Y'all are missing a very, very, important point: "Stage 1" means exhaust, plus air cleaner, plus tune.

It absolutely does NOT mean "only slipons". It means to improve the exhaust system. There's a huge difference between:

1. Stock headpipes, leave the cat in, change slipons.
2. Stock headpipes, cut the cat out, stock slipons, otherwise to would be "too loud".
3. Stock headpipes, cut the cat out, change slipons.
4. Change headpipes, stay with 2-1-2, go to fatter crossover pipe.
5. Change headpipes, go to true duals. "Because they're cool".
6. Change headpipes, go to 2-into-1.

Given the fact that the new M8 motor has an enormous improvement in combustion chamber efficiency, plus the fact that the dyno chart does NOT SAY what "Stage 1" changes were made, if the changes included a higher flowing air cleaner, plus a 2-1 exhaust system, I wouldn't be surprised at all if those numbers were accurate.

That motor has serious potential.

 

On this forum recently someone posted a Dealer's dyno results with SE breather only, then with the SE breather and SE Street Cannon's. That combo resulted in an 8 hp gain. The dealer was going to do the download. I have not seen that post yet.

However Stage one only ups the rev limiter some and an uptick in spark advance. That wouldn't add more than 1 or two ponies.

I bought my with the full stage I done. The dealer said he would return everything back to stock but basically threw in the upgrade gratis.

However it runs strong, but I don't know what the stock would run.

 

The good news is that the M8 motor is so good that it makes essentially the same numbers stock as a Stage 1 Twin Cam.

And, if you do a legitimate Stage 1 on an M8, and you do a 2-1, boy, howdy.

 

The best Stage 1 numbers out there, that I have seen, are Fuel Moto's. They gained 10 and 10 with the following. SE air cleaner, Mufflers, Head pipe, Power Vision and full dyno tune. You are correct in an earlier post that to just do part of it will not get you the full results. But I am guessing that a Air cleaner, mufflers, head pipe, Power Vision and Dyno tune will run close to $1800 if you swap out the parts yourself. For those that don't do their own work my guess is $2100. That is a lot of money for a Stage 1. Or at least for me it is.

 

Historically, "Stage 1" doesn't typically include a header.
FM has a great header(s) and they include it on all their runs because that's kinda their deal - to sell headers etc.
So their "stage 1" results will always be impressive over others that leave the OEM header in place.

Many are fine with chasing just the sound and will do slipons with or without a tuner - results vary.
Those that are looking for real performance increases will need to do all that you've mentioned (including header) and a Cam because if you're already into it 1.5-2K to get a whooping 8hp why not throw another 4-5 bills at it and obtain some real gains. Warranty concerns aside.

 

Completely agree. Either go the full Stage 1 with the head pipe, or don't bother if you are expecting any meaningful gains. On the other hand, some have said they do it for looks anyway and are not concerned about the gain.

 

Yup that's me. I didn't expect much from just the slip ons, filter and tuner. Primarily for looks.

 

Definitely a Stage II

 

I call this BS!
I have a Stage 2 on my M8 114 and these are the same numbers I got after HD did the install and dyno run !

 

First Harley I've had where I haven't got any inclination to do Stage 1: previous bikes just didn't work properly until it was done, but the M8 just works fine for me. I did swap the stock air filter for a K&N HD-1717, because I needed a new filter at service and the trade just made sense, and I'd kind of like a bit more sound from the exhaust, but performance-wise I'm leaving it alone.