I bought a 2018 Road King this weekend and love the M8 engine. It has as good or better sound, and much better "feel" than did my TC on my Fat Boy. Now, the King already has a pretty good A/C, so my question is, would slip-ons and the appropriate tune do anything for the King, or would I be wasting my dough? Pretty happy with the bike like it is, but it is going in for the 1,000 mile service in a month or so so I thought that I would ask what the deal is. I know that I read one post that said that the Touring bikes with the M8s already basically are at a Stage 1. Comments?

 

I done my stage I only because I wanted the bike to sound better but was hoping for an increase in performance doing it. While there is a slight increase it’s not bone shattering. Now the the stage II that’s when it come alive. The bad thing is you have to do a stage I before you can do a stage II. You definitely need to start somewhere though

 

My experience,,, what Goose said... Apparently (from what I read), a Stage 1 made a bigger difference with the Twin Cams. M-8 a little, but not so much. You can usually add the slip-ons without a tune, but if you do change out to a higher flow AC, you should add the tune (SE if you want to stay with warranty). But like Goose said, it's the first step towards a Stage II.

I was totally happy with the stock M-8 and figured there was no need to change a thing. But at 3,000 km I decided that i had to change out the slip-ons for something better. At 6,000 km, I decided i had to de-cat the pipe and do a Stage I for a little more power and sound. At 16,000 km, I still need louder, so I put on some Tabs with Zombie baffles. Now I have LOTS of sound and power,,, and even a little lope. Now I can probably wait out the warranty before doing and aftermarket head pipe and cam.

 

I would say if you are happy with it stock, leave it stock, it will have less issues in the long run. I have always done pipes, but with the new M8, I have been worried about the warranty, due to a past oil pump issue. I commute long distances and have two M8's I break the miles up between.

One has a stage 3 kit, slip ons, tuner. Slightly louder, not much, slightly faster but not worth what it cost me in my opinion. If you care about the warranty, I would leave it stock, if you don't care about the warranty, I would call fuel Moto, add their two into one pipe, real tune and High flow air cleaner, cause I think that gives the most bang for the buck.

 

you'll get a range of opinions from wasn't worth it to totally worth it. I fall into the latter camp...relative worth being subjective of course...anyway, these engines like to breathe and benefit from having the OEM configs and subsequent restrictions opened up some...warranty was a concern for me so i went all SE and am quite satisfied..it runs and sounds better than stock and just a Stage 1 won't compromise reliability. so included my dyno chart for a visual display of the results you can expect in exchange for ~$1500 to maybe help you determine 'worth'. The red line is after the SEPST calibration and the blue is dyno tuned with it..so a stock base line would have been slightly below the red line but the illustration shows the TQ gains down low which I LOVE and the overall performance in the 2-4K rpm range is most useful to me...hope this helps and congrats on your RK, my 2nd in a row and it's the only one for me!

 

I got a nice little bump in sound/performance with my setup.

 

I had the Stage I installed before I took deliver to get it covered by the two year warranty. Of course all S.E. parts. I was after a better sound and went with the full S.E. exhaust system. The exhaust system really didn't sound that much to me any different from stock but looks amazing. However, after 8k miles it has opened up a little it seems and sounds much better. Its not overbearing on the highway and has a nice growl rolling on the throttle. 2k-4k rpm range is enough for me. Expensive, but worth it to me. Others probably not so much. I will most likely change the exhaust tips out for the two piece at some point.

 

Well, here is what Ive done...... I put Tab slip on mufflers on my bike and have done other mods to the bike in the form of lights and chrome. When my warranty is up, next summer, I will do stage 2. The slip ons add some great sound to the bike and Im very happy with the outcome of just that, for now.

 

Just purchased the SE Wedge air cleaner and the SE programmer this weekend. The service dept said I'd have to program the ECU to install the air cleaner but, it's not a necessity for just the slip-ons. Plus, while downloading the Stage 1, Harley did not have different programs for OEM vs street cannon exhaust. I can only deduce that there isn't much difference, other than sound, between the two slip-ons.

installing the air cleaner is a snap and downloading with the SE programmer is a Breeze.

Stock, the off idle power was endemic in the 1000-1800 rpm. If you let the clutch start to load before giving throttle, she would stall quite easily. Also a little clutch slip was necessary making slow 2nd gear right turns like at intersections. Anything maneuvers below 1800 required extra attention.

With the stage 1 installed, the soft 1000-1800 is no more. Now, I can start loading the clutch, then feed the throttle from a stop (would stall OEM). Slow rolling 2nd gear turns are nary a thought anymore. Plus, the engine feels relaxed at 1600-1700 cruising in 6th gear.

If you have any basic mechanical skill, the stage 1 isn't worth the $500+ labor to have the dealer install. I've very computer illiterate and the programming was easy.

 

Also, since no one else answered this.

Touring harley's dont come with stage 1 already installed, unless the dealership installed them. Stock is stock...no stage kits at all.

Also, you can do stage 2 right from the start....it will just involve adding the stage one parts.....which may just be the AC and tuner, which you'd need for stage 2 anyway.