VX800 exhaust advice

Hello, I am a new member of the forum. I have recently bought a VX800 and I need some advice regarding the exhaust. The front pipes at the engine ports are severely pitted/corroded, especially the left one, although still pretty solid. Also for the last MOT in December the cross-pipe was removed as it had a hole in it. The cross-pipe ends were cut back to the main pipes and blocked off, I'm not sure what with but it seems pretty robust. (I'm not sure what purpose the cross-pipe serves but I can't imagine Suzuki producing something so elaborate without good reason. I have read somewhere that the additional exit path provided by the cross-pipe affects the timing of negative pressure waves at the exhaust port but I don't fully understand it.) I've had a VX800 previously and I'm pretty sure this one is significantly louder. Anyway, can anyone advise how best to go about replacement. I have been looking on e-bay but in most cases where the pipes are better than mine , the silencers are worse. My silencers are pretty good compared with the rest of the system so I have been wondering if it feasible to cut and shut my silencers onto a better set of pipes. Any advice would be welcome.

Having read more of the previous posts in the exhaust forum I have realized how green I am as far as exhaust modifications are concerned and also how old I am getting. I now realize that my current exhaust has had the end plates drilled and the baffles rodded by some hooligan at some point in the past to make it louder. I want my bike to be as original as possible and to sound like the bike I had twenty years ago so I have bought the best set I could find that have not been modified and have the cross-pipe intact. The silencers on this set are not in as good condition as my current ones but they are passable. My plan is to fit the exhaust I have bought, which will restore the exhaust to its original state, and then attempt to reverse, at least in part, the modification to the existing silencers. If I can make a reasonable job of it I will then graft the de-modified silencers onto my new pipes.

oldmick wrote:

...... I now realize that my current exhaust has had the end plates drilled and the baffles rodded by some hooligan at some point in the past to make it louder......

Mick, that made my day.       
I did something like that with Bluesman, I'm a sixty one year old hooligan, and John is older than me.   haha...  we still got it.  

Lock up your daughters.      

Hello Badger, I used to be a hooligan, what happened to me. As a further example of my decline, I've just put standard suspension back on my old Passat and removed the lowered coil-overs that the previous owner, no doubt another 60+ delinquent, had put on. What next?

70 year old hooligan John here! Lovely modified pipes.....hmmm you want quieter, not sure why but I cut a metal disc and stuck over the holes with HT silicone once to sell the bike! Middle hole further down could be sealed with a self tapper if you can get down there. Have fun!

Hello John, It is really the tone rather than the volume that I'm not keen on. I don't know what contribution the lack of the cross-pipe is currently making to the sound but I've got enough bits now to try a few combinations.

Hello again Badger, Bluesman,

I've fitted the unmodified exhaust I bought and I'm much happier with the sound. As I mentioned, the new silencers are not in great condition, they are a bit battered, but instead of attempting to repair the old silencers and graft them onto my new pipes I've made some shrouds out of polished stainless that wrap around the silencers and clamp on to cover the dents. Doesn't look too bad.

I'm thinking now about what to do with the old exhaust. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of hooligans out there, so someone might be happy to use them as they are, however, does the modification (i.e. drilling end plates/piercing the baffles) not cause a problem for the MOT?

Yes  holed  exhaust is technically a fail. That's why I prefer hole right down the middle instead - should pass ok. I put plate over the rear holes for this reason. The central hole gives a deeper tone like Badgers whereas the ring of holes at the end gives a more unplesant rasping sound imo.

Yes, before I removed the old exhaust I sealed the holes in the end with fire cement and that did remove the harshest part of the sound. I do like the sound of the original exhaust, just nostalgia I suppose.

I just thought I'd send an update on my exhaust saga. As previously explained, I made a couple of stainless steel 'collars' to cover the cosmetic damage on the silencers of my replacement exhaust. Having concluded that the drilling and rodding of the silencers on the old exhaust made my original 'cut and shut' idea redundant and also made the old exhaust unsaleable, I decided to use it to further improve the overall appearance of the exhaust. I 'skinned' the old silencers, and believe me they are pretty well put together, and cut the skins down to about two thirds of their diameter such that they cover the entire visible part of the silencer. These skins can be snapped on and off using their inherent springiness and I've lined them with thin PTFE sheet so they don't scratch the functional silencer underneath. Obviously this wouldn't satisfy the purists but it's probably the best that could be done short of buying a new exhaust.

Bikes are for mucking about with Mick, I don't think purists are too bothered about the old C8oo or the M or VX.   Maybe a raised eyebrow if it was a rare Triumph or suchlike.  You alter your bike to make you happy, and that's how it should be.   I really like the sound of mine now, the MOT guy is pretty laid back, and knows this bike ain't going to wind up people in quaint little mid Wales villages, or frighten children at the crossing.    I totally de-badged mine because I just didn't like them.
It's your bike and your choice.