The Insider

[blaisecardoz]

I own Royal Enfield Electra 5s 350cc UCE engine. I wanted to change my silencer to Gold Star for the thump sake. Just before I do that I was thinking to pull out some glass wool from my stock exhaust and check the sound. Does anyone has a picture of how the insides of the stock silencer looks like?

[gremlin]

I don't think that's possible without sawing the end off, and, welding it back on.   For that matter, I don't think there is any wool in there ....  the catalytic converter runs too hot for wool .....  it's probably a baffled chamber design.

[blaisecardoz]

What about gold star, will that be good!!!

[LarsBloodbeard]

FWIW, I drilled through my baffles on my iron barrel and it gave it a deeper (or perhaps just louder) thump.

[Arizoni]

For what it's worth, I know of several people in India who swapped out their silencer for  for the sound and performance gains that some have mentioned, only to return to the original OEM.
These people are riding fuel injected models and they have found that swapping their silencer has decreased the motorcycles acceleration and often have increased backfiring or popping on deceleration.

If your motorcycle uses a carburetor, a similar loss of performance may be noted because the engine will be running lean.

A lean running engine will run hotter and has the potential of burning the exhaust valve.
This is why almost everyone who changes out their silencer in the US end up changing the jets in their carburetors to restore the correct air/fuel ratios.

[LarsBloodbeard]

Oh, I thought the Electra had a carb... in that case, disregard my useless contribution.

[mattsz]

Arizoni-

Does the silencer-swap performance decrease that EFI riders are experiencing include a swap for the NFG's "EFI Silencer", or Hitchcocks' "CLASSIC SILENCER (EFI)"?  I was thinking of making that change, but not if it will reduce performance.  I like the look better, but I'm after improvement, in sound and performance, or both.

[Jack Leis]

Just my 2 cents, I'm on my second aftermarket silencer which is a goldstar. Each silencer improved the performance across the board. The only drawback I suffered was when changed to a different header pipe. A big disappointment to say the least. I am currently running the stock pipe with the Goldstar and the bike has much better midrange torque and 70 miles to the gallon on a ride with Bare today. Why anybody would want to go back to the stock bazooka is way beyond me.

[Arizoni]

I can't say for sure but I think the aftermarket silencers the Indians are installing are all made in that country.
I believe there is something like a 100 percent import tax on anything that's shipped into India so imports from England or the USA are pretty rare there.

For instance, Hitchcocks EFI Goldstar silencer is presently priced at 75 pounds sterling or $120.53 USD (at Mondays exchange rate) plus postage.
In India that would cost about $241 USD or 13,108 rupees plus postage.

[gremlin]

...............I believe there is something like a 100 percent import tax on anything that's shipped into India so imports from England or the USA are pretty rare there.............

Maybe our "Fiscal Cliff" people could learn a little from India .....   Sounds like the perfect way to increase revenues & domestic production (jobs) at the same time.

[jartist]

The domestic bikes in India don't have O2 sensors so putting a free flowing exhaust would run lean with the stock set mapping similar too what a carbureted bike would do. The U.S. bikes have the O2 sensors that can compensate for changes up to a point.

[LarsBloodbeard]

Maybe our "Fiscal Cliff" people could learn a little from India .....   Sounds like the perfect way to increase revenues & domestic production (jobs) at the same time.

It would work better at a corporate level.  Add a high tax to outsourcing/importing for business/resale.  Keep it free at the individual level.

[gremlin]

............ Add a high tax to outsourcing/importing for business/resale........

*someone* responsible for this URL might find those "fightin' words"  or, as described in the terms of service "objectionable speech"

[LarsBloodbeard]

*someone* responsible for this URL might find those "fightin' words"  or, as described in the terms of service "objectionable speech"

Haha, fair enough.  But it would do wonders for our economy!  And I don't mean it should be prohibitively expensive, just enough to encourage stateside sourcing and competition.  Didn't the once great American steel industry collapse because it simply was cheaper to source it from China?

My work hires people across the sea to do menial office tasks, meanwhile CA's economy flounders and unemployment is terribly high.  Taxing stuff like that would make up the economic loss, and make it more competitive to local labor costs.  At least that seems logical to me, I'm no economist though.

[barenekd]

Nobody has mentioned the inflation it would cause. It would be tremendous! The American stuff would go up because it can, to stay just below the more expensive imports. We need to bring back our manufacturing companies, then control the imports. This would also bring some inflation, but at least the US would be back into a product producing country instead of just a service country. A country has to has a strong GNP to survive. We no longer have one!
That's what the Japanese did to recover from WWII and what China is doing now. We are going totally the wrong way.
Bare