Seeing as how everyone on this board seems to be so helpful to those few CVO owners out there, I thought I might see if you guys could help to steer me in the right direction.
I'm needing some help on picking out an exhaust system for my 2006 FLSTFSE2 fatboy. Most of the guys I run into around my neck of the woods are running some product from Vance and Hines. Truth be told, my last pipe was one of theirs a big shot staggered and I liked the way it looked and sounded. But I’m thinking of going to something a little more exotic to match the uniqueness of this CVO bike.
Currently I’m running with the stock exhaust and it just sounds kinda wimpy. Whenever I meet up with some buds, my pipe always sounds “junior sized” compared to theirs and their running stock 88 motors. My father rides a ’03 heritage with BSS and when he starts his up it definitely drowns mine out in sound.
At any rate, I’m torn between the looks/sound and the performance worlds. I definitely want something that is louder than what I currently have but at the absolute bare minimum I can’t go less than what the stock exhaust outputs for performance. My guess/hope is that with the right pipe, this bike will feel like a new machine all together. On a side note, last week after reading through this forum I learned about the preload adjustment and checked mine. Apparently the dealer who set it up, had the pre-load adjustment turned all the way down to what I can only assume corresponds to the weight of a sub 100 pound person. After adjusting it to my weight the bike feels like a whole new machine and just puts a grin on me everytime I ride. Wow, I can actually feel the suspension working now! I guess I’m looking for that same sort of stark contrast with an exhaust change.
Considering I drive my bike to work as much as possible in an adjacent town, about 70% of my riding is all highway in the 3000RPM neighborhood. Speaking of neighbors, while I am somewhat concerned about the sound volume, it’s not my most pressing #1 concern. With that being said I almost never go riding without wearing ear plugs as the wind noise is deafening.
It doesn’t help that most of the information I’m finding across the internet seem to review how the various pipes perform on the 88 engine. From what I’ve gathered, what works on an 88 doesn’t necessarily translate into working well on the 103.
I’ll be adding a power commander to the mix and I’m scheduling a dyno tune with John of Rolling Thunder in mid-July. I plan on driving the bike to Sturgis this year from Oklahoma and I’ll be traveling with at least my dad if not a couple of other guys as well.
My concern is buying a pipe and then paying for a dyno tune to only be left feeling unsatisfied with the final outcome either in terms of sound, looks, or performance.
The short list of pipes I’m considering:
Bassani Pro-Street – I’ve read that they lack a full heat shield and can roast your right leg, according to bassani’s website these pipes are serious high performance pipes. But again that’s from their website so I can’t see why they would post a bad review. Like the look.
D&D fatcat w/performance big bore baffle. I guess these scrap a lot? Kinda like the look.
V&H Long Shots HS. The more I look at these the more their growing on me.
V&H Big Shot.
V&H Side Shot. Something I’ve only seen around here a couple of times.
V&H big radius – PC already has a user submitted map for the 2006 103 screamin eagle fatboy. But the comments from v-twinforums.com seem to say these pipes look good but rob performance.
I emailed D&D and they recommended that for my engine I should go with the performance baffle unless I planned on more internal work to the engine and then I could step into the boarzilla.
I emailed John w/Rolling Thunder initially and described my general riding and asked of the pro-street and fatcat which would be a better fit for me. His response was neither. He said that he wasn’t impressed with the Fatcat’s and much preferred the Bassani Road Rage, which is what he uses on his bagger. The road rage cost $569 plus an additional $250 for the heat shields, once you add in the dyno tune that’s almost $1100 for a shot in the dark guess. Now I don’t know if this should concern me or not, but then he offered to sell me the Bassani pipes as he is an authorized dealer.
So, I’m back to square one on which pipe to get. Can anyone help this dazed and confused exhaust newbie out?
Thanks
Adrian