Dyna Glide ModelsSuper Glide, Super Glide Sport, Super Glide Custom, Dyna Glide Convertible, Super Glide T-Sport, Dyna Glide Police, Dyna Switchback, Low Rider, Street Bob, Fat Bob and Wide Glide.
Like many warm blooded Harley owners, I started looking at exhausts as soon as I brought my bike home. Everything about my Low Rider S was(is) perfect in my eyes, except for the sound. Let me also mention that I am bi-polar and obsessive compulsive. That is the reason that I went through all of these pipes and just couldn't let fair enough alone. I just HAD to get as close to my idea of perfect as possible.
Bassani Road Rage 3 - My first purchase was the Bassani Road Rage 3. I loved the stainless build and the beautiful tig welds. I also like the browning that the pipes take on as you heat cycle it. The sound seemed fine, but nothing like what I heard on YouTube. It was higher pitched and had a strange gurgle on decel. It didn't pop or anything, just a gurgle. It barked like a pissed off dog on deep acceleration. Being my first pipe and my pain in the *** neighbors, I thought it was just overall too loud. Top that off with it constantly burning holes in my pants, I decided that something else might be in my future.
Vance and Hines Pro Pipe - The next pipe to arrive was the Pro Pipe. In all of my excitement, I threw it on as soon as I could find the time in the day. It was a much bigger pain in the *** to install than the Road Rage 3, but I think that is mainly because of the giant heat shields. Upon startup, I noticed that it was a deeper tone, but still fairly loud (My neighbor lady came out the back door and stared at me). I took it out on the road and gave it a nice couple hundred miles before I formed an opinion. It was okay. The problem with it is that it tends to drone at 2500-3000RPMs. It also seemed to have a bit of a dip in the torque curve around that same rev range. The drone just made my head ring after a while on the road. I started to long for the sound and power of my Road Rage.
TBR Comp-S - I went to the HD dealership one day and they had started to sell TBR exhausts. I have heard quite a bit positive about them on this forum, and the guys at the shop just couldn't shut up about them. I heard one of the guys at the shop who had the same bike with the exhaust. It sounded great at idle and seemed to really scream as you applied the throttle. The low RPM sound was really attractive to me, as I could pass that through my neighborhood without my HOA threatening to burn my house down. I sold some of my video game collection and ran off to buy the pipe. Install was a bitch. I attempted to follow their directions to a T. It just wouldn't line up. I fell back to following the installation directions of Lemmy from Revzilla. Everything went on perfectly (except the brake lever was touching the back header...). The idle sounded great. Exactly what I was looking for. Everything was looking up, then I got on the road. A couple hundred miles came and went. The only thing I could really find that was special about this exhaust was it made my bike feel smooth as glass in mid range under acceleration. It was extremely loud, minor drone and had a straight pipe feel to it while cruising. With the rear header touching the brake pedal, it heated that sucker up real nice. I could feel the brake pedal under my boot. I think you can adjust the lever down to get away from that.
After all of that, I sat down and thought through the positives and negatives of each pipe. The Pro Pipe looked great, but was heavy and droned like a bastard. The TBR pipe was super light, smoothed the power curve, but was EXTREMELY loud for a 2:1 exhaust, minor drone. Then there was the Road Rage 3. It had the best sound of the 3, it was the most controlled volume wise, looks amazing, butt dyno said it was right on the money power wise, but had a strange decel gurgle.
Ultimately, I decided that the Road Rage 3 was my huckleberry. I threw it on this morning and headed out for a nice cool ride in the Pacific NW. It was just right for me. It wasn't perfect, but the negative wasn't NEARLY as important to me as the positives.
I'm super happy with my decision, and I'm glad I went through the process. It was a lot of learning, especially installing the systems over and over again. I am much more comfortable turning a wrench on the bike now.
09-07-2017, 04:37 PM
My Exhaust Experience - FXDLS
