Stock Mufflers vs drilled out RK's

[SilvrT]

Thanks to fixitdude who sold me his stock mufflers, I removed my drilled out RK's yesterday and put the stock ones back on. It was a rare sunny warm day for this time of year and on the weekend to boot so I went out riding for the whole day. Took in the Harley demo days and rode a new Ultra Limited (103 cu in) ... great handling and decent power but, and I didn't notice this on previous Harley Ultra demos, the floorboards seemed uncomfortable and the shifter was up very high... had to literally lift my whole foot off the floorboard to shift. UGH ... didn't like that! It had the heated grips but since it was a warm day, my hands were getting kinda hot... I had no idea how to turn them off.

 

Anyhoo, back to the mufflers ... gotta say it was a much more pleasurable ride with the stock pipes although I was much more aware of the engine whine but it's still no where near as bad as it was before I had the I-basket swap. Maybe it's just me but the bike seemed to have more power too! One thing is for sure .... it's got a lot more OOOMPH than that Ultra, especially when the revvs get up there!

[Guest]

Rick, I too just switched back to stock from the drilled out R/K mufflers after running the RK's for 6 years. The noise was beginning to drive me nuts at highway speeds. The stock pipes have a nice bark under acceleration and the bike does seem to be a bit more responsive then before. Funny though, I stopped at a local tattoo shop and one of the artists commented on how nice the bike looked but it needed loud mufflers. I just smiled at him.

[SilvrT]

Rick, I too just switched back to stock from the drilled out R/K mufflers after running the RK's for 6 years. The noise was beginning to drive me nuts at highway speeds. The stock pipes have a nice bark under acceleration and the bike does seem to be a bit more responsive then before. Funny though, I stopped at a local tattoo shop and one of the artists commented on how nice the bike looked but it needed loud mufflers. I just smiled at him.

 

heh ... I did like the "bark" of the RK's but on long trips, especially pulling hills and even worse, pulling a trailer, the RK's were just too annoying. Sometime down the road I would like to ride someone's bike that is running Bubs just to see what they are like. Another thing I noticed about the RK's, especially after I drilled them out was the "pop-popping" while decelerating (probably coz after they're drilled out, it's basically a straight-thru system). Don't have that anymore with the stock muffs. Yes, I did disable the AIS.