I got the Bub Straight Away pipes in long staggered for my '07 Street Bob. The sound is more raspy than my previous Rineharts, and there is a weird sound when you let off the throttle like paper slapping or something. Very annoying. I've checked every bolt inside and out twice and it's all tight.

But the biggest reason is the quality of their chrome heat shields. There is none. I had wavy and looks like dimpled chrome on the latter 1/3rd of the pipes shields. Here is what Bub told me...can you believe this? Do they think we are idiots???

"I have checked the stock on hand and they all display to some degree this unavoidable distortion. It is the nature of the metal being bent, welded and shaped into the high performance exhaust system it is meant to be. Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns."

What a crock of $@&#!!!!!! Worst $600 bones I ever spent.

 

You should have gotten the black ones mine were flawless. For the sound all you need to do is wrap a little fiberglass around the baffles and it'll give it a deeper tone.
Do the baffles fit in snuggly? if they are loose that could be the sound your getting when you let off the throttle. The fiberglass will take care of that too. Since you spent the money on them you might as well try to make them better.

 

I like your optimism...I'm not normally pessimistic but felt the need to vent. I think I'll wrap them with exhaust tape. How did you remove the baffles?

 

I've got a buddy that's got a set of Bubs on his bike and I think they sound almost as good as mine, and he's had them for a good six or seven years and they still look great. As a matter of fact he's storing it in my garage and I just went out and looked at them and I don't see any of the imperfections you're talking about. I think maybe you just got a bad set. There is no justifying their customer service response though.

 

Wow, I got the Sidecutters in black. Look great, fit great and sound even better. They only cust 459.00 on Ebay

 

The heat shields on my Bub 7 2-1 are like what you mentioned but not too bad looking.

 

Wow! Sorry for your misfortune. My Lakesters (in black) were perfect. Did you ask them about an exchange?

 

I did ask about an exchange and they said no because I had put them on the bike. They said once installed, they won't take them back.

Black would cure the problem, but I'm talking about the chrome one's here.

No one else is having the off-throttle trashy sound? It's not backfire or anything...just a paper trashy slapping type sound.

My thoughts are that my Rineharts were excellent sound and quality (except the endcaps). There was a split and Bub went one way and Rinehart Racing went the other. Quality down now because Rinehart left?? Who knows. I wouldn't recommend the chrome due to the defects, and they know about it and won't fix it. I wouldn't recommend the Straight Away pipes due to the sound above. If the baffles are the problem, then that is quality control as well. Either way, the company has a problem here and won't do anything about it.

If there is a Bub rep on here at all, I would gladly try another pair of the same kind and rewrite my opinion if I only got a bad pair. So far, they won't stand behind their product. I should have known, since my old system had faulty endcaps (widespread problem) where they would turn from black to orange and brown. They wouldn't replace that obvious defect either...thus me buying a new set. Rinehart reps told me the 3 year old system was a Bub product (even though Rinehart's name was all over it) and Bub would have to replace the endcaps. Well, they wouldn't. Only reason I went back to them was I loved the sound of my Rinehart slipons...but these aren't as deep sounding as those were.

 

My Bub 7 2-1 exhaust doesn't have the same deep tone of my Rinehart Slip-ons. Don't have many miles on them yet but the Rinehart Slip-ons sounded great right out of the box. There was very little difference in the Dyno between the two. In fact, the Slip-ons pulled harder, longer. The 2-1 has a couple more ftlbs of torque but doesn't pull as long. No odd sound when on decel. They sound okay but not as good as the Rineharts. Everyone else thinks they sound great.

 

I have the Sidecutters in black, and there's no odd sound when letting off the throttle. Sucks about the Customer Service, they've always been awesome with me. I call them every three or four weeks while they're R&D-ing some quiet baffles for the Sidecutters, and they're great.