ok so i have a harley davidson street bob

 

 

stage 1 super tuner screaming eagle

heavy breather air filter

V and H straight shot pipes

i love it! the neighbours not so much.

i heard one neighbour one time swear and go off when i came home one time, i just ignored it
 

but the other week my other neighbour (which i have a good relationship with, and is elderly) rang me up and told me its so loud it makes his house shake and he cant hear anything.
i dont want to ruin things or cause trouble with my neighbours. and i love the pipes and dont want to change them, i dont have the money to get new ones anyway.
is there anything i can do to quieten them? any temporary muffler or silencer i can keep on for a few blocks then take them off once im clear of my area? 
any advice on what i should do??

 

You could lollypop them, but then you'ld need to carry a spanner to turn them when you clear the street.

They are the noisiest pipes going almost mate !

Try the quiet baffle inserts from V&H , easily enough bought from ebay here in Australia or the US

Peter Stevens had a special on them not so long ago

They don't make them even close to "legal" , but take out the worst of the bark.

I have V&H Big Shot staggered on my 2008 CVO Springer , and they are actually fucking embarrassing sometimes when firing up in a cafe strip or wherever !

Yeah...you sure chose the loudest ones out there. Get rid of them and put some nicer quiet ones on.

And you wonder why people get the shits with us. Really.
Also you have been on here long enough to know how to use the search function as this has been covered many times before.
Also nice bike and congratulations on your new purchase.

It has been covered many times before, on many forums, but the short answer is this...IMO  (and your pipes look like Big Shot staggereds...?)

 

The V&H quite baffels don't do much to reduce volume at all. They deepen the tone and take the "crack" out of the note, with MINOR volume change.

The only way to actually reduce the volume of those pipes significantly is the smartpartz hard core baffles:

http://www.smartpartz.com/SPZVHBSS.html

I have had my Big shots for a year and have run them with...1. the standard (straight through) baffle only 2. the V&H Quiet baffles only, 3. The V&H Quiet Bafflesd AND the Smartpartz and 4.the V&H Standard baffles AND the smartpartz.

Currently running with the last option, as of yesterday, cause the difference between standard and quiet V&H baffles isnt much when combined with the smartpartz. It's the Smartpartx that are doing almost all the work in noise reduction. And I don't want to have to keep re-packing the V&H Quiet baffles fibreglass matting every year.

I'm getting it dynoed in a couple of weeks at Thundertech. Deano there commented on how quiet the bike was, and that was with v&H quiet plus Smartpartz. 

I don't like loud pipes. Know that now, but didn't when I ordered them. I want tone/note without much volume. It's difficult to achieve. If you have no option but to keep that system (same as me for the moment) then this is the ONLY way to stop pissing your neighbours off In my opinion.

You now they're workign when you actually hear top end rustling in your motor and the headaches stop.....

Yes, no wonder people complain about Harley exhausts. You may like them but you have to consider the people around you.

From what you have said above I think that's too late to ruin the relationship with your neighbours. It has already happened.

If you want to make amends, leave the bike elsewhere or change the pipes.

You really don't have any other options.
 

Also consider big city thunder baffles in the USA. I had them welded to half of the vance and hines baffles and it muffled a fair bit of the noise.

I start work early the VH short shots were way too loud , changed them to S&S but still too loud on idle , put the stock pipes on which i got for $30 on ebay still loud at 3am though but stiff shit . If I'm going for a run with the boys on the weekend i change back to the loud exhausts on friday night , doesn't take me as long to swap them when you've done it a few times !

I don't like really loud pipes (or annoying ones), but fucked if I could live with the quiet baffles in my V&H bigshots - it's WAY too quiet. Get a fucking vespa.
The problem with the V&H "normal" baffles is the sound was loud AND as annoying as all hell.

I tried all the baffle combos (I modded the quiet baffles and even made my own damn set) and hated them all in the end. They were too quiet or just sounded like shit.
I finally lollypopped the "normal" baffles and after a little twist and fiddle, found the sweet spot.

Everyone is different though, but I'm always stunned when people tell me how great their pipes sound when I could get the same sound out of a Honda.

Now i wouldnt go to this guys extreme, but at one point i was considering using the same idea but with 1/2 discs. Start with one to slow the gasses down alittle. Gives you the option of adding more if you wanted.

http://youtu.be/_-tTyOtg5GY

 

Also found this one but doesnt help much.

http://youtu.be/lXLrEKXKKeI

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "lollypopping"?

 

That's old school lollypoppy (in Allde's pic).  The newer way is a solid circle that fits better into the pipe - closed still allows air around the sides.   A great version is the Thunder torque inserts (pics below) which cost a lot in post I'm told, but if you can make similar they would work great.

 

 

There is a bloke in Carrara who builds and fixes bike exhausts. I used him for my pro pipe. He did such a good job on the baffle I ended up drilling a few holes in the baffle for some more volume.

Too nice to fuck with..............cant ya quieten the neighbour down instead?

Yeah, removing the end cap can make them louder (or a foul sound) if they were restricted by it, and removing the baffle completely will make them louder/deeper, but more (or bigger) holes should equal a quieter baffle - which is why the quiet baffles look like swiss cheese.

hard to explain without removing it and taking a photo but yes more holes means more sound they way mine was modified.

Do something before the Cops start knocking. Its sooo not worth the agro mate.
Lolly Popping sounds like a good idea and you still keep the look.

this is what i did to mine.ok but still not legal

I bashed welsh plugs into the end of my short shots (inside end) and a bit of steel wool, worked ok. Pulled all out after passing the epa test...