Well, finally, after a long transit time, the baffles finally arrived. Arrived silver, not black. Evidently the seller is doing drop-shipping with Competition Werkes. Even on the order in notes it says to ship black, I got silver nevertheless. Called the seller and they will refund me 50% and at some point I should get the black ones for free. Works for me, at least I can ride for now. Because the baffles go in somewhat deep, you can't really see them being silver easily, so, not clashing visually too horribly.
Now to the noise. If you ever looked at the baffles, they have this star looking crimp - restriction at the end. But that crimp is not a full one, it kind of brings metal together but leaving space for the direct entry from the pipe. I have seen many youtube vids, and in one there was shown two universal baffles, one was louder than the other, one that was more silent had the direct entry point closed off fully. So, without trying as is, I just crimped the star looking crimp to compress all the crimps fully flat and even bend them 90 degrees. First I thought to put some B&J weld in, but then thought it would be an unnecessary complexity, and the metal did bend ok.
So, I put them in, found that one thread to hold the baffles was kinda iffy on the slip on. Kinda sucks that a metal shop can't get the basics right, it is like making a car with an oval wheel, come on, Competition Werkes.. don't be a noob.
The sound level. I was impressed how better it was. I even went for a ride without a helmet, to hear all as is, it was pretty good level wise, even for the naked ears. I am not a scientific instrument, but I'd say 92-95db.. The reduction was impressive. Did 30mins without a helmet and the sound while it was kind of loud, it was not unpleasant or bad attention gathering. It was strangely low enough for me to like it even as is. When I called CW to talk about the baffles previously, the customer service guy was surprised that I found non-baffled sound at the level how I described it. He thought that the baffles would not bring the level to my liking. I think they say 8-10% of loudness reduction. But it did the trick. I am to assume, that fully crimping them also gave, perhaps, 2db additional reduction.
Sound quality. It is boom-y, that is how I'd describe it. Also, no more too many pops. Without the baffle the pops were too many and sounded like a war zone. I seen people look over their shoulders when it was popping. But with baffles, the pops are there, yet no longer sounding like shots. Previously, without the baffle, I assume, one could set the alarm off in parked cars. Not that it is the 90's, the alarm era is over. Now the pops are at the level of the normal engine sound, not at the class 3 weapon level.
Another thing I did not mention before. Without the baffles, there was a weird sound in the engine. Like woosh-woosh on 1st and 2nd gear. As if a rotor was not straight and brakes were dragging at a specific turn of the wheel, kind of similar. I don't know if suddenly for the engine the loss of pressure in the exhaust made the pistons drag or something. Can't really explain. Now it is gone, one of the reasons I wanted to ride without a helmet to hear the engine as well.
And, another thing about Competition Werkes. They DO NOT offer, or even mention, the black baffles for sale. Evidently you need to mention it when you buy, but how would you know, right. Yet, as my example has shown, not something they comply with. I don't know if it was a mistake. Anyway, just goes to show the CW has more things on a secret menu, so to speak, that they don't advertise.
