I was thinking about removing the stock baffles on my 2012 FLHTK also. I know sound is subjective and that everyone has their own tastes, but how does it sound compared to stock? How about compared to some of the popular aftermarket slip-ons? How loud is it compared to stock? how loud compared to aftermarket slip-ons?

I've already removed the cat, but haven't started the bike up yet. I was going to tune it with the Power Vision this weekend and then see how it sounded. Unfortunately with the recent snow storm, I probably won't be able to give it a real road test for a few days....

Anyhow, I was looking at the stock mufflers before I put them back on the bike, and it looked like it'd be pretty easy to drill out the baffles with a hole saw. I was also thinking that I could just drill a few holes in the pinched / crimped portion of the baffle and increase the sound a little at a time. Thoughts on either method? How did you remove just the pinched end? Same method with a smaller hole saw?

 

If you removed the cat dont totally remove your baffles, just drill out the pinched end inside. You will need a 1 1/4 hole saw and maybe an arbor( extension) to go inside that mini baffle. Ive never tuned one of my harleys for a stage 1 set up instead i used nightriders line of xeids. These will cool the bike down, improve throttle response, and reduce any popping and pinging if you have any! the sound difference is huge compared to stock but not to loud. Most people that that have ridden my bike cant believe the difference in performance and sound.

 

Pulled baffles out of my 4 inch rineheart true duals sounded like crap had a hollow ring to it and it wasn't enough sound difference to worry about and on top of it really didn't wanna burn a valve or something else and the loss of performance is definitely noticeable with the throttle response so I put them back in and they will be there until I decide to buy the rineheart performance baffles which are 2.5 id instead of the 2.25 Id that's in it now. Just my experience to each there own

 

I dont get it!!!! why would you need to take the baffles out of a rineheart exhaust thats already made to give you good sound and performance??? The whole idea of doing it to the late model harley exhaust is that its to quite and they now use a mini baffle thats easy to open, you already get a beautiful looking pipe stock that wont turn yellow and is pretty much tuned for the stock setup, and you don't have to get hosed for up to $700 for aftermarket stuff that wont last as long as the factory setup.

 

So dumb question, do you run the 1 1/4 hole saw from the rear to the front or take of the slip on and run it from the front to the rear? You are talking about the screen cone at the front of the slip on, Right? Thanks

 

Yes from the rear to the front! take a peek in there and you will see a small baffle maybe 7 inched in and its pinched off making what looks like a cross or X, go in with a 1 1/4 inch hole saw and in less then a minute your done. if you need some pics pm me and i will text or email them to you.

 

Thanks for the quick response sftdyna! Why don't you want to remove the whole baffle? Is there really that much more backpressure with what's left of the baffle in place?

 

Honestly I just wanted to see what it would do and sound like and was really really bored one afternoon ran it two miles down road and back and slid them back in. Guess its just the pull stuff apart to see what's in there in me don't hate me just how my thinker works

 

I have rush slip ons pulled the baffles the day i bought it well first tried cutting then down half was way to quiet so pulled them all the way out runs fine loud as hell I like it

 

If you are keeping the cat in then you can remove the entire baffle because you need back pressure for these bikes to run right! removing the entire baffle on a cat delete bike sounds great up top but doesn't sound or run clean down low and there doesn't seem to be enough back pressure for the stock cam set up to provide any performance gains. We even put a powervision tuner in and all it did was make the bike smoother down low and clean it up but no performance gain were found due to the fall off of low end power. we run nightriders xeid products on any of the stage 1 bikes we do. Also understand as your mods increase you will need to tune your bike properly and companies like fuel moto would be the most reputable in that regard. My thought is touch the cams get it tuned, Otherwise don't drink the tuning coolaide! we have been lied to by to many dealers and tuners in the past who use scare tactics to empty our pockets.