How Motorcycle Mufflers Work

Video Transcript

"I'm Brian Bussemey from Cowboy Harley Davidson of Austin. We will be discussing how a muffler works. This is the muffler. The muffler takes exhaust gas out of the engine, diffuses it, it controls the noise and it also somewhat controls our emissions out of the back. The muffler comes off. It's just one short piece that slips on to the stock head pipes and they significantly change the sound of the bike. These are louder mufflers than normally than come on the stock bikes. They are generally fairly easy to remove and replace, just a few mounting bolts on the back and a clamp on the head pipe hold them on. You want to make sure that all your mounting bolts are very tight on these because they do get hot and they will loosen up. Chrome care on these, mufflers will discolor over time. They will turn gold. There is not much you can do about that. That's just from the heat. They're pretty maintenance free. You don't have to do much but keep the chrome clean and they should stay looking that way for a while. Like I said if they do get hot they will turn colors on you and that's all normal. Harley mufflers you are looking at a good probably at least a good ten years before they rust out. They're made out of some pretty thick gaged material. They will last a pretty good long time. This is a free flowing muffler. You can see all the way through the muffler. These are loud. They don't control emissions as well but they sound good and they look good. This is a stock muffler. As you can see you cannot see through the middle of it. These are chambered, have more back pressure. They allow the engine to run better. They don't run as hot but they're a large muffler. They also don't have as much sound as a free air flowing muffler does either. I'm Brian Bussemey from Cowboy Harley Davidson of Austin. This was explaining how a muffler works."