Update on all mods done on the hawk. Questions about baffles?
 

Here is a list of all mods done on my hawk 250,

1st change oil and chain after buying. I went with a D.I.D 428 130 chain.

2nd change sprockets from 15-50 to 17-45, this made probably the best difference in top speed.

3rd re jet carb

4th modify air box intake, noticed hardly anything with this mod. Maybe more noise but couldn’t be sure.

5th Swap speedometer or just use trc app for smart phones did both. I think the app works better.

6th change spark plug to ngk (2202) DPR8EIX-9 Iridium

7th swapped my rear sliders to washers and bolts, chain seems to rub on the factory ones. (This could be an assembly problem)

8th swap chain guide.

9th visual mods. Used acetone to remove all “hawk” stickers and paint replaced with my own stickers

10th bought but haven’t installed rack and box.

11th in the process of tracking down black panels. If you know of where I could buy from?

Beginning top speed 50ish not sure where my rpms were but they were screaming.
Ending top speed 64mph seems to coast comfortably around 55 with no screaming.

Now my next task is modifying the exhaust. I was curious about replacing? Or has anyone messed around with removing the baffle or drilling holes? And if so what kind of sound/performance increase did you notice?

I did the cheap route by doing a baffectomy with a long piece of rebar. ground a point on it, slid into the end of the end of the exhaust, gave it a few good wacks with a sledge.minimal performance or noise changes.

Is this a real thing people do?
 

yeah, im not doing that. Never even heard of someone doing so.

Thanks for report. You may find a replacement header pipe without the catalytic converter 4 cheap. I think the one for the bashan storm was $10-15 or so. Grind out the inner welds and make it smooth flowing. Get a performance exhaust to drop weight etc such as
http://www.amazon.com/FMF-Universal-...estor+silencer

These and all "performance" improvements need to be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, overall improvements vs costs , are marginal but still helpful.

Probably the best upgrade is to go on a diet and for some of us lose about 20 lbs, talk about performance improvements!

Take the baffle out and see if you notice a difference. If you ride in USFS lands, put it back in for those occasions. The rangers take a coat hanger and shove it into your pipe. It better stop or it's a ticket.

Thanks for the info. And yeah haha that's probably the best option!

That's the plan for Thursday I'll report back and see if I notice any. If not maybe it's worth the replacement of the exhaust.

it's actually very common among Kasaski Vulcan and Concours owners. all it really does is knock a hole in the end cap so that exhaust flows slightly more freely. on my concours, we actually pass around a small hole saw about 1.5 inches in diameter to cut the plate out.

On the hawk it probably doesn't help all that much because of the in-line cat converter further up in the exhaust. I saw someone cut that open, gut it, and weld back in place. that would be a better solution other than a new pipe system without the cat and put a forest service approved spark arresting muffler on.

Something like this
http://www.harborfreight.com/diamond...-pc-69657.html

To go after the cat and baffle. This was previously posted by...:hmm:

Common to do on KLR 650 too "get rid of the VW Tweet" sound...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i2BmBVZNaQ

Well there you go. never seen that before. cool, still dont know if i would want to do that though. Thanks guys.

so much for the spark arrester.

the hawk muffler has screws that can let you take the baffle out without ruining it. the cat on the other hand is a PITA.

I'd either remove the cat (if you have access to a welder) or replace the header with the non-cat version, per BlackBike's recommendation. Once the cat is gone, you can re-jet to compensate, and see if there's a benefit. After that, you can decide if you want a new muffler.

Agreed,
First, going to do the simplistic solution and remove baffle. Test, if it's not satisfying I'm going to run the bike at least another few hundred miles before messing with the cat or thinking about replacing. Thanks for the advice.