I haven't noticed any loss of power. I can still get to 65 pretty fast, which is the speed of the highway in front of my job. And there's no problem cruising at 70-75 for miles and miles. But, it isn't and will never be as quick and fast as a crotch rocket. And it's fairly loud going through 1st to 4th, especially if you give it a lot of gas.

 

"Better to have less thunder in the pipe and more lightning in the throttle"
- modified Apache proverb

Seriously, sound for the sake of sound is worthless to me...sound that's a by-product of the performance enhancements I make is just fine. I prefer quiet when doing long tours.

 

The VH I tried were loud and no loss or improvement in performance. The rush slip ones were earsplitting with a loss in performance and lower mileage. Sellem cheap to ya

 

What year bike ? Makes a difference on the advice .

 

not at wide open throttle!!!

 

1989 FLHS, I did change out the carb to a CV type, re-jetted and new sporty needle. Polished the intake to take out the uneven mold interface lines, Big Sucker intake, etc. And it will get the other mods at some point in the future.

Thanks. Looking forward to input, I want to make improvements without being stupid about it.

 

Pre 95 is what I needed to know , the evo upper end went through a few changes trying to get the head breather system right which they never really nailed . What you want to do is common and with a bit of smoking I'm guessing it's valves at this point and inspect them closely early years sometimes cracked between the plug hole & exhaust seat . Also if it's coming down have the cases looked at those had a few issues with hairline cracks too .

Decent compression for the age and as long as she's not fouling plugs or losing power keep riding , she'll tell you when it's time .

 

I would eventually like to add another 20-30% loudness, nothing to bother the neighbors but enough so some distracted driver will at least hear me if he's not paying enough attention to see me. But I'm happy with the ride/performance so I'll probably focus on other things in the near yerm.

 

I like the comments about being a cruiser owner and therefore owning a slow bike. I purposefully bought a Harley to slow down. After my son was born I decided to give up on speed... at least on a bike.

With that said, allow me speak from the other side of my mouth. 2 into 1 provides the best scenario for atmosphere where exhaust leaves the head. With proper back pressure you will have better performance. And, if you bolt on a turbo you can create a huge amount of atmosphere to give you a ton of ponies.

I read Donny Peterson's book (well, I skimmed the parts of interest). He says to modify your air intake and slap on a 2 into 1. Best performance bang for your buck. I have a VH Big Radius 2 into 1 along with a SE air breather. I had it tuned and it gave me a little extra sound and some extra ponies. I have to say I enjoy hearing some Rineharts true duals rumble by, but I just can't do it knowing the loss of performance.

 

Had a break in this near constant rain and have been out riding so I haven't really come back to this for a while.

This is where I am at right now.

When I acquired my ride I did all the necessary age related upgrades to the suspension, tires, brakes, and improved the breathing, upgraded to a CV carb, etc., while noting that it blows a little smoke at times and that the compression though even is starting to get low.
But my bike starts and runs great,with no quirks or reliability issues, so it's hard to justify tearing it down at this point.

Good advice to wait until she speaks to me. Thanks.