hello everyone. i am new to the harley nation and this forum. a little history about me
i was blessed to be able to finance this beauty with little down. my girlfriend and i are former marines. she was injured while in...broke her neck and suffers from fibromyalga (not sure if i spelled that right). nerve pain. she loves and trains horses and our new found love of riding almost everyday together on our hog.
first we got by the taxes and lisencing. now onto some custom sissybars for her comfort,....then i get my pipes as finances allow.
i pulled off the stock slip ons till then because it sounded like a harley bred with a goldwing...lol! wow!! that sounds so much better...
i am told to use heat tape and lolipops for this application...?
any advice for this would be greatly appreciated. dont want to harm it....just lovin the big block sound. so does our daughter when she rides.
thank you in advance for all of your help

 

The way I understand your post is that you had a stock exhaust with pipes and mufflers (Slip-Ons). You removed the mufflers and now have just pipes. Not sure my understanding is correct but normally you would not remove the slip-ons, you would just remove the baffles.

Regardless of how you do it, when you completely open up the exhaust you reduce the back pressure exerted onto exhaust gases. The reason folks are telling you you need heat tape on the pipes is because reduced back pressure causes the fuel system to run lean which leads to hotter exhaust gases. That will make your pipes get much hotter than normal and they may even glow red.

The reason for the lollipops is to help create some back pressure and tune the exhaust tone to be more throaty.

You have to be careful though. Altering the exhaust just for sound can have negative effects on performance and fuel economy. My suggestion to you would be don't just alter the exhaust. Invest in a high-flow performance air cleaner and a tuner or dealer map download. That will allow you to get the exhaust note you want while increasing the performance of your engine. There will also be no need for heat tape.

Good Luck!

 

Yeah, it's best to re-install the mufflers until you can afford a proper exhaust as stated above. Use the "Search this Thread" function on here to find out more about what you need to do on the bike so you don't jack it up. Start by searching "Stage 1".