Modern Buddy

Roughhouse 50 question-6k miles. love it. drive it year round and it sadly shows.

exhaust is in horrible shape. one or two small holes near the header. i went over a pothole last week and now the bike is insanely loud. What confused me (and I am NOT mechanical) is that the sound seems to come from above the header. The square box the exhaust pipe goes into has cut outs on the bottom and side and tons of air is coming out of them [i guess that's normal] but that's where the loud sound is coming from.

Its cool because it sounds like an out of tune harley, but i am getting the stink eye from everyone who sees me. There has been no performance reduction but just very loud. Is it simply an exhaust issue or is something else going on? Any ideas? thanks.

The cut outs are for cooling purposes but the air coming out is not normal. From your description your exhaust head has probably rusted through or the exhaust gasket is failing. If its just the gasket its an easy fix. The exhaust head on the other hand would be more expensive. A good welder could patch it depending on how severe the damage is.
Go for the gasket first if that does not alleviate the noise then take it in for a service check of the exhaust.

Get another exhaust gasket from your dealer, unbolt the pipe and replace that first. Easy fix. You could ask the local shop if they have a used stock exhaust laying about, too. They just might.
It could be the head gasket leaking , too, but you didn't say the bike was slow, so I bet it isn't that.