Exhaust mods

I have a 96 sohc, and a 95 dohc. On my sohc I took off the muffler (which was cracked in half) and put on a cherry bomb. I was wondering if i'd be able to have the exhaust come out just before the rear wheel on the dohc, and if it would make it perform better, because i wanted to have a shorter exhaust, but not too short to where i don't have enough back pressure.