Just bought my 2016 Superlow. Considering time of year and the cold weather I am getting used to it pretty quickly and loving every minute. It only has 2500miles on it so is basically new.
But while I don't hate the exhaust note, I would like a little richer sound I have had decades of truly loud cars and bikes and appreciate a little subtlety in my machines these days.
So what experiences has anyone had with modifying the stock mufflers?
Seems logical that step one would be to gut the cats, then if not quite there, remove the baffles and enlarge the holes and reinstall.
So how much difference would I expect from these steps?
Thoughts?

 

I have a 2016 FXBB street bob. My cats are in my head pipes, not in the mufflers. One poster w/same bike as mine said his were in the mufflers. Maybe at a certain date break. Just an FYI. Also ,IMO it’s worthwhile to buy decent quality mufflers, do your home work on these. A lot of claims on what the flavor of the day mufflers do for you can be bs. Some are not so good and you will lose low/mid torque. Of corse after the muffler(s), a high flow intake ,and then a fuel tuner. These things will wake your bike up some.

 

M8s already breathe very well. So, a stage 1 is negligible for performance. But, it’s easy to screw up low end torque as they are sensitive to exhaust tune. You can make it louder, but can easily kill low end torque.

FWIW: I’m very happy with my SE Street Canons. Nice rumble, and bark when I get on it. But, not too obnoxious. I recently measured them. At 6’ behind them, they are 90db at idle, and a throttle blip jumps it to 108 db,

 

I pulled the muffs to verify and the cats are definitely in the mufflers.
I have an "unbonded" sestp and the final version of the software but I am not look to do much performance wise. That may change over time but I am considering loading the stage one tune then doing an "Autotune" just to adjust out the lean factory settings to provide cooler running. The Street Canons sound interesting, but I do like to look of the stock mufflers. The catalyst honeycomb does a good bit to muffle most engines so my hope was that it is not providing much to the tuning of the pipes and that removing it would improve the sound without sacrificing torque. I hate to tear out the matrix on a set that are basically new unless i can find some assurance it will do what I want.

Thanks for the input.

 

The Street Canons sound very much like what I am looking for. Maybe I can find a used set in good shape or listen to some at Bike Night before I spend $500 on something I am unsure of. But definitely a consideration.

Thanks!

 

Check with DK Custom Products they did a video of removing the baffles on a Sportster and reducing the reversion with Thunder Torque Inserts.

 

hummmm
i got 3 day vacation from school for that
FFA gathering at school, a friend and i served gutted cats to be BBQ. we would have gotten away with it if he kept his mouth shut.
BTW: they look like rabbits, we stuck to chicken.

 

Really good info! Thank you.
Seems like a thing to try. I would prefer not to cut the end off of the muffler if I can help it. I would bet I can collapse the cat tube enough to get it out once the ceramic is removed and the baffle is cut free using a hole saw. Plus, I can test the sound after the cat is crushed and dumped
but before cutting the baffles. Just hope it is not too loud but that too can be dealt with. I do still hate ruining brand new cats.

 

Reporting back. I decided to save my stock slip-ons in case I ever wanted to put them back and since I like the stock look, I bought a second set of stockers on eBay. They were pulls from a 2014 advertised as low mileage. They were as clean and pristine as mine but I gutted the cats and installed them.
My perception is that most looking for louder pipes would want more than what this gave, but I am quite pleased with the sound and performance. At idle there is nearly zero sound difference just a slightly lower tone.
Under load, the volume picks up and the traditional Harley sound becomes evident yet is far from obnoxious.
Performance improvement is noticeable in smoother acceleration and increased torque. There is a pretty steep hill near the house and the difference is clear. Going up it is much easier at lower rpm than it was with intact cats. There may come a time when I open up the baffles bit but without the cats the small changes (drilled holes) will be simple.

Busting out the catalyst matrix was not easy. Took about 45 minutes each. I used long punches and a hammer to make the pieces small enough to fall out then a long screwdriver to scrap out the bits clinging to the sides. If doing this, use care not to pack the debris into the core of the baffle. That adds time to dig out.