I finally paid my taxes on the ol' Sporty. I have an '07 883L. I installed the high flow air cleaner I got from DKCustoms. I also installed the X14iED.

Installation was pretty straight forward. Remove the old Ham Can, attach the breather bolt bracket and breather bolts, attach the air cleaner bracket, make sure the gaskets are in place, torque down everything to spec, place the new air cleaner cover on and you're done.

The X14iED was just as easy to do. Follow the O2 sensor wire on the on the front cylinder from the top of the header to the clip, unplug the clip, attach the X14iED at both ends, zip tie the extra wire and repeat on the rear cylinder.

I also picked up the torque inserts but I have to drill a 5/16 hole in the exhaust to get them in. The baffle bolt hole is too small for the torque cone bolt. I'll probably do that this weekend.

First I want to say that Kevin from DK and DKCustoms are top notch. I called and he answered all my incessant questions. We shot the **** a bit and he gave me pointers and suggestions. Dawn and the girls there are great. Shipping was fast. No I'm not getting paid to say that. lol

I personally like the look of the air cleaner. I picked the smooth because I liked it and it's a little smaller than the bobber one. The extra leg room will be a welcome effect too.

First off I want to address the dead spot off the line. Right off the line in 1st gear there is a slight dead spot in acceleration (torque). It's not too bad but it's noticeable. After that the power picks up in a linear fashion. With the shift points I have the dead spot is not effected in any of the other gears. Even with that dip, there's still plenty of extra grunt to easily move ahead of traffic. Kevin states the torque inserts will fix this low rpm torque dip. I'll let everyone know.

Everything else is great. The power delivery after your off is much stronger and smoother. All up and down the range you can feel the extra umph. Under hard acceleration speed just happens quicker. Under normal acceleration it happens smoother. There is a nice difference in passing power too. Which is always a good thing. The decel pops are also gone.

I didn't notice the oil temp was any lower but Kevin did say the temps would be lowered in the top end of the motor.

Once I put the torque inserts in I'll report back and give my evaluation about the difference.

Overall, it runs great and much better than stock. For those of you out there that are still running a stock bike I highly recommend paying your Harley tax and doing the stage 1 upgrade. DKCustoms are great to deal with but whoever you go through it's worth doing. There is a significant improvement.

This should keep me happy a while until I save up for the 1250 kit. Since I've had an 883/1200 before I know what to expect. Good things and plenty of ****-eating-grins. Until then, this stage 1 make the 883 the bike it should have been out of the factory. Damn EPA.

Ride safe.

UPDATE:













I wanted to update my Stage 1 install because yesterday I didn't intall the torque inserts I received from DK. The hole that the V&H Straight Shots slipon have for the baffles is too small. So today I purchased a 5/16 drill bit (3/8 is needed. I'll elaborate later) and a decent center hole punch.

My choices were to either take the slipons off and enlarge the hole where the baffles bolt to or to make a new hole to put the torque inserts on. I chose the latter. My next challenge was to decide where to put this new hole. I could have drilled at the bottom of the pipe but even the rear tire on 2 2x4's I couldn't get good leverage on the drill. So I decided if I couldn't get in the back door, I was going straight through the front!

That's exactly what I did. I took off the heat shields. I centered as best visually I could at the center of the pipes looking straight at them. I measured and marked each of the pipes 2.25" from the tip of the pipe. I then marked with a Sharpie the heat shields centered between "VANCE" on top of the "HINES" and 1" to the right of the logo.

I then secured the heat shield and used the center hole punch to further mark help as a guide for the drill bit. I then started slowly and drilled out the 5/16 hole. I tested the hole and found it was too narrow. What I did to widen it the 1/16 I needed was to use the center punch. I hammered out the 1/16 I needed and the bolt to the Torque cone fit in nicely. If anyone wants to attempt this, use a 3/8 bit instead. The extra effor was minimal but the 3/8 saves a step. I did the same thing on the other heat shield. I then cleaned up all the burrs abd chards. As you can see from the above picture, if you work carefully you can do it without scratching the chrome.

Next up I did the same thing to the pipes. This time while the pipes were on the bike. Being careful with every step.

The rest was pretty easy. I cleaned up inside the pipes, put the heat shiedl on without clamping them down, put in the torque cones and tightened it all up.

I personally like how it turned out and it almost looks like the bolts just right of the logo belong there.

Now for the torque inserts themselves. It's an approximately 1" dished disk with a 3/8 bolt welded to the back of it. Since it rotates 360 degrees on the bolts's axis, it can be installed with the disk either facing in towards the engine or towards the rear of the bike. Plus anywhere in between. I have it facing the back of the bike. I plan on trying different positions to see what happens.

What I've noticed with the torque inserts so far (in the position I have them now) is more overall power than with just the air cleaner and X14iED alone. More importantly is the torque dip off the start is about 75% reduced than without them. From a start, if I slowly add throttle the dip is still present but not obtrusive. If I add just a little more throttle before I release the clutch from a start it gone completely. It's a non issue in any of the other gears.

As a complete package the bike is significantly more powerful than from stock. Throttle response is now really smoothe and the power band much more linear.

So now I have the total Stage 1 package done.

Thanks fo
r reading!


UPDATE 2:

Today I decided to play with the positioning of the torque inserts that I installed in my exhaust. They can rotate 360 degrees on the bolt's axis which means they can be infinitely adjustable. For the purpose of this test I'll describe two positions:

Position 1 (P1)- the disk facing towards the tip of the exhaust (rear) of the bike with the bolt towards the engine

Position 2 (P2)- the disk facing towards the engine (front) with the bolt facing towards the tip of the exhaust

I have the V&H Straight Shot slip ons installed on my '07 Sporty. YMMV

Adjusting the inserts was as simple as turning the bolt with my 1/2" socket.

The first thing I did was measure the actual exhaust volume from 20' behind the bike using my SPL (sound pressure level) meter. [to double the volume pressure level, volume has to increase 10db] I also measured it at idle and at 1/8 (approx 2500 rpm) of a twist of the throttle standing just behind the right handlebar. Both were done while the bike was in neutral. I also did a subjective evaluation while on the bike under acceleration.

The difference in peak volume at idle was between P1 and P2 was between 2-3db higher in P1 over P2. P1 had peaks of 87db vs 84db for P2 The sound quality at idle, to me, was nearly identical.

The difference in peak volume at 1/8 was between 3-4db higher in P1 over P2. The P1 had peaks of 105db vs 102db for P2. The sound quality at 1/8 throttle was nearly identical.

Although I can't quantify the sound level under various levels of acceleration between P1 and P2, what I can say is that P1 is definitely louder than P2. I would estimate between 3-4db. The sound quality, however, is quite different. In P1, especially under hard acceleration, has a much deeper bark to the sound and a much meaner growl than the exhaust tone of P2. While P1 sounds aggressive, P2 has a much smoother and mellow tone while twisting the throttle under power through the gears.

This seems to be reflected in the power between P1 and P2. P1 seems to have more power and quicker acceleration. While P2 has an extremely smooth power delivery while giving up some ultimate HP. The one thing I did notice in P2 was the slight dead spot the power delivery has in P1 is reduced (which the torque cones already reduce than without them) in P2. As I said before, that dip in the torque curve off the line in 1st gear wasn't eliminated. I believe it's inherent in the bike. The option is to just launch at a slightly higher RPM to skip over the dip. No big deal. The dip is not an issue in any other gear.

That's my wrap up.

 

looks good man. DK seems to put out some solid products

 

Yes all well built. DK makes the breather, the backing plates, the X14iED and the torque cones. The filter is K&N and the air cleaner cover is a HD cover that both come with the kit.

I was riding around tonight and the difference really is substantial. Not in just ultimate power but in overall rideability. Definitely a must do.

 

I found everything in the original post about the stage 1 differences to be true. I did mine this past Spring, I bought the bike last Summer and rode it all last season as stock, the previous owner left it that way. I still, 6000 miles after stage 1, have to really keep an eye on my speedo, I ride a stretch of road daily that has a 45mph speed limit, and I'm hitting 60 before I know it.

Your killing me with the pics of that DK intake, I really wish that one was available when I was shopping. I bought a Vance and Hines intake, which is working well enough; but if I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen the DK because of the external breathers. The V&H routes the breathers using tubes through the backing plate and into the carb (so no oily air filter), but it's still getting back into the engine.

I'll echo your statement that this is a "must do" also. Both the exhaust and intake are easy installs. My '06 has a carb, so I just needed a jet to tune it. Not sure what fuel management costs for an EFI bike, but for me, an $8 jet, a $120 Vance and Hines intake, an $80 Cycle Shack exhaust, and $20 or in gaskets... you can do it for very little money if you shop around.

 

I believe those belong to Nightrider. Nonetheless, it is a worthy buy.

 

Cool. Thanks for the correction

 

Bike is looking good. Thanks for the info. I bought some XIEDs from DK as well and plan on installing them with my Velociraptor air intake soon. I already installed Bassani Firepower slip ons.

 

Updated:













I wanted to update my Stage 1 install because yesterday I didn't intall the torque cones I received from DK. The hole that the V&H Straight Shots slipon have for the baffles is too small. So today I purchased a 5/16 drill bit (3/8 is needed. I'll elaborate later) and a decent center hole punch.

My choices were to either take the slipons off and enlarge the hole where the baffles bolt to or to make a new hole to put the torque cones on. I chose the latter. My next challenge was to decide where to put this new hole. I could have drilled at the bottom of the pipe but even the rear tire on 2 2x4's I couldn't get good leverage on the drill. So I decided if I couldn't get in the back door, I was going straight through the front!

That's exactly what I did. I took off the heat shields. I centered as best visually I could at the center of the pipes looking straight at them. I measured and marked each of the pipes 2.25" from the tip of the pipe. I then marked with a Sharpie the heat shields centered between "VANCE" on top of the "HINES" and 1" to the right of the logo.

I then secured the heat shield and used the center hole punch to further mark help as a guide for the drill bit. I then started slowly and drilled out the 5/16 hole. I tested the hole and found it was too narrow. What I did to widen it the 1/16 I needed was to use the center punch. I hammered out the 1/16 I needed and the bolt to the Torque cone fit in nicely. If anyone wants to attempt this, use a 3/8 bit instead. The extra effor was minimal but the 3/8 saves a step. I did the same thing on the other heat shield. I then cleaned up all the burrs abd chards. As you can see from the above picture, if you work carefully you can do it without scratching the chrome.

Next up I did the same thing to the pipes. This time while the pipes were on the bike. Being careful with every step.

The rest was pretty easy. I cleaned up inside the pipes, put the heat shiedl on without clamping them down, put in the torque cones and tightened it all up.

I personally like how it turned out and it almost looks like the bolts just right of the logo belong there.

Now for the torque cones themselves. It's an approximately 1" dished disk with a 3/8 bolt welded to the back of it. Since it rotates 360 degrees on the bolts's axis, it can be installed with the disk either facing in towards the engine or towards the rear of the bike. Plus anywhere in between. I have it facing the back of the bike. I plan on trying different positions to see what happens.

What I've noticed with the torque cones so far (in the position I have them now) is more overall power than with just the air cleaner and X14iED alone. More importantly is the torque dip off the start is about 75% reduced than without them. From a start, if I slowly add throttle the dip is still present but not obtrusive. If I add just a little more throttle before I release the clutch from a start it gone completely. It's a non issue in any of the other gears.

As a complete package the bike is significantly more powerful than from stock. Throttle response is now really smoothe and the power band much more linear.

So now I have the total Stage 1 package done.

Thanks for reading!

(I also added this to the original post)

 

Nice job on your pipes. Did the tone change? better or worse?

 

There's a slightly deeper tone at idle but definitely more growl under acceleration. It sounds meaner. I like it.

I rode around more tonight and it really makes you think to yourself how anyone could not do the Stage 1?

All my bikes have had at least the Harley Tax paid. One had the 1200 conversion. What the Harley Tax does do is make the 883 Sporty a very well sorted bike. The 1200/1250 is really just icing on the cake to me. Not required but fun to have.

Don't be fooled though, the Stage 1 should be a requirement to every Sportster owner. Whether they start with a stock 883 or a stock 1200. It's that big of a difference.