| Author | Message | ||
     Egille |
I called a parts dealer today and asked about a carbon fiber muffler for my M2. The guy I talked to explained that the carbon fiber falls apart rather quickly once the packing material begins to fall apart. Has anyone used a V&H CF muffler before? What are your thoughts? | ||
| Ratbuell |
I had one on my S1W until I found a Buell race exhaust. It held together ok...but it wasn't a daily bike by any stretch (it's my toy, behind my daily Uly and my nice weather S2). The CF dulls very quickly, give up on trying to keep it shiny. It's not like the Borla - Borla has a CF panel wrapped around a metal can from what I remember; the V&H *is* a CF can. Do NOT use it to jack the bike. Oh, and I ran it sans packing with no issues other than ringing ears, lol. | ||
| Preybird1 |
AHHH that piece of ---- I had one it was so awesome and loud!! It lasted 550 miles and blew all the packing out and then kinda melted. It was $550 new never used. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY! here is why    I am going to keep it the elbow is still a good piece i may need it later i am going to take it apart and see if i repair it one day. Oh yeah when the packing went it got all over my bike talk about a pain in the ass to clean up | ||
| Easy_rider |
I ended up with a White Bros. exhaust for my S2. Since that time I've had an Aprilia buddy tell me that V-twins were supposedly hard on CF exhaust. It may be only Apes, it may be only one particular manufacturer, but between that and Preybirds experience I'm a little worried. | ||
| Phelan |
White Bros are pretty sweet. Do you still have it? Wanna get rid of it? I loved the White Bros 2-1 I had on my XL1200S. | ||
| Jmkybf |
The problem with carbon fiber exhausts is that the heat bakes out all the resin leaving only the carbon fiber strands unless you repack it frequently. Here is a carbon fiber muffler that I made for my university's race car team.  It held up pretty well for a while, but then all the resin baked out and the carbon became brittle causing the clamps to just bend and crack the carbon. It's still on the car being used, but it kind of slides around in the mounts. | ||
| Easy_rider |
John, Any chance you can define "frequently"? I "think" I could do some yearly maintenance without complaining. Right now I'm only riding 3 or 4 thousand miles in a year. Phelan, I've never really been a carbon fiber fan, but this is a gorgeous piece. It's tough to let go of. I'm reminded that I've got reservations about the mount as well. It rivets from the top rather than having a strap around it. I'll let you know if I change my mind. | ||
| Jmkybf |
Everything that I have read is that they need repacking about every 5,000 miles or when you hear the exhaust getting louder. I believe that if the packing is not tight or getting burned out, it leaves air pathways to the carbon shell essentially allowing the hot exhaust gases to burn out the resin; whereas, the packing acts like a barrier. The only reason that my muffler didn't last long was first off I made it, secondly it was made from scrap stuff around the shop. The internals were a stock perforated tube out of a bike muffler, and only half of the packing was new. The other half was out of a used muffler. The only reason for the carbon muffler was to save weight for the race car. I can't believe that Preybird1 is deforming the muffler like that. From the looks of it, V&H must have used 3k carbon weave and only did 2 or 3 layers. The muffler that I built was 6 layers of 3k prepreg carbon, and instead of deforming like that it cracks. | ||
| Easy_rider |
Many thanks. Sure is nice being able to leverage off of others expertise.... | ||
| Eshardball |
I have the same V&H can on my S3. I guess I have to keep an eye on it now that I am informed. This is an incredible forum. I have racked up about a 1000 miles over the past 6 weeks and it still sounds the same with no evidence of spitting out it's inards but time will tell | ||
| Preybird1 |
If the packing spits out get some of those metal scouring pads shaped like donuts they will last forever and will not spit out. I wish i had known it was going to fail with the stock stuffing, I would have re-packed it as a preventative measure |
