So, time for noobie question of the week. I tried researching this myself, but as I am not mechanically inclined most of it went over my head.

I'm thinking of replacing my stock shotgun pipes (yay tax returns). I have seen good reviews of both D&D Fat Cat and Bassani Road Rage here, but I was wondering how they compared to each other on a Fat Boy Lo both in sound and performance.
My next question, am I correct in my understanding, if I replace the pipes I should also replace the air filter at the same time (I dislike the football anyways), at which point I need to get a retune or a tuner module (such as a Power Commander).
What are the advantages / disadvantages of of a retune of the stock EFI vs. a tuner module? If I get a tuner module, do I still need to play with a dyno?

I'm sure there are more questions I should be asking I don't even know enough to ask.

 

I think the D&D is a sexier exhaust.

You don't have to replace the intake at the moment you do the exhaust, but 99% of the time you're going to replace the intake down the road, so while you've got the pipes off, if you've got the coin, may as well do it. And if you do that, then yes, you need a fuel tuner of sort.

The benefit of something like a power commander is that it's highly configurable. If you decide to change your intake/exhaust combo down the road, you don't need to buy yet another fuel tuner, you can just remap the one you have. similarly, if you sell the bike, you can take the tuner off and attach it to your new bike (assuming same connection cable, of course). If you flash the ECM, that's it.. kinda game over, then your dealer will yell at you about warranty stuff and such. Nothing wrong with flashing the ECM, but with so many options out there..why not take one?

As far as putting the bike on a dyno.. my personal experience with my PC-V is that the canned maps I have used from DynoJet/Fuel Moto work fine. Bike runs well enough. However, before I rebuilt my engine I took my bike to my indy and had him tune it properly.. world of difference. So while it's expensive to have someone properly tune the bike, if they do it right, it's worth every nickel. Once i get my new exhaust all finished up, I'm taking mine back to my indy to have him tune in my new engine.

Ugh..of course there's always the other end.. they make 'Auto Tuners' now, which can adjust/set your air/fuel ratio on the fly. I've read good things about them, but have never used one. So I can't tell you "Yeah my bike ran good with an auto tune, but amazing with a proper tune." i just dont know.

So...yeah.. this didn't help at all.

 

Had the Fatcat for awhile before they were damaged in an accident. Replaced with Bassani RR shorts, as the Fatcats were always scraping. Both are very good pipes, and make similar power. Everyone talks up the Fatcat, so I thought I might lose some power when going to RR. Did not notice any loss. I prefer the RR sound - I had a tuner test ride my bike with the Fatcat and it sounded good riding by, but I never could get used to the way it sounded to me while I was riding. Both pipes looked good on my Fatboy, but I think the RR has a more distinctive look, while Fatcat looks more like typical 2-1. Chrome on Fatcat is better.

I would not get too caught up in performance difference, as your bike could perform slightly better with either pipe, but you probably won't notice the minor difference. I would base decision on which sound/look you prefer.

 

Ya, both are good pipes and perform well enough, so you can't really go wrong there but at the end of the day, you have to be happy with the look and sound. As Jim mentioned, you could do your pipe alone but a high flow intake isn't that much more and you can get a "limited" piggy-back tuner for not too much either. When I say limited, I refer to only running canned maps with essentially no flexibility for adapting to aggressive cams etc...That combination still made a hell of a difference to my bike.

 

Actually, yeah it did, as it confirmed what I thought, which was do the whole thing at once.

Am I correct in assuming, for my usage, I only need a Power Commander V, and not the Auto Tune Kit module for it as well?

Why / where were the Fat Cats scraping. They look (heightwise) to be the same. As I am going to go with black on either pipe, why do you say chrome is better on the Fat Cats?

 

Yay Double Posting

 

A little more controversy on whether tuning is needed:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...hout-dyno.html

Modern fuel injection systems compensate for minor changes, such as intake and exhaust, pretty well. Change cams, and stuff can get thrown pretty far off.

 

This video may help you out with the sound. The wife went with the lowcat on her fat boy lo - no scraping and the pipe follows the line of the swing arm perfectly.

 

fatcat I believe has a 1 5/8 headpipe giving slightly better exhaust velocity and better low end tq compared to bassanis 1 3/4. Lowcat is upswept not to scrape. Bassani more badass sound IMO. And little better high end power (I own a B1 bassani RR)(for high HP applications only). Sound and looks should dictate your choice on a stage one only mod.
Tuning info is wide spread. Some think no tune required on a pipe only or open cleaner only but both can create a too lean condition (some think its still ok with factory tune). For optimum performance and longevity a re tune is best using TTS or super tuner to reprogram the ECU. Piggyback units are popular and some better than others.

 

Fatcat scraped on bottom side of pipe at the back section of muffler. I have the short Bassani RR and the Fatcat was longer. My rear suspension is lowered and my front is lowered slightly due to some raked trees and stock fork length, so the back end of my bike sits a little lower than front. The longer the pipe and the closer the muffler is going to get to the road.

I don't think my RR lost any low end torque compared to the Fatcat.