hey guys, just got me a bike for the first time in my life(2008 crossbones, i love it). i want to
add an exhaust and air filter kit, and i like to know what all i would need. im looking at
vance & hines big radius for it. would i also need some kind of tune??

 

I went with V&H short shots staggered, screaming eagle air kit, and a power commanderIII tuner. My bike runs great and very strong. By the way, what color did you get? Please tell me something other than black...please please please.....sorry guys, those of you that have the black cross bones. We need a little more variety of colors on the crossbones in the forum

 

Hey! Black is the new black! DENIM Black... ;-)
I did the cheap route: Rush slip-ons (2.25") and the Screaming Eagle intake, keeping the stock dog-dish cover. I had the dealer do the stage 1 download, and the bike seems happy. Sounds good, but perhaps a little TOO loud for my tastes. I prefer the more compressed sound of the SuperTrapp, which I have on my other bikes. I'm thinking that once my finances recover from buying the bike (next year, mebbe?) I'd like to go with SuperTrapp slip-ons, remove the headpipe shields, and tape wrap. Then I'll be posting a couple of Rush slip-ons for sale...
And CONGRATS on the new bike!!!

 

edsbones:
Just had a thought. If this is your first bike, you may need some basic info. If you already know all this, apologies. But in case you don't...

When you add a more free-flowing (louder) exhaust to the bike, you are suddenly able to move more stuff out of the engine. To get the performance benefit of this, you also have to let the bike move more stuff into the engine. This is why you also need a more free-flowing intake. This can be an HD Screaming Eagle intake like mine, or something from the aftermarket.

BUT. When you start moving more air in and more exhaust out, you change the critical fuel/air balance. If you do nothing to adjust the balance, you end up with more air but the same amount of fuel, which is a lean condition. This is bad, especially on an air-cooled engine like yours, because it makes the engine run hotter. A lean mixture can also hurt performance, and cause backfiring, popping, and other assorted badness.

To fix this, you have to do something to force the bike's computer brain to alter the air/fuel mixture to add more fuel -- make it richer. You can do this by adding an aftermarket black box (Power Commander et.al.). Or you can let the dealer do it. I chose to let my HD dealer do this by simply downloading some new "rules" to the computer that controls the fuel injection. I did this because it's cheaper, and if something later goes wrong with my bike, they can't hassle me about voiding the warranty with an aftermarket black box.

So. Pipe, intake, mixture. Gotta have all three getting along with one another.

Sorry if you knew all this already. If you learned something valuable -- You're welcome.

 

i had big radius 2-1 at first, they sound very good, but i wanted a different look so i went to the D&D Fatcat....i love the look of this pipe on the bike. it isnt quite as loud as the v&h, but it performs much better and sounds deeper.

 

chazzy:

I'm considering getting a power comander and was wondering where you mounted yours. Thanks.

 

samson upswept fishtails, se air cleaner and sert, runs great, I think the upsweeps really fit the bike, and yes all my bikes have been black can't help myself.

 

i went with the V&H straight shots and love the look and sound. if you only go with pipes, you can get by without any dnload (mosts commonly) due to the ECM usually can handle it. if you change the air filter you'll need a dnload and probably a tuner. look around and see what's out there that suits what you like. good luck and let us know how it turns out. enjoy the ride...

 

I talked to Vance & Hines this week about fitment of their pipes and FuelPak on the XBones. Tech support told me that presently only the Short Shots and the RSD Tracker is the only two pipes that will fit the XBones. I told them that I had seen the Big Radius 2-1 and 2-2 on other peoples XBones on the forum, but they told me that you can make the others fit, but they will not stand behind them because of the other models getting too close to painted parts or the pipes. Go figger!! The rear end looks just like the custom or nightrain. Also due to the plastic seat cover, they said that none of the FuelPaks will fit the XBones unless modifications are done under the seat area. They said that they are working on these issues and hope to have a solution sometime. So I guess the HD Download is the easier route since you don't have to fit a tuner box somewhere.

 

thanks everbody for the help and info. i will def look more
into these mods. and yes its black, but i am allready thinking
of painting it a diffrent color that i have in mind. [sm=shades.gif]
thanks again !!