Headache

[huntly2]

I am an experienced rider, many years and 10 bikes. I love my GS, a huge joy factor over my last Honda ST1300. That said, I thoroughly dislike the annoyingly loud exhaust of my 2005 R1200 GS. This is not a recently noticed annoyance, but since I already have mild Tinnitus, I always wear foam ear protection and had forgotten what a loud bike this is. Today after a ride, I stopped at the local market for some groceries. Packing up and getting ready to ride home I dropped my ear protection and not wanting to risk infection threw them away and on start-up was reminded that my bike sounds like a car with a broken exhaust system. The noise was so loud and unsettling that it affected my 4 mile ride home. My control felt ragged, my shifting unsynchronized and the ride home was an annoying chore. I'm amazed that I haven't been pulled over for an illegal exhaust system. I know people equate loud with performance and my bike preforms well enough, I just want mellow exhaust notes. I don't want to scare wildlife and my neighbors. I am looking for ideas from my fellow riders some of you who may share my complaint.

[marc]

I suspect you are in the minority in regarding the GS too loud. Many comment that they want a bit more exhaust noise and start asking about after market pipes. I find my GS neither overly loud nor especially quiet.

Yes, it sounds like a bag of bolts going down the street if I happen to not be wearing my ear plugs. But you are complaining of exhaust noise. Do you perhaps have a hole in your exhaust? People have removed the silencer and found that the bike was not all that much noisier, implying that the catalytic converter also does some silencing. I'd start looking for excess noise by remove the bash plate and checking for holes in the cat converter.

And before even doing that I'd try to compare my bike with another of the same vintage. Good luck.

[huntly2]

Thanks Marc.

I should say it's the bike as a whole that is too loud. I don't see any damage to the exhaust system, but maybe you made a good point saying that unmuffled bikes don't sound too different than a muffled one. I should see if a R1200RT muffler might fit. The RT is not annoying.

[AdamWebber]

Wind noise is by far the loudest noise on my stock '05 GS. It is possible that you have a pre-muffler leak or an internal muffler problem.
I love the sound of my GS. It is so much quieter than everyone else's bikes. The starter is louder than the engine running.

[kennif]

Interesting - my mate has just bought a new GSA. It is no louder than my GS but quite a different sound. It is a real throaty roar - I rather like it.

[Schtum]

Originally Posted by kennif

Interesting - my mate has just bought a new GSA. It is no louder than my GS but quite a different sound. It is a real throaty roar - I rather like it.

>2009 GSes with the DOHC engine have a very different sound. Sitting on mine at idle it sounds much throatier than any of my previous three 1200 GSes. Part of this must be down to the "EXUP" valve in the exhaust but I think the DOHC engine must produce an inherently different exhaust note for some reason.....