I had a really good Harley mechanic tell me he had heard that you can have slip ons after market air cleaner or slip ons and no catalytic convert without a tuner. The stock ecm will adjust for that. But you can't do all 3 without a tuner. So I would like to get rid of the cat because of heat and I already have slip ons. I will leave the stock air cleaner on. Any ideas on this being ok?.I don't want to buy a tuner. Bike is a 2023 RG3 1400.

 

If your goal is just to relieve the heat captured by the cat, but not to significantly change performance, I agree with your mechanic. Do what you want, and if you don't trigger an out of range MIL, the computer has maintained everything within design specs. Many will disagree, but they are the ones wanting to squeeze the last bit of performance out of the modified set up.

As a rider and shade tree mechanic, NOT a trained technician, my humble opinion is that tuners are WAY over sold. Ride it and be happy until it tells you it needs something. Don't be "spring loaded" to try a tuner the first time the check engine light comes on. There are hundreds of things that can trigger a light, and only a few will be traceable to your modifications. Even a "too lean" code might be traceable to a leaky intake gasket or a split vacuum hose.

 

i havea header pipe with the cat removed for sale