Vance & Hines Pipes

I am very curious how these pipes are working out for you. I am also looking for pipes for my 05 Road King. I have looked at Hooker headers, Bub Rineharts, etc. Very confusing. Not looking to make it a hotrod, just want some good performance, but not too loud.

If you like the sound of them coming out of the box....just wait till you've run them for 800-1000 miles. My friend had the same pipes put on his bike when new, he thought they sounded good but not as good as my KhromeWerks which were completely broke in....well as I said, a thousand miles later they sounded deeper and louder...no doubt some baffle wrapping gone with the wind

SeaHag's right; my buddy swapped Samson's for V&H on his 'King. Louder, but in a good way, not a straight-pipe way. Yes the packong blows away after about 8 months. I say pull it all and be done with it

I was kinda wondering if all you want is loud, why you'd bother with baffles and packing? I had a straight tuned megaphone on a Yamaha SRX6, 600cc thumper racer, once, no baffling or packing, open to the air. That motor was pulling 13:1, full race cam, ported, fed by twin 33mm Keihin flat slide CRs. It would put any Hog to shame for loud. I wore ear plugs under my helmet to avoid ear damage when I raced the thing. But it was a tuned megaphone and if you put any straight on it or change the shape of the cones on it, it'd drop the horsepower.

A pipe is designed in such a way as to work properly as designed. You just pull a baffle, you're more apt to hurt things than help where power is concerned, but the unknowing THINK they're making more power because of the sound. Sure, an open tuned megaphone exhaust is the way to make ultimate power, but you don't just pull out the baffling on the stock pipe to do it. Even burning out the packing in that V&H might negatively effect power, probably take dyno runs to tell, though. Still, if it burns, I'd repack it unless the sound is more to your liking and giving up a pony or two is no biggy. Not that you don't already know this, just thought I'd state the case.

I sorta prefer the stock exhaust on my Japanese stuff. Keeps the cops from hearing what I'm doing from any distance. They wave and smile at a loud Harley, but ride by at any RPM with a D&D on your GSXR1000 and see what they do. I've been pulled over on my SV for "accelerating too quick". I wasn't even getting a wheelie! I didn't break the speed limit. Can I help it cages are turds? I wasn't even in the throttle that hard. Anyway, the arse didn't give me a ticket, but I bet he would have had I had an M4 or something on the bike. Says, "be careful, those crotch rocket can hurt you." I was riding "crotch rockets" when that idiot was in three cornered pants. Anyway, that's why I shy away from loud exhausts. Hell, the speed limit is 70 and that little 650 will run a high eleven quarter and top at over 135mph. Do I really NEED any more horsepower? Well, if I thought I did, I'd have bought a faster bike and kept it stock, make the cops happy.

I love the sound of my stock exhausts on the FJR..a quiet hummmmmm. Let's me hear my tunes nicely at 80+ mph. I could hardly hear anything on the ole Royal Star cruiser with 4 fairly open pipes. Earplugs hardly quiet it down. Though..it is fun riding around the mall parking lots at Christmas seeing how many car alarms you can set off at one time.

LOL. Yeah, there was this Porche place next to the Kawasaki dealership where I was working for a while. Every morning this one guy came to work in his Porche and set the alarm and every morning there were maybe a half dozen guys on cruisers of one sort or another with loud pipes would ride by that street and set off the guy's alarm. It ran constant for about an hour and add to that the occasional piped Vulcan we'd fire up. ROF! I'm surprized that guy's battery held up long as it did. So, what good is a friggin' car alarm if it's always going off? LOL!

Like the boy who cried Wolf...Everyone ignores them, even the guy because he probably never ran out to check why it was going off. Even NY city has a noise ordinance against them things.

Well, I had open 'phones on my Pantah, made everyone think a 900 was comin'.. I have Termi carbons on the Duc, pretty loud but everyone loves it. I have nearly-open pipes on the RGS and I have to get used to it still, with earplugs..

Back to V&H, my bud told me last night he re-packed 'em, he felt a torque loss seat-of-the-pants and feels better now.

A torque loss? I would expect a little top end difference but I would also expect a low-mid range torque boost unless tuning is not correct... More back pressure usually means more torque.