Thanks for all the positive things said, I appreciate it greatly-but all I did was put Wadejesu's and G-Man's skills into pictures and words (Oh, and Toystoretom's-Shhh! Not so loud).

But, OK. Let's Go 1-5

1=No difference, not even noise
2=I think there's a difference...I mean, there's gotta be!
3=Oh, yeah...nice improvement
4=Why Didn't I do this sooner? This is SWEET!
5=Wow...

Start With my bike with standard airfilter, empty cat-box muffler, stock silencers. It was new, it was fast, it was stock, for about 500 miles...

CAT BYPASS ($270):
SCORE:2.5

This floats between a 2 & 3 b/c it added a nice improvement to the factory exhaust note, dropped 7lbs of dead weight, and the bike seemed quicker-but not by much. This may have been b/c of the wrong 20054 tune (cat bypass/off road silencers), which reduced my overall power through the range-but subsequently later allowed me to safely add some more mods (although that was unknown to me at the time).

FACTORY REPLACEMENT K&N ($70):
SCORE:1

This is one of those things where you really want to get more HP, and I found myself hunting for more, and feeling it was there-but I don't think it was there. Rest of the rubber intake on the way to the manifold is way too restrictive.

RU5111 CONE FILTER ($40)
SCORE:3

This was one of those things I did in conjunction with other parts, thereby co-mingling. However, I was running super rich (since I added more fuel with the wrong PC map) so instead of coming on just right with the 54, I made it super rich again. Even so, I felt more power and smoothness... now I was confident daylight could be seen under my front tire...

INTAKE/SECONDARY TB PLATES/3 K&N's ($100)
SCORE 5

Without a doubt this was a slam dunk mod. While not easy and with the PC temporarily removed on the 20054, cat bypas, 3 K&Ns attached to the throttlebodies, and the plates removed this bike transformed. First, & second would roar by so fast to 6500 I was amazed. It was also the first time-in a long time I might add-where I was concerned about my throttle wrist and body placement in first & second gear. Even part throttle this thing "Zinged" up the RPMS, and plants the forks to their stops all the way into 3rd.

It is radical, and sounds radical (think chainsaw at power) and while I've refitted and modified the bearclaw there is still some work ahead for me in potential downpours. The bulk of power is available by removing the plates (7% + on a 150 hp bike +10 hp/tq...significant). The triple K&N's do provide all the air the cylinders need (though there is still a lot of room for improvement since the filters are bathed in hot radiator and engine air). It should be noticed that the engine didn't feel jumpy or balky at low rpms-in fact-it seemed to have smoother low end grunt-seemed.

A watered down version, that could probably would rate a score of "4" would be remove the plates and use it in conjunction with the RU-5111 cone. Not a bad combo-but I didn't try it.

POWERCOMMANDER ($296.00)

SCORE: 2-5

This mod does nothing except control your airfuel, and the only way to see a benefit is to dyno tune/remap (almost everyone can).

Get it and guess, it is a "2." Get it and dyno tune, it is a "5" b/c it's the only game in town(but do it only if you are not going to mod your air/exhasut for a while-once it's set-it's set. Any future mods will end up affecting your A/F).

If we had something that could work timing (may happen) in conjunction with the factory CPU (never 'gonna happen) it would fall back to a "3-4" b/c better products are out there. There aren't.

Get it, dyno tune it, and enjoy the "5" rating...

JARDINES ($905)

SCORE: 3.5

The controversial Jardines...well I won't repeat myself except in brief:
Sound good, look good (from 6 feet away), are light, make awesome power, and are the only real "tuned" header in town. They weren't on the street after my dynotune 20-minutes before I had set off two car alarms and had a Harley guy tell me "...nice sounding exhaust..."

Downs? Many...fit, quality, intall, requires PC, blah blah...

Part of me wants to give them a "1" b/c I'm pissed (calling Jardine tomorrow) and another want to give them a "5" b/c they deliever a pretty awesome big block offshore boat sound and make HP and TQ long past any other system. Are they worth the headache for the few extra HP/TQ (compared to other full open performance systems). Well, to me it is (it also leaves room for bigger improvements later on).


DYNO TUNE ($315+$296 PC)

SCORE: 5

A must for any serious modder, with the big benefits throughout the curve. And it will be smoother, cooler, get better economy (or not depending on your request). It was this combination of Jardines PC and tune that made me scared of my bike again. It was pig rich (I knew this) coming in but when I left it was smooth all over and revved effortlessly and hard. Impromtu test today really showed it's colors, this thing explodes in the lower gears at any rpm with no lag (no PC3 accellerator pump installed either).

My mohawked dyno tuner, Paul (Blais Cycle in Miami) took it for a test ride and after overhead him say: "That is w/o a doubt the second strongest bike I've ever ridden....the other was a supercharged Valkyrie, and this is only a hair off of that...(than he sees me behind him) That thing pulled 'yer arms out before, now it wants to rip them off... you will be happy with her! Oh, yes I am!!! Except for...

HEADPORTING/COMPRESSION BUMP...To be continued...
 
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