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[Dan_Lockwood]

I want to thank all of you for welcoming me to the SERG family.  It was hard to leave the '08 SERK Annie at the dealership.  It quickly faded away as I rode the SERG for almost 400 miles this weekend.

I'll keep updating the "First Impressions" thread as I have more to report.

Here's a picture as I rolled it off the lift yesterday.



But for right now I have exhaust questions.

When I picked up the SERG on Saturday, I noticed that the mufflers tips were NOT centered in the valance and fender openings.  In fact the left muffler was almost touching on the left to the bag extension.  I also looked at the opening from a ways back and it almost looks more oval than round, so I figured I might try my V&H oval mufflers to see how they look; not too good in my opinion.

Anyway, back to the exhausting questions....

So how do you guys center the mufflers within the openings?





Just quickly, how I "adjusted" the left muffler was to loosen up the front pipe clamp and just rotate it a bit inward to even it out space wise with the right muffler.  This in my opinion is not the best way to do this, but the bag covers the slightly rotated strap clamp on the upper rear of the muffler.

What I found was that I would need to move them about .5" inward to be centered in the openings.  I've seen other pictures here that have centered mufflers, have they been "adjusted" also?  I think the way I'll look at this is to make up offset upper straps on our water jet out of 10ga. stainless to move the mufflers inward.

Any thoughts or other ideas?  I'm open to all...

Also just an added thought.  After riding my '08 SERK with the V&H dresser duals and their oval mufflers that were not the loudest on the marked, but loud none the less, I have to say that this first 400 miles with quiet exhaust was not all that bad.  I was able to hear the radio/MP3 player quite nicely.  Although the wind noise was very bad without a windshield, it was still a comfortable riding experience without the loud exhaust.  Maybe I'm getting older and loud just to be loud is not all that important anymore.

I'll be honest with you guys, I still feel that the SERG is as fast, without over revving it under the break in, as the tuned SERK.  So for the sake of performance, I'm not sure that I "need" any more that the stock SERG.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the input.

    

[Screamin]

Glad it's going well for you Dan. Most, I think, of our exhausts were not centered under the bags and that was easily corrected as you have done. The one thing, in my mind, that should be done is the removal of the cats in the headers. Many of us have either drilled them out as depicted in the thread started by Jim Kerr, or changed out the headers for a touring (non-cvo) set. Throw in a good tune and you'll be pleased by the improvement.

[desant89]

Glad it's going well for you Dan. Most, I think, of our exhausts were not centered under the bags and that was easily corrected as you have done. The one thing, in my mind, that should be done is the removal of the cats in the headers. Many of us have either drilled them out as depicted in the thread started by Jim Kerr, or changed out the headers for a touring (non-cvo) set. Throw in a good tune and you'll be pleased by the improvement.

Dan, I could not agree more with Screamin.  I drilled out my cat this weekend, and I am still stunned by the difference in both sound and performance.  I have not went with a tune at this point as the bike seems to be running really well.  Perhaps once I get over how amazing it is now, I may want a tune just for cooling purposes.  However, I definitely notice the bike is running cooler after the removal of the Cat.  Good luck even though silver is faster....lol

[Dan_Lockwood]

Dan, I could not agree more with Screamin.  I drilled out my cat this weekend, and I am still stunned by the difference in both sound and performance.  I have not went with a tune at this point as the bike seems to be running really well.  Perhaps once I get over how amazing it is now, I may want a tune just for cooling purposes.  However, I definitely notice the bike is running cooler after the removal of the Cat.  Good luck even though silver is faster....lol

This has probably been covered in the numerous threads about the CAT cross overs, but what does the CAT material feel like?  Is it more like a ceramic and it breaks when hit, or is it more like rolled very thin sheet metal?

I'm wondering if one were to core out the right side path and then go in with a "ball and chain" so to speak, if the rest of the CAT would just be beat up and fall to pieces?  I was thinking about asking this anyway.  I thought that I could use a piece of 3/8" cold roll rod and hook a weight, like a 3/8" nut on a stainless cable attached to the end of the rod.  Put it all in a drill and slide it into the new core opening and just beat the piss out of the rest of the CAT.  I don't think that the flailing nut on the end of a 2" long cable would do any visual harm to the outer surface of the crossover center section.  This would really be a lot easier than cutting and welding after a "full" removal of the CAT.

But if it's more like rolled very thin sheetmetal and coated etc, my idea may not work.

Inquiring minds want to know......

Thanks.

    

[Screamin]

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=27814.0

Hard metal of some sort. For $175 is just swapped mine out instead of drilling w/ a core bit. Don't forget they're on both pipes and you have to cut the left one in half if you want to core drill.

[desant89]

This has probably been covered in the numerous threads about the CAT cross overs, but what does the CAT material feel like?  Is it more like a ceramic and it breaks when hit, or is it more like rolled very thin sheet metal?

I'm wondering if one were to core out the right side path and then go in with a "ball and chain" so to speak, if the rest of the CAT would just be beat up and fall to pieces?  I was thinking about asking this anyway.  I thought that I could use a piece of 3/8" cold roll rod and hook a weight, like a 3/8" nut on a stainless cable attached to the end of the rod.  Put it all in a drill and slide it into the new core opening and just beat the piss out of the rest of the CAT.  I don't think that the flailing nut on the end of a 2" long cable would do any visual harm to the outer surface of the crossover center section.  This would really be a lot easier than cutting and welding after a "full" removal of the CAT.

But if it's more like rolled very thin sheetmetal and coated etc, my idea may not work.

Inquiring minds want to know......

Thanks.

    

Dan,

All I can say is that if you look through it, it looks like a VERY fine honeycomb pattern.  I only had my old 3/8 Dewalt drill and had a hell of a time drilling it out.  I do not recall ever drilling anything that solid before.  I am alomst positive I read on this forum that it is platinum.  I do not think you can get back in there with anything to clean it up any better without causing damage.  There is some Cat left on the sides, but many have said it does not matter, and showed dyno numbers to prove it.  I am extremely happy with it the way it is now.  If i ever get an itch or someone proves that the remaining edge is a facor, by that time it should be easier to get a new header from a stock 96" bike, and just replace the entire header.

[Dan_Lockwood]

http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=27814.0

Hard metal of some sort. For $175 is just swapped mine out instead of drilling w/ a core bit. Don't forget they're on both pipes and you have to cut the left one in half if you want to core drill.

I understand the left side thing on the CAT, seen the pictures, but I thought if it were more along the lines of the some of the earlier GM dual exhaust CAT's, I could easily beat out the left side by entering in through the right side rear exhaust pipe.

Even if it's hard metal, but fragile in nature, this might still work.  I just don't want to pull the new exhaust off if I don't have to.

Thanks for the input and thoughts.

     

[Screamin]

There's some pretty creative guys on here and I've not seen one of them able to remove the left side w/o cutting the pipe apart. Same guys have all attested how frickin hard the material is and the collective opinion is that you won't be able to remove it w/o drilling them out. Good luck.

[GregKhougaz]

Dan,

       The Cat material is a honeycomb metallic.  It does not feel like ceramic at all.  I think the "ball and chain" would not work.  I have said before that I have not seen dyno numbers that would justify worrying about the rest of the cat.  Think of the "flow" of the exhaust.  When you remove the entire cat, your exhaust comes out of the header, expands into the collector and is then pushed into the two pipes.  That can't be good for flow.  By drilling the cat, you provide a 2" flow space....  Either way, because of the crossover, the right muffler will have more flow. 

        Dyno jet had a truck with a machine at the L. A. Calendar Show this past weekend.  A friend and I put our SERG's to the test.  I had drilled the cat, installed a 2" fullsacs and a HD heavy breather and went with the SERT.  He removed his cat, installed 1.75" fullsacs, kept the stock SERG intake and installed the TTS.  We had identical peak number (within a couple of hundredths)  of 105 ft. lbs. and 90 hp but I was about 5 ft lbs and 5 hp higher between 3,000 and 4,500 rpms.  Fullsac has posted numbers showing the power results from the 2" and 1.75" are nearly identical.  So, these numbers show that cat "removal" does not help and may even hurt.  Hope the post helps, though. 

        Incidentally, the Dyno Jet tech insists that while the machines are calibrated the same, any tech can influence the numbers + or - about 10 ft lbs and hp.  So the different numbers you see are not that reliable.  If you tune, he says go to the same machine and tech each time.  (My dealer who did my tune gave me a sheet showing 112 ft lbs). 

GK

[TBird]

Dan good call on the switch, I did the same thing in April of this year 08 SERK Annie to 09 SERG OB never looked back, best bike I have ever owned.

[bearingman]

While I was drilling the cat this weekend, I had the misforturne of melting the brazed cutting surfaces from my bit.  Guess I drilled too hard for too long.  Anyway, that forced me to sawzall my header in half to get the cat out.  From what I saw, this will provide a huge difference in flow compared to just drilling.  And by the way, the material was still tough to get out even with the header cut in half!
Had to chisel around the edges and keep working deeper till it came free.

[sem_bunda]

Dan, good choice IMO.  Mine wasn't SERK but it was FLTR Annie and I loved it.  Still miss it, until I get on the O/B SERG and crank it.  Before I'm out of the garage, I forget the Annie!

If/when I do something with the cats, it will be changing out the headers for the 96" headers instead of drilling what I have.  Those who have drilled do seem pleased but my preference is new headers instead of drilled OEMs.  Also, I've toyed with the idea of wrapping the pipes to get some of the heat off my BSR.  The Kiryakan heat sheilds made a HUGE difference in heat though, best $70 I've spent so far.