Long drill bit with a 12" extension. Drill all around the perimeter tight to the pipe. Then drill a bunch more holes. Spade bit goes in to remove even more material and as it gets "caught" it breaks the material free from exhaust pipe. Once it is moving around, send something long with a hook on it and start pulling it out.

I shoved a rag into the cross over pipe to minimize debris to the left side. Really was not much junk left on the sides. Then a skinny extension on the shop vac, put your hand over the other muffler outlet and it creates a dam strong vacuum in the entire exhaust. Done and done.

 

Easy clean (er) way is to get a 10" long 3" diameter concrete bit and a hamemr drill. Both can be rented.
While mounted on the bike, remove slip on, sink sheet rock screw into cat so you have a handle if needed. Start drilling. The entire cat should pull out with the drill bit, if not grab screw and pull the whole thing out in one chunk. Takes about 1-2 minutes to do. Point pipe at ******* neighbor house (NOT in your garage) and push start. Will make a nice cloud of dust and soot.

 

I've tinkered with decatting and recently got a cam upgrade so I'll put my experiences in just in case.

On my 2010 Ultra Classic I put a decatted stock headpipe on it because I got one cheap. One thing I noticed was almost any muffler I put on the bike after that was way too loud for my liking. For a while I ran the stock mufflers on that decatted headpipe and was VERY pleased with how well it tuned and ran. No popping or surging at all. When I wanted a little more sound I got some Screamin' Eagle mufflers at a swap meet and they sounded nice but I did notice a SLIGHT decrease in midrange torque but a tiny bit more low end torque. The main thing I was after when I did that experimenting was a stock look. The bike had Rinehart true duals system on it when I got it and it ran like crap and covereed up the oil dispstick. When I settled on the decatted stock headpipe and SE mufflers I left it like that until I traded the bike.

When I got my 2023 Ultra Limited I decided to leave the stock headpipe unaltered for warranty reasons and I had also heard some M8 bikes with decatted headpipes and really didn't like the sound. To me they lost the deep rumble and just sounded obnoxious. Maybe some other mufflers would have sounded good to me but I haven't heard any yet that I liked. When I upgraded the cam the bike got noticeably louder especially on the highway and I found that the Fuel Moto Jackpot mufflers strike a nice balance in sound with the stock headpipe.

Speaking of cams I got the SE 447 cam installed about a year ago. I got my dealer to do it and I already had the SE tuner. I had the oil pump upgraded to the new SE unit, they used S&S lifters, tappet cuffs, and adjustable pushrods and I think the upgraded cam bearing. If I remember correctly the whole job was a little over $2500. My only complaint was the crap SE stage 2 tune. I had to tinker with it a lot to get rid of the spark knock (bike is still under warranty). I figure an aftermarket tuner wouldn't have that problem.

I test rode a 107 and was surprised at the difference in low end torque vs. the 114. If I had a 107 I think I'd do a cam upgrade from what I have seen on the dyno charts. It seems to make it run like a 114 without major engine disassembly.

 

Damn it @Architect , I forgot to respond to this, lol! Thanks for the idea.
Has anybody just used a proper sizes hole saw to take it out?
The one thing that makes me little concerned is that I've read that the area where the cat sits can cause unwanted air turbulence and back pressure after the cat is pulled out. Anyone else hear of that?

 

I threw my bike (2025 FLTRX with the TTS185 cam) on the drum, and tested just exhaust changes- with stock exhaust pipe and mufflers (brown run), and same setup with cat removed (green run).


Compared to a free flowing exhaust (FM XXX 2-1-2 pipe) and slip-ons.

 

More than one way to skin a cat...or de-cat

 

That's an interesting dip there around 2,300 rpm with the FM exhaust. Did the dyno tester give you any information on why it was there? It's so large and smooth, it almost seems like he rolled off the throttle while running the test.

 

Couldn't that dip be tuned out? Could be a timing or fuel issue with the exhausts harmonics.

 

Very interesting chart from ridgid. It makes me think back to when I was tinkering with my 2010. When I had the decatted head pipe with stock mufflers the torque curve seemed pretty linear. When I changed the stock mufflers to the SE ones with the same headpipe (on those SE mufflers you could see daylight through them) I noticed a tiny bit more torque at very low RPMs and throttle settings. I wasn't sure, but I THOUGHT I felt a little dip in torque around 3500 rpm, but I wasn't sure. I ran some auto tune runs and it didn't seem to change the overall torque feel, but it did seem to smooth out throttle response.

When I first got my 23 Ultra Limited I did buy a new take off headpipe just in case I wanted to try a cat free setup in the future, but the more decatted M8s I hear, the less I like the sound. Still might be something I tinker with though. The FM Jackpot mufflers seem to quiet down on the highway, but I remember that similar setup I had on my old bike would get pretty loud when pulling hills. For me this Ultra is for relaxing and traveling. I've got a couple of other bikes that sound like the Devil is coming to dinner and he's already been in the bean dip.

 

Not with the SE tuner- it lacks the range and ability to control certain parameters. The AFRs were decent, but not precise, due to the limits of the software.