Riley's exhaust mod for the VTX 1800 C

With Riley's site closing I spoke with him and he is allowing me to repost his info as a way to archive the info and keep it from disappearing off the net. Many thanks to him for always offering this info to us VTX riders and many thanks to the people who helped compile this info in the first place.

Riley's exhaust mod for the VTX 1800 C
Courtesy of Riley

Preface
This is Riley's mod reposted so I'll just say - undertake this project at your own risk, lol...
Click here for a sound bite of the mod.

Preparation/supplies
I usually detail the tools required here, but since this is a "do-it-yourself" mod I'll let you decide what tools you have that will work best for each step.

Process

This is where the addendum to this mod comes in. There are different ways of doing this, but for me this was the easiest way to do it. You are going to cut once towards the front of the muffler (as shown), scribing a line so that it lines back up and scribing a line towards the rear section also. You want a line long enough to bridge across the section you are going to take out. When cutting I think your best bet is a horizontal band saw, so the pieces are nice and straight and square.

If you want to shorten the pipe (or turn the tip) when modifying the stock "C" exhaust, take the bare muffler (The baffles are out of mine, so the muffler is just a hollow tube) and just before the back end with the mounting tabs, scribe a line parallel to your cuts (going from the end piece all the way to the front piece you are saving) so that you know how the two sections originally lined up, and then using a horizontal band saw make the two cuts to shorten the muffler itself. The reason I say to do it towards the very back is because it will be easier to weld it back up afterwhile from the INSIDE. That heat shield fits pretty snug around the muffler, and I think the height of the weld would make it sit on there weird. Once you have the cuts made, take your endpiece and put it up to the front section of muffler. You have the scribe marks now to line up, this will give you the original orientation of the exhaust tip. Rotate it to the angle you like & weld it up. Making the cuts on the very rear of the muffler allows you to not have to mess with the bottom muffler mounting bracket as well. Now you have to cut the heat shield. I think the best way to do this would also be a horizontal band saw. I would wrap the heat shield around a piece of PVC the size of the muffler so that the piece will not distort when cutting. Carefully debur the end so you don't scratch the chrome, and weld the shield back on. As far as the outlet pipes go, they are gone. I have an open barrel from the header pipe all the way to the tip.

That's it - you're done - congratulations!