Picked my Deluxe up from the dealers on Saturday after having the Freedom Performance Declaration Turn out pipes fitted and stage 1 tune.

Went for a ride with my son today, who is a supermoto nut. I don't normally corner that hard but he was pushing me a bit and the right floor board touched down, nothing new there, then hit a bump mid corner, and heard a different scraping noise. Sure enough when we stopped for breakfast, found I had re-designed the lower pipe, and they've been on there for 48 hours.

I don't ride that quick after losing my bottle a few years back on sports bikes, but obviously that bump was just in the wrong place with the bike leant over.

He laughed and said I should buy a KTM660 then I wouldn't keep slowing him down.

Cant decide whether I'm annoyed that my brand new pipe is dinged up or, whether is was just bound to happen at some stage, and that is with the higher suspension fitted.

 

I'm an ex-sportbiker as well, which is why I decided on a Dyna because they are better handlers. People always ask me why I chose a Dyna, because I'm a big guy. Bites that it happened right after you put the new exhaust on, but what-ya-gonna-do? **** happens I guess.

 

I heard road kings don't have that issue...

 

This is true. Maybe I should have taken that. But then the 103 is so much quicker, at least in a straight line.

 

At least you didn't have a lowside crash because the weight was transferred off of the rear tire.

 

No I caught the weight on my knee slider.

Ah no hang on, I don't do that anymore.

 

The softail deluxe, softail slim, softail fatboy low are the lowest sitting softails and therefore has the least amount of ground clearance and lean angle. You can improve the lean angle by adding a shotgun air suspension to the rear and progressive shocks up front. With the shotgun suspension you can adjust your ride to any number of settings. It is true that softails are not designed to be sporty and that fact has been beaten to death but that is why it is a true cruiser because it sits low, doesn't shake, has the vintage Harley look, and the vintage cruiser ride. If you wanted to be at all sporty a softail is not for you. There's a lot of road king dudes here that will be happy to see you trade your deluxe in for a road king

 

I have the same exhaust on my 13 black line and did the exact same thing about 2 weeks after installing them...oh well, doesn't really bother me. Adds character lol.

Did you have to modify the rear heat shield to get it to fit? I had to remove a good 1.5-2 inches of material on the shield to get it to clear the heads cooling fins

 

That's because no one's leaning a Road King in the corners.

 

Personally I would keep the ding as it will always remind you of that day riding with your son.