying it on or doing burnouts.  they are loud for the few seconds you ride by then its gone.  whatever you have to do to make yourself more noticable the safer you are, plus the horn is only good for anticipating danger that you can see.  loud pipes will make you noticable to anyone in your bubble that you cant see

When you modify your exhaust, you have to take in concideration your locale.  If everyone has loud pipes, then all the cagers expect to hear a m/c weather or not the windows are up, the a/c blasting and the radio blaring.

And if you get out of your locale, be aware you will get into areas where a blasting pipe is unlawful.  An adjustable baffle might be neccessary.

Personally, a wake the dead pipe is unnecessary.  But a dead quiet pipe will leave you just that, dead.  I've found a happy medium where I don't require ear plugs to ride my own bike and where local cagers don't forget I'm there, even when they are texting.