Personally, I like the look of the Thunderheader, but as SC-Longhair confirms the quality of their finish is hit and miss. As for the torque loss, sure if you put straight drag pipes on your bike you're going to lose a lot, or really short pipes like the V&H Short Shots. Personally, on a fairly stock motor, I would bet you could go with a 2into2 like the V&H Big Shots, and still have good torque as long as you leave the baffles in them. They are fairly loud, even with baffles. I also believe the BS's have a powerchamber, a section that connects the two pipes together, which is also good for power.

I posted a thread on here one time asking if someone had dyno sheets to show the power difference between an aftermarket 2into2 system and a 2into1. I wanted to see if there was really this "huge" difference that all the 2into1 fans claimed. Noone ever posted anything other than their opinion with no dyno to prove it. I think most of these guys went from stock everything to a 2into1 with a tuner, free flowing AC, and some of them even cams, and then said "wow, this 2into1 really works!" They would have probably been just as impressed with the difference from stock if they had went with a good 2into2.

That's JMHFUO, and I could be wrong. But, I'm still waiting for someone to post something that proves that a 2into1 is worth more than maybe a couple horspower and a couple pounds of torque over a good 2into2.

 

Fastjoe, I'd certainly offer my findings if I had a dyno coupled with a stack of the most popular exhausts to do a test.

Actually, I do remember reading an article in either the horse backstreet choppers or another mag where they did dyno-test some of the top exhaust. Same bike just swapped exhausts. If I find the article online I will certainly post the link.

 

Same here. I love 'em! I tune them for less than full-blast sound, but louder than stock. (I definitely don't want to be the loudest guy in town, but that's just me)

They make the bike sound like a musclecar - kind of throaty. Makes you think of the old Thrush glass-packs in the '70's.

They still use the disks. This is when when I first put them on:




Here they are now, three years and a few cans of flat black spray paint later. Yes, those are the stock header pipes. I kept the tips chrome:

 

If you want LOUD, a set of 40 inch drag pipes will fill the bill. If you don't want to loose a "ton" of low end torque, install torque cones or lollipops.

 

D&D fatcat has an excellent finish and will definitely up your power and tq levels. I don't have specific numbers to back this up, but they are way louder than the s/e slip on's. This is what I run on my ride. A great pipe all around. A 2 into 1 will always yield more power and tq than a 2 into 2.

Drew

 

RB racing LSR is loud as hell! if you want to get noticed, this is your guy!

the Thunderheader had the best torque of all the pipes i have ever used. and was fairly loud, im on a D&D fatcat with standard baffle,its not that quite and i have plenty of torque.

 

Unfortunately, almost everything in life is a compromise. If you want full-tilt-boogey badazz pipes, the best are probably rbracing/LSR. If you don't believe me, just ask them, they'll tell you that they're the best.

But they're not cheap, they're not all that easy to install, they demand billet gaskets, I've heard there's some clearance issues with cornering, and they're not all that good looking.

Is there a significant power difference? That depends entirely on how your bike is tuned. Yeah, if you've got it tuned to a razor edge and you're looking for that last little bit of Warp speed, there's a difference.

Too loud? Power loss? Not really. If you're running your bike up to 6,500 RPM on a regular basis, if you're a Drag Strip junkie, if you're looking for that last .001 second of ET? "Loud" may be just what the doctor ordered for you. It's not really 'loud' it's just more free-flowing. And that's a whole 'nother subject. Top end power is what those pipes are built for. Ever noticed that when the NASCAR boyz pull into the pits, they keep their motors running real high? Or that when the Pro Stock guys line up at the Christmas Tree, they're around a three grand idle? They're not doing that to attract chicks, they're doing it to keep their motors from stalling. They don't have much low end power. It's all at the high end.

But you and I live in the 'real' world. Our resident Gendarme may not appreciate us launching at 4,000 RPM at every stop light. We don't get to shut down after a ten second elapsed time banzai run down the quarter.

Not how I wanna ride anyway. Boring. Been to the drag strip plenty of times (in my car) and I'm over it. But for those that aren't over it, for those that wanna run 10's or even 9's? That's the place to do it, not on the street.

I wanna ride in the countryside, putt around in town, enjoy the scenery at the Beach, go on reasonable trips with my buds and just -- Enjoy my bike.

re: Your two choices -- Which one is loudest (louder )? They're both about the same. Both of them are about an 8 on the 'loud scale.' Which one makes more power? Neither has a significant advantage over the other, power-wise.

And yes, you should always 'consider something else' whenever you're looking for exhaust. Always. You decide on what you want your bike to do, how you want to ride it, then get your pipes and work backwards from there. But I'd say your two choices are pretty good. V&H is a fine bang-for-the-buck exhaust system. And since Andrew Hines is Harley's top driver and current (I think) holder of the NHRA Motorcycle Pro Stock crown, I'd say that V&H might have some insight on what makes a Harley run good.

Are they the best? Almost certainly not. Because there is no 'best'.

Life's a compromise, remember?

 

I run the python staggered duels they look just like the V&H staggered duels and are plenty loud have been on my bike since 2006,( 06 superglide). The chrome still looks like new. And you don't have the name of two Sweedish guys stamped on your pipes.

 

And I think I read somewhere on this forum that V&H makes the Python brand of pipes.

 

The differences are minimal for the average bike, if you have cams with a lot of overlap it's a different story. On different Dyno's I lost 2TQ & 7HP going from V&H Sideshots w/BCT QQ's to a Supermeg w/20disc. It did feel better down low, I ended up with 14 disc open cap for a SOP gain but didn't Dyno yet. The V&H Bigshot Staggered are nice pipes they have the powerchamber, My Brother has them on his FatBoy and they sound good.