Motorcycle Repair: Replacing Exhaust, drag pipes, straight pipes

Question
I have a 1983 Honda Shadow VT750c.  The exhaust on my bike backfires and is rusted.  The exhaust crosses underneath the bike, in front of rear tire into a muffler.  I would like to know if I could take the muffler off and run straight drag pipes to make it sound like a motorcycle is supposed to sound like.  Need to know if it would harm my valves in any way to do this.  Any advice would be helpful.  Thank you.

Answer
Hi Kenny.
 By putting straight pipes on, you will do two very important things.  You will annoy all of your neighbors with the extra noise (which will also draw unwanted police attention) and you will reduce your overall performance.  This is in addition to harming the valves and needing to completely retune the bike so that it doesn't run too rich or too lean.  The backfiring is not caused by th pipes.  It is caused by the valve and ignition timing being off.  Give the bike a good tune-up and if you are going to replace the exhaust system, then use a set of pipes that are designed as OEM (or equivilent) replacements.

Good luck.
FALCON