not a bad idea, at all..

 

I bought a gutted header off Ebay. It was gutted with a drill.Threw it on my bike never gave it a second thought.It works fine.I'm a busy guy I have two jobs and my free time is very valuable to me.I don't have time to chase down a welder or a muffler shop that's willing to decatt my stock exhaust .

 

Did the sound change much after the de-cat, anybody actually check the performance change?

 

I've done it both ways. Drilled out with spade bit etc, and cutout a window in my other bike. Cutting out a window and re welding is way easier.
If you don't weld (I don't ), just find someone on Craigslist that does. Cost me $50.

 

Sound increased ever so slightly. I was running Fatshotz when I removed cat. Two days I installed CVO bodies with Fullsac 2" cores and sound increased slightly more again than when I removed the cat. The whole system is very nice to tour with and as strange as it may seem, I think my bike is as close to the carb'd potato potato idle sound as you'll get out of a fuel injected modern bike.

 

A decaatted header or a 2009 header is usually around $130..... If you are worried about cutting out the CAT.