Should I Cut the Muffler off my Honda Shadow?

Today on the blog, we’re talking Honda Shadow mufflers and the pros and cons of cutting them off. Read on for all the details!

When Honda designed their exhaust for the Honda Shadow VT750 (pre-2004) and the Honda Shadow VT600, they gave it a double wall exhaust construction with an inner pipe and an outer pipe. If you cut off your muffler, that inner pipe is no longer supported; it’s right inside there just flopping around.  

What’s the worst that could happen?

If you run your Honda Shadow like that for long enough, the inner pipe may actually rip itself off of the boss right by the motor. So now you have a loose pipe just hanging out in there. You may not hear the vibration until you hit a certain speed—and at that point, the vibrations of the bike could bounce that little piece inside enough to knock it out.

Learn from experience

Years ago, this actually happened to TJ. He had chopped his pipes, then tuned and re-jetted his Honda Shadow properly, but he was unaware that this could happen to the inner pipe:

“I was on the freeway and heard a sound,” he said. “So I looked down and the inner pipe was sticking out the back of the outer pipe!”

Uh oh. What he didn’t realize was that cutting mufflers off can cause the inner tubing of the front exhaust pipe to break free due to all the vibration and give you a buzz or rattle.

Can’t afford new pipes?

For those of you building your Honda Shadow on a budget that just can’t afford a new set of pipes, here’s what we recommend: if you’re going to cut the mufflers off your pipes, do something to stabilize the inner tube of that forward exhaust pipe.

The only downside here is that if the inner pipe does break off, there’s no way to easily or cheaply fix it. You basically have to cut the whole thing off or get a new pipe—and that’s not cheap. Because of how the bends curve inside those pipes, you can’t just slide out the inner tube; there’s not enough room. Good luck!

Happy chopping (or not)!

For more info on cutting your Honda Shadow mufflers, watch this video!