Leave it alone.

 

I don't think that you'll see ANY performance increase, as I don't think the stock exhaust is very restrictive. You are then just looking to spend $ on looks and noise. DG is cheaper. FMF is probably better quality. The beauty will then be in the eyes and ears of the beholder.

 

Oh, you've done it now. You've asked the question. The one question.



The problem with both those exhausts is that while they are both louder, they do not sound particularly good. Louder is not always better- just look to any ricer Civic for example.

 

I've owned them all (still do) and greatly prefer the stock pipe it has a nice thump in stock configuration and with the "Thunder Pipe" Mod it sounds even better

I was riding one of mine around the warehouse lot last week with the DG pipe and I hated it just plain too loud to the point of being annoying IMO

A customer arrived while I was riding and he thought it sounded really keul but they drive me crazy

Mod link http://www.xt225.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7443&page=all

 

Noise annoys. Ride stealth.

 

The stock exhaust is good for remaining incognito when riding places you may not technically be allowed to ride. People certainly won't hear you coming.

 

I'm with the leave it alone crew. At the end of the day you cant have it both ways. You can have it quiet or have it loud.

That being said i tried a DG on mine and it was obnoxiously loud. I tried the insert, tried the washer trick and it was still too loud. Ended up returning it back to stock. Like you i appreciate the quiet so i wont wake my neighbors at 5AM or putting thru the woods. The quiet stealthy exhaust is one of the beauty's of the TW. Its nice to be able to play in the woods and not piss off every abutting land owner. I ride in the woods in my town a good bit and run into people on horses or hiking and such and every time they all say how much they appreciate that my bike is not an obnoxious noise maker.

 

It seems like the stock pipes won't last for us. We've had two TW's for 3 years now with daily use and the one bike has gone through two mufflers and is now running a first model DG from procycle. The other bike is currently on its third, and it is completely rusted out inside. If you shake the bike even a little, you can hear pieces falling around inside although it hasn't gotten too loud yet. It gets super expensive super quick when you go through stock pipes that fast, even if you can buy them used.
The DG pipe will not rust out like the stock ones, but the build quality seems kind of cheap. I've resorted to using rivets to hold the end cap on as most of the bolt holes have stripped out. Also the rivets poking into the inside to hold the "DG" emblem on makes it a pain to slide new packing in. With a noise reducer from procycle, it doesn't seem to be much louder than stock. If you rate the pipes by durability, weight, looks, and price, the DG pipe trumps the stock pipe on every front. Quality, (when not rusted) and the quietness (also when not rusted) of the stock pipe are better though.
When the stock pipe on our one bike gets too bad, I may bite the bullet and get an FMF though.

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With the Haitian humidity maybe a SuperTrapp might be a good choice. Packing is easy to replace, unit is very tunable depending on number of diffuser discs at the rear. My two-smokers used these with the quiet end cap for further sound reduction. Perhaps the haitian bike is not run long enough to dry out combustion byproduct water...

 

Interesting. I've heard about the super Trapp but have never really looked at it. I'll have to check it out.

Short trips are definitely the cause of these mufflers rusting out. We use them for a 2 minute commute up to 5 times a day.

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My '87's muffler is rusted out on the bottom rear portion. I kind of like the raspy sound. I do like the quiet of the stock muffler, but would consider a Super Trap.

 

If you fire up your bike and put your hand over the exhaust end, you'll notice it gets wet when the motor is still cold. If the motor isn't run long enough to heat up the exhaust to the point that moisture can not condense on the inside of the muffler, it will get and stay wet, eventually leading to the rusting problems. I discovered this years ago when I started to rebuild Honda Trail 90 bikes. Add to that there are no after market exhausts for those Hondas and rare to find an intact exhaust, I quit rebuilding them; the cost was too much if the pipe and muffler were shot.

Your best bet is to not run the bike for short periods. If you must, then add in a longer trip regularly just to dry things out so the problem of moisture doesn't build.

I want to also mention that condensation is also happening inside the engine for these same reasons. Air gets in the crank case where your oil is. The oil is warmed up, moisture condenses on the inside of the bike's parts that aren't up to operating temps and contaminate the oil when the bike is turned off. You REALLY don't want that happening!

 

Open diffuser discs at rear of super trap might allow much quicker draining and evaporation of moisture, plus there is less to go wrong inside and it is readily serviceable. Unfortunately with the passage of time this original $25 muffler's price has sky-rocketed in last years.

 

If importing fees are steep and his NGO has a limited budget then Zack could forgo buying new parts and simply keep repairing what he has. For about 280 Haitian Gourdes ($5 US dollars) he could use RTV silicone and scrap fiberglass cloth, neither of which rust, corrode, nor decompose with exhaust temperatures or salt. Nothing wrong with homemade composite structures.

Now should the Clintons or others have generously funded the NGO then by all means go with the FMF and stainless header for the beater TW, or better yet buy and import another TW with ample aid funding. It is all a matter of how much money is available to address the exhaust issue. Certainly running TW's engine long enough to heat up crankcase oil will increase longevity of both engine and exhaust system.

 

Thanks for the ideas guys, i'll have to figure out what will be the most cost effective, yet reasonable solution. The Clintons most likely have never heard of us.

Maybe I'll just remove the muffler when its rusted out too bad and stuff a heat resistant rag into the header pipe with a self tapping screw in the side to hold it in. That shouldn't ever rust out!