well, thats true... however, KHI did their darndest to wring every available HP out of the 500 and make it reliable (and quiet enough to meet regs. the huge cans do this without reducing power). i've had a free flowing exhaust on my '01, and while it makes more noise, it certainly didn't give any power, nor were any jet kits necessary.

what you fail to mention in your post there is that engines need a certain amount of back pressure to run properly. what a freer flowing exhaust will do, in lieu of 'giving' you more horsepower, it will effectively move the power/torque band around. i've got free flowing exhaust on my car as well, while i think that it sounds better, it certainly shifted the torque up the rev band. on the bike, all it did was move it to a place it can't be used.

the bottom line: does it sound good/better? that's in the eye of the beholder. does it improve performance? i think that it's questionable at best, and i'd be leaning towards a no or negatively. you have a lot of things to consider when you talk about pressures affecting the engine, not just the pressure in the exhaust. do whatever makes you happy, but if you're looking for increased performance, you'll be better off buying a bike with larger displacement.

 

You may be talking bang for the buck? Not sure. Even a free'r flowing Can, like you mentioned still is better than open headers for example because of the back pressure. The engine still needs tuned as a package no matter what a person adds to it for Cans or full exhaust.

 

Completely agreed. No matter what you do to your bike, everything has to work together, and sometimes that means tuning everything back up once you do it. Almost always when you place an aftermarket part on anything, including cars, you have to do minor adjustments... There are a few times where nothing may be needed, but do yourself a favor if you put an exhaust, or part of an exhaust on, put your bike on a dyno afterwards. Maybe just a twist of the fuel mixture screw is needed, but mine required a jet kit, and I went from 35 to 60 MPG.... plus added about 15 more HP. All a matter of oppinion.

 

15hp? please post dyno sheets

 

wow, 15hp increase. That is alot! Or do you mean that once the ride was back to normal, you bumped up a couple more hp? Going from 35mpg to 60mpg, kinda tells you the "whole package" was not there either.

 

Oh, once everything was back to normal... increased with the jet kit 5 or 6 I think... It was so out of whack with the last guy that owned it, the stage 3 kit totally made it worth while to have.... :P Sorry, should have explained a little bit better. He had put a full muzzy system on, and also a K&N air filter... I only got about 35 MPG until I put that in... bumped me up to about 60 where it is supposed to be. Take a look at the dynojet page, and see what it actually gives you in HP, or is supposed to anyways.... I need to get it dyno'd again...