I've been reading through all of the posts about 2-into-1 vs. true duals and the tradeoffs there. But I have an 03 Ultra with stock exhaust and mufflers. My biggest concern is heat. This thing is brutal. And I live in TX, so.... yeah.

I bought the bike used about 3 years ago and had the electric keep cutting out on me. I discovered that the heat from the Y pipe had basically trashed the leads going to the main jumper which is right behind it. This is apparently not uncommon as I found the solution in a forum post. But the heat that radiates up from the Y pipe just kills me. I also have a 99 FXR2 with V&H long shots, and have no problem with heat like this bike.

I'm not an adrenaline junkie so the performance gain would be nice, but not a huge priority. I like the look of duals. I really wouldn't mind better sound (low rumble). But the biggest concern is heat. Which way to go?

 

Look for something that's ceramic coated on the inside...helps keep the heat on the inside which speeds up the velocity of the exhaust gases. The other thing thst will help with heat is a good tune

 

The S&S Power Tune dual head pipes run the rear cylinder pipe under the bike like the '09+ bikes to alleviate the heat build up directly under the seat. This will make the bike feel more like your softy from a heat perspective...

 

Thanks. Those answers help a lot actually. I think I'm going to look into a tuner first and see what difference it makes as that seems the cheapest route. Other than that, I've found a 2-into-1 exhaust which is ceramic coated if the tuning doesn't help enough. Its much cheaper than true duals.

 

check the tune first and get that in order,,,,but if you are pretty sure that you want to change the pipe, do that first than get it tuned in correctly. i have an 04 FLHTCUI and when i switched from the stock system to a VH Propipe i noticed a dramatic difference in how much heat i was feeling. got none on the left, due to the 2-1 design and the right side was dramatically better also, but keep in mind that the tune was good, a bad tune will make even a 2-1 feel hot on the right side.
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