Dreaded pig squeal i.e. exhaust valve

200 miles on my newly acquired 2013 10K mile 1200GS, turned on the ignition last night and got that dreaded pig squeal noise. Been looking at many videos and forum posts and seems no real cure except replacing it but if this happen after 10k then probably will happen again in the time I own the bike. Previous bike, 1150GS I owned for 15 years. So plan is to get Black Widow headers and use standard exhaust. That will eliminate the exhaust valve and still connect the lambada sensors. I will also add a server buddy to eliminate that part of the setup. It already have the booster plug installed.

Anything else I need to think of, I am not doing it for power or sound, it has enough of both for me.

Just remember to let your insurance company you have modded the bike

Set the valve central and disconnect the wires. I did this on my old GS and never had a problem for 18months.

My 2016 made that noise. The flap itself was free, it was the actuator where the cables go to that was making the noise. I took it apart & lubed it and its been fine ever since. Its now done 33,000 miles on the original headers and its still good. I am convinced its because I always run the bike for a couple of minutes after washing it to make sure any moisture evaporated from the exhaust...

TonyZZR said:

My 2016 made that noise. The flap itself was free, it was the actuator where the cables go to that was making the noise. I took it apart & lubed it and its been fine ever since. Its now done 33,000 miles on the original headers and its still good. I am convinced its because I always run the bike for a couple of minutes after washing it to make sure any moisture evaporated from the exhaust...

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Unclipped the cables and sound was gone but then when I put the cables back the sound was also gone. So not sure what to make of this now.

I took the cover off my 2021 1250's flappy valve thing today. Haynes manual for a 1200GS says the valve should cycle through when turning on the ignition. Mine didn't. Is this right?

The valve did move around when revving it a little though.