Well while I'm waiting for my new 34mm Mikuni carbs for my CX500 to arrive, I decided to get off my butt today and do something mechanical. I like the look of the stock mufflers but I believe that they're pretty restrictive, so my initial thoughts were to drill out the rivets and "gut them". I drilled them out and quite liked the symmetrical holes, so I fired it up and Woohoo! It's got a note!
Of course, my assumption was that drilling them out would allow them to come out, but in fact, I couldn't even lever the caps off with a long handled screwdriver, but what the heck, it sounds so good I don't care. I gave 'em a squirt with some satin black paint, and they look almost "factory".
I bought some new rear shocks from an Ebay seller in Brisbane, he was fantastic, he set them up for my CX500 with the correct bushes, so there was no mucking about, I had them on in around an hour. (the hardest part was removing the mufflers so I could access the mounting hardware.
All in all, a nice easy day. I did a little bit of work, and went for a ride to the pub. The bike sounds like a "proper" V twin now, not too loud, but probably a little louder than legal. Cheers, Terry. happy0062
