There's been some interesting discussion about the baffle/gasket and the increase/decrease of sound for the bike by adjusting it.
https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic49581
and
https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic49608
So without any specific issues that were associated with the engine, I decided to experiment...
Two days ago, I took off my baffle/gasket completely to see if the sound was to my liking and to see if it affected performance. Here's my findings/opinions of doing this:
1. The sound is MUCH louder, though not as loud as I assumed it would be. It's very similar to a large block Harley or cruiser of sorts, though I think the main difference is that while the cruiser has the cc's to 'ease out of a red light', I never knew the power the mp3 has to uumph up to move out of a red light at a brisk pace. Thus, unlike the cruiser which may have a regular rev sound leaving a red light, the 500 sounded like I was at a drag strip every time it needed to get it and my fairly large butt moving. Once up to speed or at idle, it was pretty much identical to a cruiser.
2. There is a distinct 'hair dryer on the ankles' breeze coming off the back air of the muffler without the gasket. It was never uncomfortable, but it did make me think that it creates an issue with anyone who might smoke on their bikes (OAD I'm looking at you
), or for that matter anyone who might have to park inside near a wall of a garage or near a nice shiny car.3. The loss of back pressure from the 'unsealed' joint is noticeable in that your acceleration from 0-... takes a hit. This also leads to the issue with #1 and that I felt like the bike was working harder to get going.
Result: It was cool to hear it do it's thing once off, and it may be a neat little thing to hear once around the parking lot, but then I'd advise quickly reinstalling it once the exhaust is cooled. I got "lucky" and my gasket is almost in perfect condition and I was able to remove/reinstall it in such shape. That said, I've already planned on ordering another to have not only as a back up, but just to install when my next service comes up to cover my bases.
On to the second thing that came up:
So while out riding on the ungasketed pipe, my temp gauge suddenly begin to climb and my fan came on. I was able to ease it to the closest auto parts store. By the time I got there, the temp gauge had gone FULL! and was at full bars, at "H". In case any of you ever wondered what it would read when it gets that hot, well, it reads "0"(zero) flashing over and over. Don't know why, but just an interesting thing that I hope you never have to see. After checking things out, one of my hose clamps musta finally completely failed. To make matters worse, (this is my own 'theory'), I think the heat coming off the ungasketed pipe had something to do with it. Not sure, but just saying that normally, I get a little bit of a leak, but today I guess it finally ran out. It was completely my fault for not checking the fluid, but I was so wrapped up in the muffler sound check that I didn't. Luckily, it was only about 1/8 of a mile to the store where I fixed the clamp, filled up on 50/50 coolant, and everything is "cool" now.
