I have a DRZ400 and I tried a billet ebay tip. The tip fits, looks, and sounds great. However, when I put my helmet on, there is a crickets / chiping sound with each power pulse that is unbearable. It is piercing to my ears. I take the helmet off - nice deep clean thumper sound. Helmet on, it makes me want to grab my ears and run away like an alien blasted me with a sound weapon. I try to ride it but I can only take a few minutes, then it's back to the factory tip. Which sounds fine, just too quiet for my taste. I keep putting the billet one back on every few weeks - only to yank it right back off. It happens at all rpms, with three different perfectly fitted Shoeis. When I close the face on my road helmet the sound is even worse. It's like the helmet lets this one exact frequency through at full db and every other bit of the spectrum is blocked out. Has anyone noticed this, and is there a suggestion? Thanks folks
Why battle with dubious bling? If you go deaf you won't care what it sounds like anyway. Take your drill and go after it. If it doesn't improve, set it out on the curb with a free sign and move on.
i am going to drill more holes into it to see if it gets better. Then if not i'll sell it as a customized billet tip rather than just a billet tip.
ear plugs could be an option.. I wear them whenever i ride anything as my ears have gone over the years of not wearing them mostly due to wind noise on roadies but a loud exhaust is the next best thing for industrial deafness. At first they were weird but I quickly got used to them and really love the quiet now.. Give them a go but don't expect to have much chat with your riding buddies at a corner..
I got creamed on my bicycle by a car that strayed into the bike lane when I was a kid. Never heard it coming because. Had headphones on. Rode in the ambulance. Earplugs while riding scares me.
that's not how earplugs work. they actually increase my awareness as I'm not distracted by all the wind/exhaust roar. you didn't hear that car because of the music playing trough the headphones not because you had them on...
Have you checked your muffler bearings? They might need to be repacked. My KTM 450 also has an annoying muffler chirp. I think it's one of the joints inside the muffler, or at the header/muffler junction. I'm going to try some high-temp RTV to see if this fixes the problem.
i notice my mufflers are louder with a full face helmet on too. not as loud with a half helmet. i think its like a echo chamber in there. all the sounds get trapped in the helmet coming in from the bottom and it amplifies the sound. maybe we have cheap helmets too lol!
It has been my experience that chirping sounds come from some sort of restriction, like a stock exhaust. While your aftermarket tip may not be restrictive per se, it may be forcing air to whistle past an edge or something. You might try chamfering (rounding out) the inside edges of the hole(s) to allow the air to exit more smoothly.
I'll second that.. ear plugs don't play loud music to chill out to on the way home from school.. less noise is less distracting when trying to pay attention..
