okay, I know this may rile some of you.... as much as I love the sound of my Sportster and Harleys in general, I just cannot stand the the sound of drag pipes.&nbsp\\; They are just too damn loud.
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Is there really much performance benefit?

 

only of the motor is heavily modified.

 

Ya know what they say, "If they're too loud, you're too old!".&nbsp\\; &nbsp\\; Actually, no performance benefit to drags unless you have the motor to back it up and run WOT.&nbsp\\; "Drag pipes", the idea is put as much fuel and air in as you can, then let it escape freely, drag pipes have no restriction for flow.&nbsp\\; I run&nbsp\\;2" drags on my shovel and it runs good, but it runs better with 1 3/4".&nbsp\\; I prefer the deep tone of the 2" over the "rasp" of the smaller pipes, so I will give up a little performance, after all, I ain't racin' it.&nbsp\\; That said, the best performance I ever got out of it was with SuperTrapp 2-1, but now I just ride it once in a while so I like the sound to play with.

 

I don't like quiet but I do prefer tone to decibels. Stock pipes don't sound at all. They make a Harley sound like a Honda. Straight pipes usually lack tone-too loud to high in pitch and they don't look that good to me. If you like drag pipes put them on your bike. I like my V&amp\\;H's on the Heritage and the Screaming Eagles on the Wideglide. Not quiet but good tone. I am not getting into a ticket/public nuisance issue argument today. I love the sound of a Harley air cooled V twin with nice pipes doing its thing.