I'm not really a loud-pipes kind of guy. This should be obvious to anyone familiar with my blog
(See: If loud pipes save lives...) .
I didn't really pay much attention to the after-market pipes on the Buell I bought; it was the right color, had low miles, had everything I wanted. The dealer fired up the bike, I even took it for a brief test drive and to be honest, I never noticed that it was loud. It must have been the excitement of buying a new bike, the exhilaration of rolling on the throttle of the torque-monster Buell, but I simply did not notice the noise.
But that trip home (See:
Epic Bike Retrieval) taught me just how loud those pipes were. Following the five hour ride home from Cleveland, even though I had (cheap, foam) earplugs, my ears hurt and didn't stop ringing for 24 hours.
I spotted an after-market part made by Jardine specifically for toning down the deafening roar of the Jardines.
The QMI Quiet Module Insert for Jardine RT1 purports to reduce sound by 6-8 decibels.
I ordered one on-line and enlisted my son's help to install it.
We wanted to measure the sound level, before and after.
We found a free iPhone app, Decibel dB 10th, which measures the sound and produces a graph and digital readout.
We found a great article over at Hot Bike Web
"How To Measure Exhaust Sound" which described how to gather an industry standard measurement.
My son helped me replicate the test measuring configuration described in the article, and we took our first measurements with the unmodified Jardine. The test describes capturing idle noise level, and noise level at 1/2 of the rated RPM, which I interpret to be half-way to redline.
At 1/2 tach, I clocked 99 dB on the Decibel 10th app.
The Jardine QMI was pretty straightforward to install. The instructions called of drilling a hole in the tailpipe of the Jardine RT1 exhaust, but mine was pre-drilled. Perhaps later model RT1 exhaust came factory-ready to accept the Quiet Module.
A little persuasion from the rubber mallet lined it up nicely with the pre-drilled hole.
Wrench it on tight and test the noise level again.
After the insert was installed, half-throttle noise level dropped to 94 decibels.
Ease Of Installation: A+
Clarity Of Directions: A
Works As Advertised: A
Did it do what it said it would do? Yes!
Did it turn my monster-loud pipes into quiet pipes? No. As it turns out, reducing decibels from 99 to 94 really doesn't make a difference to my ears. It still hurts!
