Some quiet please!

[OldNick]

Hi guys. My _next_ Valk-trike question! Does anyoone know the guts of the Valk exhaust pipes?

To fit the trike rear end, the end cones of the exhaust have been omitted and the triple tail pipes I see in the parts list have been cut or ommitted. The trike is now quite loud...not really loud loud, but enough to worry me about registering it. I mean it sounds angry magnificent to me, but the examiner's ears my have an official agenda, so to speak....

It must have passed in Queensland (Australia) but the pipes may have been altered after. And I am in WA.

My fear is that if I go in there with a loud exhaust and they knock it back, they will have a much better look at my quieting attempts next time.

So. Ideas to quiet it for rego? I know the idea of stainless pot scrubbers and chicken wire etc, but my fear here is that the pipes seem to be a sort of 3-into-one-into -3 arrangement, with a single large muffler fed and leading to 3 pipes. So if I stuff ....stuff...down the tail pipes, it may just drop into the expansion chamber sort of thing and (a) not do any good (b) get stuck there.

How loud is the Valk stock? Are those cones tapered to keep sound down, or were they filled with silencing material. I would have thought that Japanese cruiser would be pretty quiet.

Any advice appreciated.

Nick

 

[6X3]

Never heard a quiet Valk. But they are no worse than most Harley's.

 

[OldNick]

Never heard a quiet Valk. But they are no worse than most Harley's.

HAH! OK, so I pretty much have a stock Valk. No worries then. As I say I love the noise and my wife actually commented on how nice it sounds, which would have to be a new one...

The old owner did fit some sort of trick ignition trigger wheel, which apprently gives better grunt but not the top end...fine by me on a trike with a trailer. TRhat may boost the snarl a bit I guess, but if Valks are snarly anyway then I will give it a go.

No louder than most Harleys! Wow! I always equate those to somebody rapid-dropping firecrackers into a shotgun barrel!

So. Thanks for that. I am nearly there with the rego test! Just have to slow down the indicators because the trike has LED rears and basically the flicker is palpitating.

They wanted $16 each for a resistor to pretend to be a bulb,: one for each indicator circuit, and suddenly I realised I just had to buy two indicator globes at about $2-3 each and wire those in!

I did buy a load-independent flicker unit, but unlike ANY other vehicle I have owned, the Valk has a weird inline pin pattern on its flicker, not the usual triangle arrangement...ARRRGH!

Nick

 

[grumpy]

Nick-- sounds like the "piggies" have been cut off. If so they were probably drilled as well. Take a piece of 3/8" dowel rod & see if it will go into the holes where the piggies were cut. If so they have been drilled. There are two sets of baffles inside the muffler can, one at the front end & one at the back. Some folks drill the back set & some drill both. No way to repair that, other than a replacement with a stock exhaust. The piggies can be restored, but it will still be louder than stock. The "cones" you refer to are what we call tips. They are strictly cosmetic, except when the mufflers have been cut & drilled, then they sometimes create a "droning" effect. You should go to www.valkyrieforum.com for all things related to the bike portion of your trike. There are folks there who I swear could build a Valk in their sleep. Tons of archived tech stuff that you will probably eventually want to know about--such as a generic parts page that can save you a lot of money, plus some parts that may no longer be available?? Stan

 

[OldNick]

Ok Grumpy I will (again I think) take your advice and go to the Valk forums for tech stuff. My trouble is I have had such brawling, derisive replies from bike forums I shy away...not because I am a wooss, but because it's counter-productive to helping me!

Yeah the piggies are gone. No room for them (the new back axle is in the way). I was not aware they played a part in the silence. I did not think the cones would do much...ok tps, yeah that sez it all.

Forget the dowel! I can get a finger in there and feel the inside of the muffler. So yeah they are , drilled and removed.

So. I will go to the Valk forums and ask for ideas. Happy to have the noise I have (it's Soooo sweet) but need to license the trike.

Nick

Nick-- sounds like the "piggies" have been cut off. If so they were probably drilled as well. Take a piece of 3/8" dowel rod & see if it will go into the holes where the piggies were cut. If so they have been drilled. There are two sets of baffles inside the muffler can, one at the front end & one at the back. Some folks drill the back set & some drill both. No way to repair that, other than a replacement with a stock exhaust. The piggies can be restored, but it will still be louder than stock. The "cones" you refer to are what we call tips. They are strictly cosmetic, except when the mufflers have been cut & drilled, then they sometimes create a "droning" effect. You should go to www.valkyrieforum.com for all things related to the bike portion of your trike. There are folks there who I swear could build a Valk in their sleep. Tons of archived tech stuff that you will probably eventually want to know about--such as a generic parts page that can save you a lot of money, plus some parts that may no longer be available?? Stan

 

[JaysGone]

You shouldnt find any trouble at the Valk forum.
http://www.valkyrieriders.com/
Most there want to be helpful and are.
Yes there is the occasion a$$wipe. But they are everywhere.
As to your exhaust. Just cutting off the piggies adds a little sound not much.
If the cans have been drilled not much one can do but replace the pipes.
Since almost nothing new for the Valk in the way of pipes is available.
A take off set is your best bet.
Not going to be cheap. But I ended up with a brand new set of pipes for mine.
The fact I had some very desirable aftermarket pipes to begin with was helpful.
Some have fabricated big rig mufflers to fit in the stock pipe canisters. But that takes a bit of work and know how. Easier to find some new take offs. After 10-12 years they can still be found.

Just to show what can be done to a Valk with help from this forum.
Here's what I started with. And what I finished up with,
I bought a non running bike and rebuilt it back to 98% stock. I didn't refinish the wheels paint.
They stayed Purple.
I did it in 7 months, a lot of time and money.
Only to sell it at a big loss when I found I couldn't trike it the way I wanted to.

First pic the day I brought it home.
Second as sold.

Truth be told. I should have kept it.

 

[OldNick]

Goodness yeah that's a restoration from gaudy to what looks like original (no expert here!) and I can see why. The Valk is a seriously muscly bike.

I am very sorry you made the mistakes you did. I have been like that with boats and I know what it's like to lavish money and time ...and love...on a project, only to have to sell at half what you spent in materials alone...."better to have loved and lost" etc sounds hollow when you have just lost....

I have signed up for the valk forum and I am waiting for approval. I can live with the occasional jerk, but it seems that they are fewer on cruiser and trike forums than on bike frorums. More mature in body or spirit maybe!

I would be interested to know what you wanted from a "trike-ing" that was not going to happen on your "Viking". Seriously.

Nick

 

[JaysGone]

Main problem in triking the Valk was simple. None of the builders in my area would touch a metric bike.
Meaning not an HD we wont go near it. Then as a diabetic I must have reverse. I didn't know any better at the time and though adding reverse from an Interstate would be easy. It isn't.
I found a trike builder half way across the country that would make me an electric reverse and make what I wanted. http://www.americantrike.com/
A friend had a trike made with reverse by these folks for his Yamaha RoadStar. Turned out nice but with virtually no support. I couldn't take the chances.
But as said before none of his so called dealers would build it.
I got very little support from the company on that issue.
So I made the decision to sell it and get a 1800GL already done.

 

[OldNick]

Damn shame the company was not supportive, man. Those trikes look nice and with a nice suspension setup as well. Mine, like many others, has a solid rear end using the original swing arm bearing, with no independent aspect at all. Obviously peopole live with it, but it's not ideal, IMO.

My reverse is a Toyotfa Hilux starter motor on a big cog on the axle. My problems are iut's too fast in reverse and uses a lot of power. Needs lower gearing and less motor, I reckon. The last owner actually wartned me about it! (I bought from photos and do not regret it)

Nick

 

[OldNick]

Sorry guys, but anyhoo....can I drill out rivets or unbolt something and repack the muffler? Is it a 3 pipe into single chamber then back to 3 out? Or do the 3 pipes travel right through the muffler but are drilled to outgas into the muffler? If it's 3 pipes in and right through, then I can do a bit of plugging for the purposes of rego, then worry about proper silencing to keep Mr Law on the edge instead of on my case .

The pipes look exactly like the stock Valk pipes, as I said without any tail pipes or extension. So I doubt they are some custom stuff, just modded.

Nick

 

[grumpy]

Nick--IIRC the cans are hollow. No pipe going through. One set of baffles at each end about three inches long. You say the piggies would hit the axle. How much would the can have to drop to clear the axle? A pic would be helpful. It is possible to drop the cans a bit. I had to do that when I converted my Valk. Not an easy job but doable. I no longer have it or I would post a pic of the set up. Then you could mount stock tips to hide the cut piggies from the inspector. Also extending the pipes to the back of the trike would lower the volume a small amount. If you want to go that route, PM me & I will try to explain how I did it. Stan