I installed them in my stock slip-ons about a month after purchasing the bike so they were brand new pipes. I think the stock slip-ons are pretty thin and the vibrations just wore at them and caused them to crack. I have thought about buying another set of TTI's for the Straight Shots but have hesitations due to thinking I would have to drill into them as well. If they are a direct fit into the existing threaded fastener hole then I may just have to buy another set because I do feel the noticeable reduction of torque without them. I just have questions on how they would thread into the hole?

I had trouble getting the TTI's in the holes I drilled because of the length of the TTI bolts not allowing the TTI's to be able to stand straight up inside the pipe while installing them.

Maybe part of the cause of the pipes cracking is, due to not being able to stand them up straight while installing them, I drilled holes that were a bit larger diameter than the TTI bolts to get them to fit in, so they had a little bit of wiggle room when not tight. This wiggle room may have caused them to slightly wiggle when tight due to the vibrations and eventually caused the pipes to crack at the holes. You may not be implying the install process had anything to do with the failure of the slip-ons but I am willing to bet that it had everything to do with it.

At first I tried to drill holes that the TTI bolts fit snugly in and when trying to install them I could not get them in the hole due to not having enough room to stand them up straight at 90* inside the pipe to align them perfectly to the holes and slide them into the more snug holes. Had I trimmed the bolt I probably could have fit them in the smaller, more snug holes but would not have had enough bolt sticking through the pipe to center the TTI's in the slip-ons. I had to slip them in the pipe at an angle while trying to finagle with them for a bit to get them to slide into the slightly larger holes I drilled. Any suggestions here? I wish I had pictures to illustrate what I am trying to describe but I don't so I hope you can picture what I am saying here.

Here's a pic of the broken pipe.

 

I don't know if Cycle Shack is still around, but I love how they sound. MXL-130s.

 

Vans & Hines 3" Twin Slash slip-ons with standard baffles and DK Custom's 158TTIs. Fit and finish is great, chrome is excellent, nice low rumble and no lose of low end torque.

 

Best is different for different people....like Kevin mentioned sound, looks, performance or some combination of each.

Also as mentioned, if your Screamin Eagles are SEIIs, keep and use them. They are great slip-ons. I had them and loved them with TTIs, but I bought those for temporary use with scratches underneath.

I currently run 3" Rush with 2.25" baffles and W158 TTIs....they sound awesome and performs well. Chrome is also great. Here are a couple of pics

 

I went with the rush 3” cans with the 1.75” baffles and found them way too loud for the wife. They were bordering on having to wear earplugs for any distance riding other than a quick blast up the road for milk .
I swapped out the 1.75 for the 1.50 baffles and it did make a little difference, but once the packing started to settle it was like the 1.75’s all over again. On both accounts the bike did run good but with the 1.75 I did loose some of that great harley toque, not so much with the 1.5’s though but volume was an issue.
Id be looking at bikes in person rather than looking at videos as the sound is very different in real time.

I went back to the stock pipes and a tune from fuel moto for the time being, bike pulls nice 2 up, good toque and I’m happy the way it’s running Just don’t have that rumble that makes it a harley.

I do wish Rush would make a 1” baffle option for their 3” cans as I really do like the pipes.

Rush are loud and you’ll need a tuner for the ecm fuel management ( give Jamie a call @ fuelmoto he’ll hook ya up.

Wiz

 

Can't imagine not wearing earplugs. Even with whisper quiet exhaust they are still needed (at least in my book) due to wind noise (long term exposure = bad). Especially true when wearing a half helmet. Still true with most FF helmets. Trick is - is getting ear plugs that are comfortable. Ultra-Soft Silicon ear plugs from CVS work for me. I can wear them all day and not notice them. Just the right amount of attenuation.

Ear plugs certainly make nice sounding pipes/slip-ons doable. I'd skip going back to stock exhaust, put the Rush SO's back on, and put the ear plugs in. Problem solved.

 

+1,000 !! Too many older riders have constant ringing in their ears. There's no going back at that point.

 

You may want to try the TTI 258 from DK Customs. I am using the 158 but I used the 258 with 2" baffles and it quieted down the pipes quiet a bit....but I like loud. So a cheap try to see if it will brings down the volume enough so you can enjoy the deep tone and performance of the rush.

 

Well I’d have to say that helmet design and wind noise goes Hand in hand, never had any issues with any of my shoei helmets but the Harley helmet I got a few weeks back does have wind whistle problems.
Like thay say. Ya get what ya pay for .

I do like the rush so’s particularly with the 1.5 baffle but once the packing starts to loosen up after 2-3 hundred miles they become noisy, But I’m guessing that when you have ya front exhaust pipe right under ya right ear hole. Ya get the idea , But a 1” baffle option for the 3” cans would be great. Not everyone wants the pipes ringing ya ears after every ride, but some of us ain’t chasing the HP numbers also ,just a nice rumble that the vtwin can produce.

Wiz

 

Never had a Shoei. My previous was an Arai. Every FF helmet I've owned had some amount of wind noise. Current helmet is a Nolan N87. Like it just as much as my last Arai, and it was less than half the price. I suspect it has some wind noise, but I wear ear plugs so I don't know how much nor does it bother me (can't hear it with the plugs in). I can tell you this, if you got a nice sounding exhaust, there is a good possibility that the FF will act as an echo chamber. I put the soft silicon ear plugs in once or twice where I didn't get a good seal. The echo chamber with the pipes was too much. Had to pull over and deal with it. Once the seal was established, all was good.

Compromises... Want good sounding pipes? Might need to make compromises/adjustments to accommodate them/make them livable. I like my V&H Side Shots. Not exactly the quietest set of pipes. I've adjusted to make them work (again ear plugs). The only downside - you can't really hear how your bike sounds while riding with the ear plugs in. Then again, you can't really hear how it really sounds even without ear plugs. Sound perception is different from the saddle. Only time I've heard my bike is when my mechanic has taken it for test rides. Damn if it didn't sound good. I don't really need to hear it while I ride. I know it's making some fine music even if I can't hear it.