Two Brothers Exhaust Noise

nhdiesel

nhdiesel

Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
1,549
Age
53
Location
Rindge, NH
Bike
2006 ST1300
In my younger days I really liked a loud exhaust. Not any more. I like a nice sound, just not loud. My bike came with Two Brothers pipes with no inserts. I see there are 2 available inserts. I would want the quieter of the two.

Now for my question- Because these inserts are $70 for the pair, I want to make sure they will be quiet enough. Just how quiet can these pipes get? As they are, I still have a headache after a 200 mile ride today, and I got off the bike 5 hours ago. Thats with earplugs in.

If the inserts aren't going to make a big difference, I'm just going to sell the pipes and get stock mufflers.

Jim
 
The P1 will only reduce 3-4db, the P1x 7-8db . The P1X is tapered down to a smaller hole that also restricts and has more back pressure. If you are getting head aches from just the straight m2 or m5's .. you might want to sell. Personally I run M2 Carbon Fiber with P1's and their still quieter then the stock pipes on my past bikes.
 
The Two Brothers exhaust adds a nice "popping" sound on deceleration that you can hear. It helps you "feel" the power of the bike. That's why Harley guys love Harley's, the sound. I tried the P1x sound suppressor. I wanted to be quieter in the neighborhood. It did reduce the " popping " sound when I de-deaccelerated, but thats what I like. I felt it didn't reduce the idle or steady speed sound enough, so I returned them.
 
I've ridden with guys with the Two Bros pipes and they are just too loud. It's nice with the stock pipes to be able to ride in and out of campgrounds at night w/o disturbing anyone.

Personally, I love the quietness of the stock exhaust.
 
I have the M5 pipes and without the tips I thought it was obnoxiously loud. I also did not like the decel popping. I installed the P1-X tips and find it to be just about right. There is still a nice tone at idle, but it doesn't carry the boomy bass the exhaust had without the tips. Without the tips, with the bike idling in the driveway, it made the walls rattle in my house. Similar to adding a subwoofer to your home theater, a lot more feel than actual sound. Also without the tips, I found the tone to drone on when cruising 60-80 mph. It was nice to hear when accelerating, but there just wasn't ever any relief. Also, with the extra noise, I always felt like I had one more gear to switch up to and found my self looking for a non existing 6th gear. After my first long ride without the tips, I started looking for P1-X tips. I was not happy to see the price and watched Ebay for awhile and managed to get a new pair for $50 shipped. I was definitely considering selling the exhaust before adding the tips. With the tips, I get a mellow tone when cruising, a throaty sound at idle that doesn't rattle the windows and still get a nice sound when accelerating. Also, the decel popping is almost gone. With the tips, the sounds is still deep, but just doesn't seem to have the punch\feel and is no longer draining me. For me, the tips did the trick and I'm very happy with my 2 Bros now.
 
I did end up getting the P1x tips last year and they worked wonders. The exhaust still had a nice sound, but was quiet enough to not be annoying. It was slightly louder than stock, but no louder than some other stock bikes.

One thing to keep in mind if you have an older set of Two Brothers- they may need to be repacked to quiet them down. Mine started to get louder by the end of last season, and this season they are downright loud even with the P1x tips. Still quieter than when I first got the bike without any tips though. I need to repack them and bring them back to what they used to be. They have been in place for 5 years and 75k miles, so I would say its time to give them a little love. Good time to clean the mufflers and shine them up again, since they are looking very ratty right now. Might be a good project this winter.
 
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