I just bought a 2013 Heritage and have heard about the various stage upgrades. What upgrade can / or do I need to have done to get the great Harley sound and extra power?

 

A stage one seems to be what you are looking to do. A stage one consist of exhaust (full system or slip ons) performance air cleaner (for increased air flow) and tuner (example; screaming eagle race tuner). You can choose from any number of brands for exhaust, air cleaner, and tuner. If you want to get an idea of how certain exhaust sound youtube is a good place to start and also the local Harley dealership should have some bikes on hand with different exhaust you could hear. Hope you find exactly what you are looking for.

 

Exhaust is usually the first thing that gets done. Either full exhaust or slip-ons. Then an open element air cleaner, either a H-D Screamin Eagle unit or an aftermarket one from DKCustoms, Arlen Ness, or Vance and Hines. This stuff will let the engine breathe a bit easier and sound better. This commonly referred to as a Stage 1 upgrade. Sometimes accompanied by the addition of a tuner from one of many sources. On a '13 bike a tuner isn't necessary as the ECM will adjust for the upgrade within reason. However, new bikes come from the factory tuned to very lean air/fuel ratios to meet EPA requirements and an independent tuner from FuelMoto is recommended to overcome these restrictions, making your bike run better and cooler. Hope this helps.

 

Congrats on the new ride Nate.

Info above is good.

Below is a pic of my 2012 Heritage.



As you can see, I did some cosmetics mods to it.

To get the best Stage 1 power and a good Harley sound, I used the DK Custom Outlaw Hi-Flow Air Cleaner with the Chrome Cyclone Cover. There are lots of styles to choose from, you can see them HERE. For exhaust I used the Samson Fishtails with Thunder Torque Inserts and a Power Vision tuner. I could not be happier with how it turned out.

 

If you get good flowing air filter and better flowing exhaust, You will need a tuner. These bikes are very lean from the factory. After above said mods your bike will be extremly lean. It will run good and get good milage but the lean condition will be detrimental to your engine. If you don't believe me, after running with above mentioned mods, pull your plugs you will see. Please don't be fooled about a proper tune on a very lean bike...

 

Stg 1 will make her run better and cooler if tuned, but for more TQ,, U also need to add some cams to really wake her up.

I couldn't really tell any diff in HP or TQ(seat of the pants) with just the Stg 1 and I could really feel the diff when I added the cams.

With cams added to the Stg1 and a good tune Ur motor should run about 30* cooler, run better and smoother, get 2-3 better mileage, make 6th gear usable and have from 10 -20% more HP and TQ all the way across the sheet.

Mostly cams will put a lot more and bigger smile on Ur face than just the pipes and HP-A/C




.

 

I sure as hell could!

 

Simple mods:
Send you mufflers to American Custom for exchange. You'll get baffles you can change out to modify you sound.
http://www.americancustom.com/

Install a set of XIEDs...
http://www.nightrider.com/parts/

Go ride...

If you want to spend more money, you can add:
Get the Screamin' Eagle or Arlen Ness air filter upgrade...
http://www.harley-davidson.com/store...18-2977302c--1, or...
http://www.jpcycles.com/product/402-080

And the fuel management system of your choice, just depends on what you want to spend...

 

Stage 1= Air cleaner and pipes, as already stated.

We have the Bassani Road Rage 2-1 pipe on our '12 Heritage and still with the stock air cleaner I could feel the difference, plus, you get the nice DEEP rumble sound that is NOT to loud when you open up the throttle.

Here is some videos of our bike.


and this one from the Bassani web site, yep that's our bike


Looking at changing the air cleaner, in the near future, to the Fuel Moto unit as it keeps the stock cover in place and going with the Fuel Moto Micro tuner, as I don't think I will go farther than this first stage mod for a LONG time.

 

Stage 1 = exhaust (full or slip ons), high flow exhaust, tuner or ECM download
Stage 2 = all of Stage 1 plus cams
Stage 3 = all of Stage 2 plus high flow cyl heads

All 3 stages can also be combined with a big bore kit . If all your looking for is sound just change out the slip on to something that you like. Go to a local bike night , gathering , dealership on a sat or browse UTube for ideas on what sound you like. If you want a little better response and a cooler running bike do the whole stage 1. if you want more power and to more effectivly change the sound to the old harley sound you will also need to go stage 2 and change outt the cams . Once you get rid of the EPA complaint cams and exhaust and tune the exhaust note changes and the engine wakes up.

IMO the best bang for your $ (or hp / $) is the stage 2. if your going Stage 1 look into what Fuel Moto has to offer for a package deal it will save over the dealer offerings