Start Up with Gut Check
Brad was bleeding the brakes and clutch. The old fluid after 4 years was pretty groady. Note: change brake fluid once a year. Everytime you put a new set of tires on. Stopping is important. The rear and front sprockets replaced and a new chain on. All the fairing plastic bits took a most of the evening. All the fasteners and plastic clips. Looks like new. Did not replace the right side fairing. small minor scratches. front fender scratch - but ok. Gas tank ding left side but paint ok. Might change it later.
The Gut Job
Best part of this whole project. Sure it was overdue for the major tune and valve adjustment. Repairs to all plastic and damage control. But even after 4 years of covering and keeping the bike garaged and mostly out of the rain and washing it - Brad showed me that a deep thorough clean has to be done to really check the condition of every part.
Back to the muffler gut. The stock sound is so quiet it is as if the engine generated more sound than the exhaust. The V 4 has a low growl now. Not so loud that it would bother my neighbors. Listen to the video at the bottom. At idle it sounds perfect to me. There is that distinct pattern of a growl. The best part is the sound but, also at a quick glance the stock design is kept. There are different ways to gut the cans. The ends of the last exit baffle pipes were cut. The outer tail pipes had to be removed to access those inner pipes and cut. Then we had the tail pipes welded back on. The other guys on the discussion boards used hole saws to remove the tail pipes and did not weld them back in place. I think this extra step is a cleaner solution. It helps carry the exhaust out past the polished end caps. The sound is exactly what i wanted.
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