this is also true.... you can take a little out at a time.... easier to take away then it is to try and put it back lol

i need to edit my first post about these..... they are off a ROAD GLIDE. i swear the owner of the shop had a street glide, but it was a 2013 ROAD GLIDE these pipes came off of.

compared to the UC pipes the Road Glide pipes are a bit bigger at the end opening (not sure on over all pipe diameter, might check that in the morning) which will help give a deeper tone as well.

 

No one has mentioned the loss of back pressure pulse and any effect on low end torque / performance.

I will admit to being a novice in this area and do not want to come off sounding like a know it all - however I don't want my bike to sound like a raped silverback either.

 

So I cut out my RK left baffle nice and easy. Had to make two circulare cuts to slip out the baffle but it looked pretty good. The right side though is a different story. For some reason, I assume to avoid you cutting them out, they placed a big bell on the right baffle and you have to open up the entire pipe to slip it out. So I now have two wide open pipes. It was not what I wanted, until I rode it. Holy cow it sounds deep, throaty and awesome. Its not sharp, idle is not too loud for the neighbors, no backfire or loud pop on decel, or cracking like some open pipes. I assume the cat still being installed helps this.

There are some tricks if you are going to do this. DO NOT cut the mesh holding in the packing as it will start coming loose. I knicked it one side and I have to fix it a little so it does not unravel like a sweater. Just cut around closest to the end of the pipe as the mesh/packing starts about a inch or so inside.

I spent $5 instead of $500 and will get me by until I want to upgrade the exhaust, if that is!

 

i think the cat has a good "pre muffle" i'm sure, then with the wide open pipe it has a VERY nice deep rumble, and not a tinny cackle!!

i JUST got asked the same thing at lowes a few hours ago... guy walked across the parking lot to ask what pipes i had.... told him factory RG pipes.... he said "BullS**T"... yep take a look, he said well hell.... then he noticed "no baffles"... he said AH HA there's the secret lol

i told him i got them dirt cheap and cut them out and bolted them on, nice low rumble at idle, good tone on acceleration, not overpowering at highway speeds, and no tinny hollow drown!!

 

I can't believe you can make it sound so good for so cheap! I took a wire wheel and dressed up the inside, taped off the chrome and used black engine paint on the inside to give it a finished look as the inside was a little rusty.

It sounds faster so maybe its me but I think it opened her up a little.

 

if you don't want to fork out the BIG BUCKS for a 3.5 or 4" pipe, this is the cheapest and easiest way to bring out some rumble, and yes i do agree that it does un-cork it a bit.

i notice a bit more throttle response, and from a "seat of the pants" dyno... it feels as though it does have more pep as well.

 

This is a good tip. I've done this myself. But a hole saw makes a much cleaner and perfectly round hole. Just have a good drill and a steady hand and let the saw do the work.

 

Tons of great info in here. I've read backwards till the garage opener mods. Definitely gotta get wrenching!

 

If you're tired of fishing around the bottom of you bags or trying to remember where you put the pins and washers when you removed them, try making a few sets of these fastener keepers. It's an inexpensive way to keep the pins and washers close at hand. I had a lot of the stuff lying around so it didn't cost me much more than some time to make these. My best estimate is that this would cost less than $10 if you had to buy everything.

Here is the finished and installed product.



They are pretty simple to make.

I used some black 16ga stranded wire, some 14/16ga ring terminals with the plastic insulation removed, some 1/4" O-rings and some black heat shrink tubing. I used 6" of wire for each keeper but you can choose the size that works best for you.



First I cut the wire to size - no need to strip the insulation off the wire - and slid the wire (insulation and all) into the terminal. Once in the terminal I crimped it.



I then slid the piece of heat-shrink tubing over the wire and on to the terminal end.



I slid the second piece of heat-shrink tubing onto the wire and crimped on the other terminal. I slid the second piece of heat-shrink tubing onto the other terminal as before. I was careful to make sure that the terminals both faced the same way as this allows for the wire to lay flat while connected and it looks better too.



I repeated this process four times so that I had a keeper for each of the fasteners.

Then, using my heat gun, I shrunk the heat-shrink tubing.



Then I took the 1/4" O-Ring and slid it onto the pin.



I made sure that I pushed it all the way down so it kept the fender washer in place.



With a pair of needle nose pliers, I popped one side of the ring on the end of the pin out of its hole so I could insert one end of the terminal keeper onto it.



I slid the terminal on so it looked like this



Using the proper torx bit, I loosened one of the screws holding on the bag latch. I found that using the one furthest away from the pin allows the six inches of wire to lay in a nice arc.



I placed the other terminal under the screw and tightened it to factory specs and repeated it three more times and I was done!



I've learned a lot from this forum and thought I would give back by sharing this. Happy to answer any questions.

 

that's a good one right there.... was thinking i was going to use a very small chain of some kind, but i have tons of wire around here lol... that's even cheaper LOL!