Exhaust options from those that have heard them in person.

[Nomad_Dave]

Originally Posted by dvc357

Oh by the way brother,
Are the three steps you mentioned;
The outer rear baffle
The inner baffle
And the catalytic converter?
I wanted to take what i could from the rear only.
Would that be just the outer and inner baffles?

I did the modification on a 2009 nomad 1700. I started my efforts from the rear, with a hole saw and a long extension that i welded on to make sure it went the entire distance. That resulted in some more noise, but left the outer baffles intact, and inner baffle bunching up and restricting airflow. Basically less than impressive. Also, the coin sized blanks that came loose were now beyond my reach as i had only gone through from the back, and they are the exact size of the inside perforated pipe that runs between the inner and outer baffle mass.

That is when i cut the front ends off. I used a die grinder and carefully cut them off. Once that happened, I had access to the rest of the baffle, and more importantly the "rattling coins". I removed them and welded them back together. I put them back on and went for a ride.
The exhaust whistled horribly when I decelerated. I thought there was another piece of shrapnel inside that I had missed. So back to the bench for the pair of pipes. What I found was after removing most of the inner and outer baffles, there was the center pipe and being drilled with holes, the air rushing past it was causing the metallic whistle. So I cut the ends off of the pipes, to access that pipe. That finally did the trick. I grabbed that inner pipe, and wiggled it, which came loose and free, as it is only crimped at the top.

If i were to do this all over again, I would, but I would immediately cut both ends off, and removed everything at once. You cant truly gut the pipes without accessing the front and the back, its impossible. The finished product when looking at my pipes from the back is unobstructed, there is no intermediate or smaller pipe inside the main housing.
End of the day, time well spent.

I understand aftermarket is the way most people go, some due to the ease, some for the look, and some for the sound and performance gains, but the end result is basically the same. When i asked Ivan if there was a major difference, there isn't. His tune works the same no matter what.

Sorry for the long response, but i feel like you should know from the start what you are up against. Keep in mind, my bike has the dual exhaust with the slash cut tips, so accessing from the rear only limited what i could do. I could have easily done the entire operation in an evening, but instead it took a few times to get it right, using the measure twice cut once theory.

If you are going to attempt this, and want any further info, i can certainly draw up on paper what it took, as i failed to take pictures as i went. I can take pictures of what i ended up with if you like also.

Cheers