I was told the other day that if I remove the cat from my headers or get a set without a cat I will need to have a tuner installed first or my bike will not run right. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

Assuming you have a Touting (FL) model, no you do not. Converters add no exhaust back pressure. That being clear, it will run better with a stage1 a/f, slip ons and a tuner such as an Fp3. Most bang for the buck, if you install them yourself.

 

It will not hurt your bike. I ride a electra glide gutted convertor and gutted stock mufflers. It's a stage 1, cams and a tuner. When you take away backpressure you raise your torque peak, instead of your bike coming on at say 1800 r.p.m. it may raise to 2800. You hurt your bottom end. I saw it on my dyno sheet.

 

For me it was the change that needed the turner. I started with slipons and was fine. Next I did intake and added xieds in anticipation of needing more fuel. Seemed to run fine. Next I did decat and could not get rid of pinging and decel pop. I invested in fp3 last season and now it runs better than ever. For my model 2013 flhtc, the fp3 was not available until last season else I would have gone that direction sooner.

 

I did the exact same thing on my 2010 ultra was using the old style Fuelpak then it took a crap last year and I went to the FP3 what a great improvement now it runs right.

 

Going to do the same soon, so tagging on. Plus HF filter, SE pipes, and "old style" Fuel Pak I got a deal on. Hope all goes well.