My wife rides a nice little 883 Super Low. It's that time where the stock pipes go and the new ones come. I'm looking at a few different brands so I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Question of the day is: Do I really need to change the intake and remap it too????

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

you should be able to do JUST the exhaust and most likey not have to change anything else

 

When you say "pipes" do you mean complete exhaust or slip-on mufflers?The reason I ask is because you can sometimes get better performance from slip-ons than from new "pipes" depending on design [2 into 1 pipes excluded, as they're about if not the best performance wise] if in fact better performance is what you're/she's looking for. If it's just louder or deeper sound then I suggest you go hang out at a bike night or indy or dealership and have a listen as the bikes pull in and out to get an ear full of what this and that sounds like before you pull the trigger on what everybody tells you what you should get, LOL, since sound is all in the ear of the beholder! Then when you've finally made your choice you can then scour the 'net looking for the best price...

As far as a tune requirement, the "rule" says that when you undertake just one of either the exhaust or intake improvements, you should be fine without a remap [or jet change if the engine's not EFI]. It's when you add both however that you'll need to do something about the additional lean condition that you'll be creating from adding both free flowing exhaust and free breathing intake.

If you go for both, there are two ways to attack the lean condition...you can either lessen it with a product called XiED's, or eliminate it altogether with a tuner. Depending on how far you want to go, the depth of your wallet, and if you require the "other" benefits that are presented by a good tuner, you can spend $100 for the XiED's to anywhere from $260 for the V&H Fuel Pak to $500 for the Power Vision to $799 or better for a ThunderMax tuner. The choice is yours. Many claim that the XiED's are good enough, but since their only purpose and ability is to lessen the lean condition by a % they technically aren't a tuner and shouldn't be confused with such. A tuner on the other hand will completely eliminate the lean condition and go above and beyond the abilities of the factory ECM settings and datapoints in regards to timing, accel, decel, raising the rev limit, etc. to give better performance catered to your mods. This all becomes part of the cost, and of course with anything of this nature, you have to pay for this if you want to play.

When I first got my '09 Iron I kept it stock for a while, as I familiarized myself with it and just had fun riding it. Then it became apparent after a few months [LOL] that I would have to do something about it's sewing machine sound so that was the first quest I ventured out upon. Oy, what an exercise that was but I finally made a decision and off I went to Dennis Kirk for a set of Khrome Werks slip-ons. Then of course, wanting a little better overall performance possibilities I went looking for an intake...Oy˛, to be honest I didn't like most of what was out there, round, scooped, modified ham can whatever, until I saw the K&N Air Charger and that was that! Then of course having to 'round out the system with a way to get rid of that pesky lean condition, I ultimately decided on a DynoJet PowerVision tuner, which IMHO was the best $$ spent out of the lot. The damn thing runs like a top, sounds great, and all this for a few MPG loss.

Well I'm rambling again but there's a purpose to it; to get you to do your homework and to become familiarized and edjumicated so you can make good decisions on your upgrades. Why do I say that? Because it seems like there's alot of people around here who've made hasty decisions when they first start out going full bore gung ho and all, and their garages are full of aftermarket thangs & trinkets sitting in their boxes gathering dust that they wished they'd never bought. I'm fortunate, since I am old and almost crusty and learned my lessons years ago, so I can share that my garage has only the bike in it, LOL.

Anywho, best wishes on your information quest, and ride safe! Oh, and post up some pics of Momm'a ride too when you get the chance, we love pics here!

=8^)

 

That is the rule but it is my understanding that "Short Shots" do not fall under that rule. When adding short shots the lean condition that is already present increases so remapping or tuning is necessary. Slip-on's or longer pipe systems still fall under the rule thou..

 

Nah. Who told you this, the dealer? "They" also state that when adding their "Heavy Breather" intake you MUST remap and that's simply not so; they only want you in there for the business and to buy THEIR tuner and to pay for THEIR MAP to be installed, which as we all know is stiffled due to legalities. Anyway, no matter what the exhaust, to increase the factory lean condition the rest of the equation has to be entered into the formula; a free flowing intake. As long as that bottle neck still exists there's no increase in the lean condition; you can't get anymore air in, so how can the A/F ratio become leaner? And the short shots are nothing special, 'matter of fact my Khrome Werks mufflers are 99% as open as they are and offer practically the same level of sound, and I wouldn't hesitate to run mine alone if I didn't have an intake and tuner.

=8^)

 

I think it's hit or miss if it will run right with the addition of new pipes. most people seem to have no problem while a few get some detonation on hard acceleration or popping on deceleration . best way to know is buy the pipes you like put them on and if it seems fine ride it. if not then you need to look into adjusting your air fuel ratio. without a dyno no way to actually see how rich or lean your motor is running with the stock ecm.

 

Wow a ton of great info. Thank you very much. I really do appreciate it.

 

Guessing your OL's 883L's a EFI bike...if you're swapping "entire" exhaust then get something to add some fuel to your mix (i.e. XieDs). Bike will run cooler, smoother & more efficiently...JMO.

 

emperado:

I have a 2012 Superlow and at first just added Screaming Eagle slipons[299.95].Great improvement in sound,not to loud and helped the low end performance a little.Next I added a Screaming Eagle Stage 1 aircleaner[139.95].A little more improvement in performance and ran pretty smooth.Next I had the dealer do a reflash on the ECM [200.00] and got a little more improvement,ran smoother and cooler.I didn't get a tuner because this is all the changes I plan to make and I feel I got the boost in performance I was looking for,not a bunch,but more that enough to notice.Good luck on your quest,this board has all the info you need and plenty of people willing to help.

John[the old]

 

Thanks Fellas...I'm going to look at the slip ons a bit more. She doesn't ride a ton of miles, she just wants the sound for the most part.