On Sunday I visited the Boulder Ranger District for a free, no penalty sound check. Colorado is going to have to comply with a 96db limitation as of July 1 on public lands. The Boulder Ranger District covers Arapaho and Roosevelt NF areas. On my '08 610, I have the Leo Vince X3 with the insert that the instructions say is the "muted version for USA market" plus spark arrestor screen. It's the standard test, measured in an open area at a 45 degree angle, 20 inches away. For some reason, they had no Husqvarna TE-610 in their manual, so we ran the test at 3200 RPM despite the redline of approximately 8250. Turns out, that RPM was a very good choice (more later). Anyway, getting to the reading: At 3200 rpm, I was barely registering 91db during the test. I was kind of surprised. I never thought my bike was particularly loud and there always seem to be others out on the trail who are way louder. Still, I want to follow the rules to help keep my riding areas open and all that. I know the X3 is a popular slip-on for the 610 crowd, so I thought I'd post up my experience. One of the guys on ADV posted what the test RPM's should be for the recent Husky 4-strokes, here. So, his research shows the test should be run around 3200-3300 rpm.
I really think the LV is a good pipe not too loud at all. My Fmf on my drz seems way louder even with powerbomb header and quiet insert.
Since I scraped my air box on my 610 and went with a pod filter, everyone behind me says they can hear the carb sucking wind louder than the X3 blowing it out. That baby's got lungs man. :smirk:
I have to wonder if the lower note of the LV affects the outcome of the test unit. The lower end specs of the DB meter might be less sensitive, don't know. It can be hard to get good low frequency extension to microphone elements or expensive to build in proper equalization to flatten the response across a wide spectrum. My LV3 with the most restrictive insert option seems rather loud compared to other DS bikes, but not irritating since it is such a low frequency, unlike the smaller bikes (more rat-tat-tat like). Plus the TE610 likes 3-5K RPM, not wound up feeling or sounding. My riding buddies always know when I am on their tail on the single track, they can feel the rumble.
