Making Your Scooter Quieter

I’ve been looking for ways to make my scooter quieter, because I enjoy riding around at night, and to me it seems that the scooter is really loud. Sure, Taiwanese people may not even care or notice, but I’d just rather have my scooter as quiet as it can be… so, I found this:

scooter.wikia.com/wiki/Building_ … an_muffler

And on YouTube, there are people that put mufflers or build mufflers for their various gas engines: youtube.com/watch?v=6jK4ZogV … re=mh_lolz

And so, I made a mock-up of both those types of silencers from materials around the house… and wow! They work really well. The deep bass from the muffler is gone, but unfortunately, it seems like the intake and the engine itself is still making a lot of racket…

Any suggestions or ideas? I mean, aside from that electric scooter. I would go for electric, but they are just too tiny.

Here is my video of the one based off the other guy’s YouTube video: youtube.com/watch?v=ZUQtMUixs5U

And here is my second attempt, based off of the web tutorial: youtube.com/watch?v=0xfEudYMM5k

It sounds to me like the first one was quieter, but it could be due to the materials… The first one was made using a tin can, whereas the second one was made using two plastic Cha Li Wang bottles.

No time to search right now, but IIRC the Craig Vetter website describes a cardboard-box based silencer that, though perhaps only intended as a joke, was pretty effective. Mounted where a top-box would go, with a cardboard exit chimney. Would presumably also soak up 2-stroke oil fumes.

You might want to carry an extinguisher though.

EDIT

There you go

http://craigvetter.com/pages/Other_Designs/Bad_ideas.html

ENDEDIT

OK, I looked at the vids, and have a few comments, though you’re probably aware of these points.

Both your “source” video’s are small static engines that typically operate at relatively low revs and power outputs. This means that the volume and temperature of the exhaust gases is relatively low, though it may not be coincidence that the one using a thermoplastic hose is the one that is smoking.

Scooter engines are likely to operate at much higher revs and power outputs. If you make a restrictive addition to the exhaust, the back pressure is quite likely to reduce performance and economy. If the addition is made of coke bottles it is quite likely to melt.

This applies especially to 2-strokes, which are sensitive to exhaust tuning. This is where the cardboard box silencer is likely to score. Since its huge, its unlikely to generate significant back pressure (though it isn’t very aerodynamic).

Its generally dark at night. This makes it hard to see.

Do you wear a full faced helmet or a bucket? Full faced = quiet.

Sure, but the OP seems to hint at concerns, social conscience stylee, which are not addressed by this approach.

Haha… yeah, I want it to be quieter for the people around who are not wearing helmets!

Those two videos in the second post are mine… and… well, they worked quite wonderfully in quieting down the muffler (and worked especially well at high speeds, not just idle), but yeah, the yellow plastic hose started to get really soft…

The engine performance didn’t seem to suffer, as it idled normally with both types. I did try restricting the exhaust, and yes, it made the idle go all funny.

But still, the scooter was not that quiet even with the muffler all quieted down… it seems there is a lot of noise coming from both the engine and the air intake spool itself.

Hahahaaa… that cardboard muffler hilarious! I’m sure it would really quiet things down. What if I just stacked two mufflers on top of each other, with a U-shaped pipe attaching the two?