I own a 2012 Limited 103 (stock except cats are gone) and on the endless search for that perfect sounding exhaust. Love the look and sound of the Rhinehearts but they are too loud for me and I know they will only get louder over the years. My buddy gave me a set of stock exhaust off a 2007 CVO Road King. Love the looks of the pipes but they are quieter that my stock exhaust.

In the past with my metric bikes, touring included, I have drilled a series of holes in the rear welded plate of the baffles that were like the ones on the CVO stock exhaust, non-removable. Staggering the drilled holes and the size of these holes , sometimes came up with some pretty sweet sounding exhaust. My son has a 2010 Yamaha Raider 113 ci that sounds great after some drilling of the stock exhaust. Sometimes you make a mess of them and they sound like $hit.

Anybody been successful doing this on the CVO stock exhaust? I called the dealer to find out if maybe these had cats in the mufflers since they have these chrome heat shields on them...they said no cats till 2009 on the HD touring bikes and only then they were in the head pipes. I thought I remember that HD put cats in the mufflers for a couple of years but I am not sure.

Still on the journey to find a exhaust that is not too loud that it get the cops on me or wear me down on those long road trips, and that sound great, without buying 3 different sets of mufflers for this bike.

I know I am probably looking for that famed white elephant...with wings.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

 

I too have been on that search, and found what I was looking for in a set of '05 CVO pipes. But I have an 88" motor and my pipes are completely different then yours. But are working great for me. Mine are actually the HD Performance Touring Mufflers (65259-00) they used to sell out of the big HD catelog. They also used them for the '03 to '05 CVO bikes.

On my muffler journey I once had a set of '06 CVO mufflers and they DID have cats in the mufflers. You could see the honeycomb material if you shined a light into the inlet end of the muffler. I was able to core my cats out and they sounded better. Should have never gotten rid of those pipes. They have a deeper sound but they are not going to be much louder than stock. Same as my new '05 CVO muffs. But that is what I wanted.

I would recommend taking this question the CVO Harley website and it is discussed in great detail here http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?board=27.0 They all recommend a baffle replacement from Fullsac specifically for the CVO mufflers, over drilling holes in the muffler which apparantly sounds like crap.

My freind has the exact bike that you have. He is running a set of '11 CVO mufflers and is very pleased with the sound and performance. These did not have the cat in the mufflers.

 

the drill exercise is a fun money saver- but i think a time waster.

results are hit and miss- and most guys who do this end up buying a set of pipes.

there is alot of science and physics to flow and velocity, drilling holes just adds a "randomness" which may actually detract from performance control of gas direction and velocity is changed as are pulse waves

what you want is the "unicorn"- a high flow pipe with controllable sound.

that is what the Supertrapp supermeg does with it stacked disc tuning system ( and once understood the made for screaming eagle nightstick and fatshots can be tuned like the supertrapp).

supertrapps consistently make top-rated power, are tunable and can be retuned for motor changes, can emphasize horsepower or torque can be made quiet load or just louder than stock - in minutes.
and have been doing so since the 70's
and are spark arrest compliant ( so you can ride your bagger through the woods)


alot of us here use them.

not all pipes made by supertrapp use the disc system

Mike

 

Google Fullsac performance. They offer baffles for CVO mufflers.

 

Yep good information above. I know it is a shot in the dark to drill and get good results...

The Supertrap or Night Sticks that Harley sales is what the tuner at my dealer recommended for better torque and HP...tunable he said... but, I am told they have a raspy sound. He also said they are relatively quite till you get after that engine or running 75 MPH on the interstate...

I just pulled them back off and looked in the inlet of these pipe and they DO have the cats inside the mufflers...as I suspected but I do not know why I did not look in that end. I looked in the headers and the outlet end for the cats but do not know why I did not look in the inlet. Feel like an idiot cause I believed the dealer...

I think if I get the cats out of these, they just might be better than they are now.
Working now to get them opened up...
Saga continues...

 

these pipes are completely adjustable by changing the end caps and disc stacks.

they become what you want.

mike

 

12Limited,

Here is what I did:

One option is to purchase a concrete boring bit that will attach to your drill and you can "core" out the material, but when I priced them they were quite expensive. Do a search you may find more info on using the bit.

But being the cheap SOB that I am, this is what I did. I found a 18" length of galvanized pipe in the garage, something like what would be used for chain link fencing. It must have had a OD size of just over 1.5" and just slid into the muffler intake opening perfectly. I took this pipe, and with a bench grinder I sharpened one end of the pipe. On the other end I cross drilled a 1/2" hole and inserted a long 1/2" bolt to make a type of "T" handle. I know this sound pretty crude, but I just stood the muffler on end (on a piecd of thick rubber to protect the end cap, and use a small hammer size 5 lb. sledge to pound the sharpened pipe into the soft cat material. After a few hits I used the "T" hand to spin and move the pipe so it didn't get wedged into the cat material. And Repeat...

The cat is only about 2" thick and it probably took 10 minutes for each side of pounding and spinning to get it out. It left a nice clean 1.5"+ hole right throught the cat material.

Barbaric I know, but it really worked pretty slick.

Like you I got mine for basically nothing. It was worth a try and it worked.

 

Well I got some pretty good results... I ground off the welds that held the baffles in...removed them and my god, no wonder they are so quiet.
First there was the CATS in the inlet, then they had 2 pipes that were formed into half pipes and welded together...both of them open on the end. The exhaust had to go to to the back of the muffler cans then travel to the front and exit into the 1/2 pipe leading to the outlet. All this is surrounded by fiberglass packing in the outer shell of the muffler.
I drilled some 3/4 holes in these two pipes so the exhaust would not have to make the trip forward and then exit the mufflers...Installed the baffles and stuck them on the bike to test...still not as loud as my stock pipes. Pulled them back apart, cut a 3" section of the baffle pipe out so the exhaust gas and go just about straight through. You can see through them now from inlet to outlet.
This worked...got a mild rumble now... Spot welded the baffles back in...button everything back up. Rode it about 25 miles this morning. I think I like it. Nice mellow rumble but not too loud.
Headed out on a road trip in the AM...1000-1300 miles probably. we will see what happens.
I will probably wind up with the super traps or night stick before I dyno tune the bike...just for the sake of being able to tune the back pressure for better performance.
This will do for now while I save my coins for the tuning.

Thanks for the help from all of you that posted.