Thirty years ago a good wrench told me to figure it out, "drag pipes = drag strip." At the strip you're only running wide open. Which is why the old Super B's were made the way they were. If you use some type of cone at the exhaust port and a good baffle you can get back some of what is lost by getting rid of the volume of the mufflers. You're never going to get it all back. If you want the best power you probably want a 2 into 1 with a big muffler can. But that just wouldn't work with Harley style.

 

there are ways of getting some low end back like torque cones or stepped tune pipes

 

so you guys are telling me if i drill out the mixture screw set it at 2-1/2 to 3 turns out and put a slow 48 in it i should be better off than doing nothing at all?

 

I think that's going to be too fat at the bottom, but you'll be able to tell if it starts and runs cold without the choke. Also, if you don't want to shim the existing needle, the stock needle for an '89 Sportster 1200 works very good in a stock 88.

 

im really not worried about the little bit of the power loss,i had power rings(torque rings)at the end of the pipes but it DID not sound right so i took them out and really didnt feel that much of a differance,my wonder is my pipes are turning yellow and orange and i can hear a sucking sound from the air cleaner but that may be normal with the open air cleaner so if the pipes are already turning and the sound from air cleaner is normal if it doesnt hurt anything i may not do anything,but im not sure what to do.

 

Hard to keep pipes from turning some shade of yellow. It's just the nature of chrome. That's if you have bare pipes, if you're turning heat shields yellow you are too lean. Only way to know for sure is put a sniffer up the pipe. I think most car garages have one, and a tech might be willing to test your bike for a few bucks.