Why did Harley stop using the crossover pipe on the exhaust?And what is the reason for the crossover pipe anyway?I had the pipe on my ride for awhile but got rid of it for V&H straightshots.When I bougt the V&H they cam with the header pipes so I just removed the enitre exhaust not just the slip-ons.

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Because they are fugly and make it a real PIA to adjust your carb.

 

They do have a crossover. They just hid it and also use it as part of the mounting. It improves performance.

 

Yup you lose all your midrange torque if you use drag bars the new ones hide the crossover in themount flanges or just run a small black one behind the chrome.

 

...it's too bad harley didn't run the crossovers hidden, but still connecting the header pipes instead of the mufflers. Now when you buy slip-ons, they have to have the cross-over flange.

 

Just in case you come across a nice sounding set of pipes one day (the potato, potato, potato sound) and realize that the pipes don't have a crossover, here is the rest of the story.

Most Harley exhaust systems use a crossover pipe/tube to provide adequit backpressure. Without it you will have a loss of torque in the low to mid range. There are sets of pipes, typically among the most expensive ones, that don't have a crossover and do not suffer a loss of torque. These pipes are often called "True Duals".

Most of the True Dualsdon't utilizestandard header pipes we see on typical exhaust systemsbut use a tuned "stepped header" to achieve the necessary backpressure.The header pipe diameter changes along the length of the pipe allowing for a better flow while maintaining the necessary backpressure.

The elimination of the crossover keeps the sound seperate in each of the pipes which makes the patato, potato sound more pronounced. Kind of like the difference between mono & stero.

Sorry if that is more than you wanted to know.

 

Good explaination cHarley. I know that you need a certain amount of back pressure but never dug into the whole issue.Ialmost threw out a comment of thelack of the crossover being BS. I never noticed a loss in performance when I removed my stock exhaust, but I switched to a Bassani Chopper exhaust. The Bassani's have the stepped head pipes. I actually feel better "rear end" performance out of theBassani's than the stock with the crossover.