T-Sport: Keeping the Peace

Putting a Cork in It

Exhaust systems can make or break the performance of your engine. Choosing the right one for your application will obviously make your bike a joy to ride. Choose wrong and not only can the performance suffer, but the power band can shift into street unfriendly territory. A recent editorial in HOT BIKE magazine remarked how bigger engines were being used to compensate for power robbing exhaust systems chosen solely for their looks.

Choosing a new exhaust system is not simply scanning through a catalog and picking whatever strikes your fancy and falls within your budget. The first step should be the prioritizing of your requirements. My priorities fell in this order:

1. Tunability
2. Power
3. Sound
4. Price
5. Durability
6. Looks

I wanted a pipe that I could easily customize for either power or sound, was a proven performer, had quality construction that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and if it looked good, well, that was icing on the cake. Reading reviews in all the magazines, learning from others' experiences on Harley internet forums, and asking questions to the industry experts, I narrowed down my choices to two manufacturers; Supertrapp and White Brothers. Both their offerings were based on mufflers employing discs. The more discs you add, the better the flow and the louder things get.

The E pipe from White Brothers was highly recommended by some, but it came with a premium price. My budget was very tight and I wasn't convinced that the product was that much more superior. The Supertrapp also got good grades but there was some question about their mounting brackets breaking. I had Supertrapp slip-ons on my previous bike and was very pleased with them, particularly how they sounded with 18 discs. Then I learned that Harley was marketing in their latest catalog a tunable pipe for the Dyna, which as far as I could tell was the same pipe as the SuperMeg from Supertrapp, and a hundred bucks cheaper to boot.

The HD pipe came complete with shields, a closed end cap and 20 discs, which was exactly what Supertrapp had recommended I use for my application. I placed my order with Ottawa HD and specified the delivery to be for the end of September. I would have the shop install the pipe and perform a dyno run to check the results.