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Gents;
No semi naked ladies to grace my bike (and I am old enough to be her grandfather), but when I rebuilt my exhausts after last November's get off, I tried a set of short megas, I loved the look but they were much too loud. So I replaced then with a set of Sportsters. I am not happy about the look but they are much easier on the ears. All these mufflers are 1 3/4" ID and once I cut off the factory header extensions and welded on a 3" piece of 1 3/4" OD standard exhaust tubing, muffler swaps are a breeze. The OE Honda pipery on a 1200 is something in the order of 42 MM OD, the aftermarket pipe's 1 3/4" works out to about 44.5 MM. I have not given up on the megas yet, I bought a set of generic baffles and will do some experiments over the winter. I plan to remove the megas' offending glass pack baffles and rework them.
Mike
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)
'84 Standard (Black Betty)

nice posting on the pipes. I noticed the clamps were on the bottom making for easy access. I like to turn them inside not only for looks, but the occasional curb can really raise heck with the threads..

reggiedude wrote:I have mounted a new set of shorty pipes on my 77 GL. What do I have to do to adjust carburation to keep the pipes from turning blue. Any help?

Consensus here is that The gold wing ‘s motor is forgiving to all sorts of muffler systems. I am with a different opinion. My belief is based on experience although limited, a lot will depends on the muffler system used. If the muffler used has a baffling system (baffles) than it is safe to say you will not need to re jet,by how much ? that will depend in most cases, on the amount of exhaust restriction the baffle provides. On the other hand if a muffler is installed without baffles and or the muffler is a short one of 20” with less than ideal baffles for its length , you can be almost sure your bike will run on the lean side accordingly. You don’t get a free ride when it comes to exhaust, you will pay the piper one way or the other. Bottom Line is t6his ,run too much baffle and you will run rich ,run less than the way thye e xhuast system was set up and you will run lean, there aint no two ways about. I know this is like throwing a monkey wrench in to the popular beliefs ,but that's the way it is.IMO.

Probably right Greg. I noticed when I ran HD slip ons on the 81 custom a carbon buildup occurred on the inside of them, even after adjusting the air mixture properly. When I run my bone stock 81 with the OEM muffler, it seems to have more power than the custom with modified pipes. Both are tuned spot on. For a short while, I ran the custom with no muffler, and when I finally added mufflers, there was a noticeable improvement in how she ran.

I wonder how I could set up a way to test back pressure on mufflers?

sunnbobb wrote:Probably right Greg. I noticed when I ran HD slip ons on the 81 custom a carbon buildup occurred on the inside of them, even after adjusting the air mixture properly. When I run my bone stock 81 with the OEM muffler, it seems to have more power than the custom with modified pipes. Both are tuned spot on. For a short while, I ran the custom with no muffler, and when I finally added mufflers, there was a noticeable improvement in how she ran.

I wonder how I could set up a way to test back pressure on mufflers?

Only thing I know for the self-doers like us is through trial and error.. Jet and re jet..

reggiedude wrote:Thanks guys for all the tips. The shorty pipes fit exactly even though I don't know the brand. I ordered them out of a catalogue at Cycle Sales in Youngstown Ohio and they really are an awesome looking addition to these bikes. They are nice and loud, yet still have enough baffle in them for back pressure.

77 Naked Wing

Post edit - PM sent - Brant

Scored a set of 2001 Dyna mufflers and found that the OD of the inlet was a slip fit to the MAC headers. Was able to transfer the stock GL1100 muffler mounts to the Dyna mufflers and hook them up. The one problem that I had was the muffler was too restricted and held in too much heat which turned the chrome dark dark dark blue. The headers actually turned orange with the choke off. Punched a hole 5/8 hole thru the baffle, problem solved. It's a little grumbly at idle but cruising at 55-60 you don't hear it. But if you get to playing they will talk to you, not real loud but you know they are there.

http://www.ngwclub.com/gallery/v/wingma ... 4.JPG.html

wilf wrote:As for adapters for the mufflers on my 1100 I scored a set of sportster mufflers complete with the header pipes from the heads to the mufflers . The HD pips are very good quality and chrome with lots of bends in them. You can cut a section out that has the right bend and have a good looking adapter pipe that is mandrel bent. And it welds way better than the cheap auto store pipe
Wilf

Good call Wilf!
I bought a pair of sportster mufflers that came with the pipes and was getting ready to throw the pipes away...
Now I'll be brainstorming on using the bends for adapters....

Mike-C wrote:Gents;
No semi naked ladies to grace my bike (and I am old enough to be her grandfather), but when I rebuilt my exhausts after last November's get off, I tried a set of short megas, I loved the look but they were much too loud. So I replaced then with a set of Sportsters. I am not happy about the look but they are much easier on the ears. All these mufflers are 1 3/4" ID and once I cut off the factory header extensions and welded on a 3" piece of 1 3/4" OD standard exhaust tubing, muffler swaps are a breeze. The OE Honda pipery on a 1200 is something in the order of 42 MM OD, the aftermarket pipe's 1 3/4" works out to about 44.5 MM. I have not given up on the megas yet, I bought a set of generic baffles and will do some experiments over the winter. I plan to remove the megas' offending glass pack baffles and rework them.
Mike
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)
'84 Standard (Black Betty)

I really like the red paint Mike...
2 questions:

1. What rear fender is that?
2. Would you please post a pic of your drilled rotors?

Hi Walt;
Thanks for the kind words. I learned a long time ago that I am not a painter, after a couple of attempts I sprung the serious money for a professional job. $400 well spent. 1984 Toyota Mars Red. The rear fender is a generic fibreglass sport bike part that I found on E-Bay for $15.00. It had cracked corners and a piece missing but I could see that the damage was in areas that I would be cutting off. Score for me.
The brake rotors are standard 1200 Aspencade parts. The Interstates and Standards have regular solid discs, and the Aspys have these lovely vented units, and as my bike was an Aspy in its former rotund life they were already there. I upgraded my son Barrie's un-Terstate to the better discs too, but only because one of the OE stoppers was a bit warped.
Mike
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)
'84 Standard (Black Betty)

Most shorty pipes will bolt right up to your factory exhaust headers. You will however need to remove the factory sleeve on the ends of the pipe to have enough room to slide them on and clamp them. The ends of the header pipes tend to rust bad underneath the sleeve and develop holes, so you'll have to replace the whole header to have a good tight fit.

I had a pair of Triumph mufflers mounted for a while via a pair of 1/4 inch steel straps bolted thru the passenger peg holes. There wasn't room enough for the centerstand to go high enough for cornering clearance so I bolted a set of sporty mufflers to the same holes.

Here are a couple of photos of the bike in full with the new shortys. If you go to your local bike shop, they have catalogs to show the various styles and sizes. I ordered these for around $40 ea. I prefer the shortest ones that are baffled as well as the taper on the ends.

I didn't get any cracking out of the original exhaust, but when I added the new pipes, I could hear it through the left side only.

I hate do drag up an old post....but I REALLY dig the straight off short slash cuts. Sounds like he ended up lean though with the pop in the left??

Are there any options with the super minimalistic look (almost drag pipe look) that won't be lean? (louder then stock would be nice...quieter then straight pipes is imperitive)

the "cracking" could also be a small air leak in the exhaust connection