2006 CUSE
First attempt at 100 ft-lbf at rear wheel:
SE slip-ons, SE high flow, SERT.
Disappointing, 82hp / 90.88 ft-lbf. The sound was somewhat better and the power was useable in that 2500 and 4000 range. The constant "tinging" sound, like a small chain dragging behind the bike was somewhat annoying though.
Then...the race...then more changes...
Installed Rinehart true duals, raced tuned again, then I get a respectable 95 hp / 96 ft-lbf. But all the peak power is between 4500 and 5500 rpm. It's not real world useable, except for hard riding, like this past weekend on the Dragon. The "tinging" was gone, but a rattle has started.
The bottom end power from idle up to 2000 in first gear is almost non-existant. It's so bad that my clutch is heating up in traffic and shuttering, and burning, but not slipping -- yet. Before the Rineharts I never had this problem.
Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed in the Rineharts. I installed then myself and had them on in about 2 hours, but the rear cylinder pipe is so close to the clutch cover (3/16") clearance that all the exhaust pipe heat next to the chrome clutch cover, and the clutch concerns me. The lack of bottom-end power is disappointing, but they look GREAT, and the bike runs hard between 3500 and 4500 rpm, then it runs real STRONG between 4500 and 5500 rpm. It's set up great for a high bank oval! LOL or those 70 mph roll-on drag races on the interstate with riding buddies, or with my wife who jumped on me 4 weeks ago, (while running the SE setup) with the whole crew riding behind us, with her race tuned softail Deluxe at 80 mph, and I couldn't pull away from her all the way up to 115 mph. That's when this whole Rinehart thing started. When your wife jumps on you in front of the whole gang, and your on a slight uphill grade so everyone behind you has a clear view of the race, and you can't pull away from her, well, your under a lot of pressure! Then when you look over and she won't look at you and you see a big grin on her face like "got-cha" and as you both back off, you see her saying over and over again, "yes, yes, yes" as she blasts by, well, then you know that 83 hp and 90.88 ft-lbf ain't gonna cut it. Man, the ragging I took over that, was horrible, but the pride I had in her was awesome!
And to make matter worse, her new main bike is an 06 SE Fat Boy that has yet to be race tuned! So, heck, I'm under alot of pressure here!
So, anyway, I'm thinking about either...
a.) Removing the baffles in the Rineharts (I have to do that anyway to bend the tabs to stop the rattling sound) and installing a 1/2 inch stainless steel bolt at the front of the baffle to create some back pressure.
b.) Reinstalling the factory header pipes and useing the Rinehart slip ons.
c.) Race tuning it again, as is, and asking for more bottom end power --if possible. The lack of bottom end almost feels like a timing issue.
I'm told (haven't measured yet) that the HD stock header pipes are larger in diameter than the Rineharts so they flow better right out of the engine. I do know that the cross-over tube on the stock header pipes creates the much needed back pressure for torque, and the stock header pipes clear the clutch cover by and inch or so. An engine builder told me that Rinehart's mythic performance drops off as the cubic inches go up. He said that Rineharts perform great on the TC88, but not near as well on the 103 HD engines.
Has anyone else had the same bottom end issue with Rineharts?




Any clutch problems?


