Trooper modification

[HotRodZilla]

Now I'm gonna have to shake mine out. You guys suck.

 

[Trooper]

Tried to tell ya, there is/was a lot in there. Zilla, u still like the sound though?

 

[Fred W]

SkooterG, aren't you glad you took them off and shook them out? Wouldn't want to imagine what all the cut off wheel material and shards of metal would do if not.

I'll imagine it for you... Nothing?

Although it isn't very appealing thought to have all of that crud in there, I don't see how it would cause any harm to anything.

Still wrestling with this one. Not sure if I want to make more noise or not.

It is sort of nice to be able to start-up the bike at 6AM in a Motel parking lot on a Sunday morning and not feel guilty about waking everyone up.

OTOH, I love the exhaust note I get from my VFR with the stain-tune aftermarket can.

 

[Trooper]

Ok, so here it is. This ought to settle it. Took my bike on a 200 mile trip to visit my dad. First time he saw the bike. Now he's an old guy and when I told him what I did and how much I saved-spent on this mod. He said it was perfect. Now he lives in medina tx and listens to the mass of bikes that come to ride every weekend and hates loud bikes. He said it just sets the bike off and when you look at the bike, that is the sound you should expect. Perfect not too loud, but not a sewing machine. So all you guys that say waaaaahh I don't know, there you have it. From the old guys perspective. That ought to do it....

 

[fjrob1300]

I did it.

Ok , there, so now everyone knows. Shake it out?? Hell I just hit WOT and did some wheelies. It'll all come out sooner or later. I bought my bit at TSC... Ef'n cheap Chinese crap. Go the distance and buy a good one. It sounds just right at idle. I'll give it two (2) thumbs up for cheapness and ease.

Loudsiders rule!!

Rob

 

[wheatonFJR]

All Hail the Trooper Mod! :clapping:

Hey SkooterG, send me those mileage calcs again...I'm not sure I can award you that mileage bonus without it. Once Skooty confirms for me....I am in!

Of course I may have to wait until after the Kali Beer and BBQ run...unless someone out in Kali wants to do it at their place whilst I suck down some cold beer after the day's riding. :lol:

 

[HotRodZilla]

So...I just wasted 15 miinutes of my life.

I decided I didn't want crap floating around in my pipes, so I decided to take them off and shake them out. You'll never believe what I found

Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Remember, I pulled the bulk out with a telescoping magnet, and I knew there was some stuff caught between the last baffle and the end of the pipe. I wasn't sure if it would blow out or stay where it was.

I took it out for a couple rides and gave the RPMs a good work out. That musta done it because today, nothing shook out of the pipe. There wasn't even any noise like something was caught up in there. The pressure must have blown out what was left.

NOW...Honestly, if I had known how easy it was to remove the pipes, I probably would have taken them off AFTER I did the mod instead of messing with a magnet. Would taken the same amount of time honestly.

I was reluctant to take them off because I have never worked on the pipes on a bike that are that easy to remove and replace. That was actually amazing.

As for the sound...Yes, I still really like it. I rode it to work the other day because we were working at the range with a bunch of cadets. I ride with 4 of the guys that were there. They all commented about how much better it sounds. FWIW, one rides a Speed Triple, one rides a BMW R1200RT, one rides a Yamaha R6, and the other rides a Harley Road King with "louder than stock" pipes, but nothing obnoxious. The Harley guy also rides one of our department bikes and like the others, he liked the new sound too.

At speed, there is no inrease in noise. I usually ride with ear buds or plugs, but with our without something in my ears, the noise is not increased over what it was. The engine noise and wind noise drown out anything else that may be going on at the end of the pipes.

Still totally worth my $20 or $22...Whatever it was.

 

[RPrice]

Skooter, we need to talk. I think loudsiders club has just been formed. Membership sounds great too. I'm member #1 ok? We can have patches and everything. I'll be thinking of sticker ideas...sounds good.

Heading to Home Depot tomorrow, so I can join the club!

OK, It's a done deal!! I took the advice and bought the Milwaukee brand hole saw, no issues using that. I was done very quickly with that part. Then time for the Dremel and the reinforced wheels. I made the mistake of trying to cut too far into the pipe on the right side. This burnt up a few extra wheels. On the left side I backed it out a little and it cut the pipe right out, no intrigue, no issues. I then took off the exhausts and shook them out, easy peasy!

Then I rolled it out and started it.....................Holy S#%T that sounds good!!!

Thanks Trooper, I predict this Mod will go down as one of the best this forum has seen in a long time, especially for the money!!

 

[Trooper]

Hey, I'm gonna take a shot and say that the aftermarket sellers that charge 700+ for pipes on the FJR are gonna have a hard time selling many more. Especially if people see this forum, down goes pipe sales. Up goes good sound...

 

[2007 FJR]

I did the mod saturday evening. Drilled out the baffle with the pipes on the bike. Then took them off and used the dremel with the muffler strapped to my top box rack so I had a good view. Took me about an hour to complete. I love the little rumble on decel, sounds like a turbo charged track bike. I am hoping when I get the tail cones from Garauld it will make it sound just right. Thanks Trooper for the great idea. Another happy customer.

 

[rogdeb]

OK ... this for Wheaties benefit mostly .. Just went through a tank of gas after the Trooper mod. This tank was approx. 15% freeway and 85% surface streets - lots of lights and stop signs. I'm getting 39mpg, which is what I'd expect from this kind of riding. I can only guess at mileage on a stretch of freeway or a mix of foothill sweepers, but is has to be what I was getting before the mod. --- 40 - 42 mpg. I'm real pleased with the mileage and the deep, mellow, burbly sound :yahoo:

Rock on Trooper :clapping: :

 

[Trooper]

Zilla, I stand corrected, guess there is sufficient pressure to blow it out. Guess I'm being too retentive. I hate to waste time...

 

[wheatonFJR]

OK ... this for Wheaties benefit mostly .. Just went through a tank of gas after the Trooper mod. This tank was approx. 15% freeway and 85% surface streets - lots of lights and stop signs. I'm getting 39mpg, which is what I'd expect from this kind of riding. I can only guess at mileage on a stretch of freeway or a mix of foothill sweepers, but is has to be what I was getting before the mod. --- 40 - 42 mpg. I'm real pleased with the mileage and the deep, mellow, burbly sound :yahoo:

Rock on Trooper :clapping: :

Thanks Roger... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

That does it for me. Trooper mod it is...not likely before the trip to Kali unless Griff is good with a hole saw and a dremel...since I don't have a dremel.

So when is the kegger at Trooper's place?? You know...a ride to eat LoudSider Trooperfest!!

Trooper's bosses would love that one.

 

[Bogus]

Just a footnote here. When I originally did the trooper mod, I went in about 1 1/4" with the dremel, which placed the cut just behind the baffle plate that was cut with the hole saw. I got bored one day, and decided to take out about another 1 1/4" since Garys tailcones really mellowed out the sound. It made quite a difference in the sound with the tailcones on. Still not anywhere near obnoxious, just a little deeper. I leave for work at 6 am, and am not afraid of disturbing the neighbors. I edited my video of the different exhaust sounds, with the extra 1 1/4" and tailcones at the end. Of course, it sounds much better in person :lol: You be the judge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-HppwdpUk8

 

[Fred W]

Thanks for the extra video. Very helpful. I think I still prefer the sound with the first cut and the tailcones on, but that may be an artifact of the different sound conditions of the final cut. For one thing, that was the only one that you had the saddlebags on for.

Something of great interest to me was how much additional backfiring (popping on decel) you got when just installing the Garauld tailcones on the stock pipes!! Maybe the bike was warmed up differently at that point? Does your bike have the PAIR removal plates installed.

I wonder what the result would be like with a cat-ectomy (running the PCIII, I never use the O2 sensor, so my cats are probably pretty well trashed anyway), the PAIR removed, and Trooper modding the cans.

 

[Bogus]

I didn't get any additional "back firing" on decel with the cones on stockers, but I had already installed the PC3 with the standard map, and had the PAIR plumbing removed. I also have the covers on instead of plugging the ports. The difference with the cones was more of a burgle as it has been described here before...very pleasing to some, including me, not so much to others. After each step of the video I made, I warmed the bike up before recording. Yea, the saddlebags are on that last video. It was a last minute decision last night to run out to the garage and record it. But I don't think the sound is really affected much by the bags, and I made sure the bike was warmed up before recording. Also, I think the burgle is a little more pronounced after I removed the extra material. I did do a high rpm run through the gears with the windshield up, and helmet visor cracked, and has a nice snarl even though the rider wouldn't enjoy it under normal conditions. Wish I could tape the camera on and record that, but I would have to use duct tape to mount it. Maybe someone who has done the mod, and has bike specific cameras can do that??

 

[Fred W]

Yes, it's the burble that I was talking about, which I attribute to combusting unburnt gas vapors in the exhaust system (somewhere).

You're right, it is a subjective thing. I loved that sound on my old Mazda RX-7 convertible with the top down.

 

[BikerGeek99]

My name is BikerGeek99, and I am a LoudSider.

I had not ventured into this thread until now.

While at FJR Tech Day II this past weekend, Bust asked me what I thought of the Trooper Mod. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he fired up his bike.

I decided what the hell and Bust tore into my exhaust.

Bottom line: Me likey! Kinda reminds me of my old FJ that had some kind of aftermarket exhaust on it (don't remember which - that was about 13 years ago!) but not annoying - on the FJ, every little change to the throttle while at speed was noticeable. That gets annoying.

After yesterday's 200+ mile ride home, I have some observations. I really only notice a difference while accelerating. While at a steady speed, I didn't notice much difference with the pre-mod sound. When Bust headed out on Saturday with Tim to take a cruise control shake-down run, I noticed the popping on decel on Bust's bike. I didn't notice any on mine, but I'll have to take a run around the block without a helmet to see if I can hear anything. (Relax, helmet Nazi's. I'm a professional - do not try this at home.) I really like the quality of the sound and found myself running her through the lower gears to higher revs to get more of that sound.

To my ears, the louder sound sounds good and isn't to the level of the open-pipe crowd, however I imagine that some of the people out there with tender ears will think it's too loud and will call all of us a bunch of degenerate pot-smoking hippies. Screw 'em.

 

[Bogus]

A few have asked how this will affect gas mileage......conclusive results have shown mileage goes in the sh*tter as a result of increased wrist twisting :lol:

 

[wheatonFJR]

I fired up my bike at 5:30 am last Saturday to head to the Moonshine Lunch Run. I will probably be firing that sucker at 4am to head out on the first day of the Kali trip.

With the Trooper mod, will the neighbors be flipping me off when they see me in church the following Sunday?

-Concerned in Wheaton

PS - snerk.