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I think I'd be reluctant to dump the stock header pipes. The articles I've read on the 09's all say they are putting out 4 to 5 more HP and a few pounds more torque than the 08's. I suspect the 2 into 1 into 2 design is allowing better scavenging, especially compared to the split rear pipe on the pre-09 models. I can tell there's about even exhaust flow out of both pipes on my 09 Ultra. The 06 I traded barely had any exhaust moving through the left muffler at idle.
I was told the same thing from the performance guy at my dealer. The new 09 exhaust headers are excellent and give two into one performance. I'm going with the V&H or Bub slip ons too, no need to change headers for performance gains.
For sure keep the factory headers. The 2 into 1 into 2 set up really works pretty good. I put V&H Monster Ovals on my '09 Ultra along with the Race Tuner and then had it dynoed. Nice increase in power and torque and the sound is awesome!
My only complaint with the factory header is the bluing. I know these bikes run lean, but my RK only has 500 miles on it and the pipes under the shields are purple!!! I can now see it in the reflection from the tranny cover.
I just put a set of the dyno tuned jackpot slipons on my 07 e-glide ,, after running the scremin eagle street performers, they were ok but i wanted a little better sound, after talking to keith at fuel moto , i decided to go for it. They truly run like a 2 into 1, the sound is great, not to loud , so you can hear the tunes while cruzin, until you stand on the throttle a little bit. Im glad to have bought them. The coloring on the inside of the right pipe is a nice color , but the left pipe has not much color at all... Most exhaust comes from the right pipe, along with most of your sound............
The main reason guys are changing out the stock 2-1-2 header is because the cat. convert. is located in the header. You can change the sound to a certain point, but it will still suck when you are looking for performance. I'm going to wait till next spring to see what comes out for the 09's. Leaning on the V&H Power Dual with the basic slip-on's. The main reason is V&H have 4" mufflers.
I plan on putting SuperTrapp SE Series slipons on my 2009 Ultra.... They used to make the Screaming Eagle mufflers for Harley.
That's what I had on my '07 Street Glide. I bought the package from Fuel Moto (K&N, PCIII and SuperTrapp SE's). I thought they were too quiet, and mentioned when I was out for drinks with my neighbors that I was thinking of getting something a little louder. The entire group said "no, don't do it" almost simultaneously. Apparently they all hear me leaving for work at 6:00AM, so my pipes were probably loud enough without being obnoxious. I did notice them getting louder the last couple thousand miles too, I'm guessing the packing was starting to burn up.
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