Thought I'd post a few pics of the final product I received from Balias over on BuelletinBoard.
I initially ordered the elbow/brace from him and was so impressed with his quality of workmanship, that I had him build me his whole exhaust system using my MagnaFlow muffler.
I purchased the MagnaFlow muffler originally thinking I'd have a local shop fab it up for me. I then purchased another muffler (Sweet-thunder open-chamber muffler) and had an old Cherry Bomb lying around as well, and took them all down to the muffler shop just to see how they all sounded connected to the elbow/brace I had from Balias. I even borrowed a Flowmaster from the guys shop for my test.
It took a few hours but we hooked them all up outside and I ran the bike on its sidestand through all the mufflers - no road test... and yes, sadly, duct tape was involved. Each muffler got only a few minutes of run-time, as I was only interested in the sound quality here between the mufflers.
Long story short - the MagnaFlow sounded the best of all, by a big margin, nice and mellow, with that old muscle car exhaust note. It was at that point that I contacted Balias to build me the whole system for my Uly.
According to Balias, Mike (Xopti) on BuelletinBoard has run some tests for him - here's some of his comments to me:
""Good news though....some of the results are in from Mike (Xopti)...under both Stock and Race ECM's its safe to run. AFV stays within +/- 5%. So Im hoping youll be happy with it. I know I love mine.""
At any rate, I think these guys might be on to something here... and for those of you wishing to fab up a system yourself the MagnaFlow muffler is 11148.
Balias charges $450 IIRC for his stainless steel MagnaFlow system (my actual cost differed because he used my MagnaFlow 11148 muffler).
Everyone has a differing opinion with regard to what sounds good, but to me, this thing sounds 'great', and it's well worth the price of admission for the sound alone.
I hope it's not too loud for the neighborhood, though!
Cheers, John
In this shot, you can see he welds on a narrow stainless strip to better match the stock rear muffler brace/holder radius
He welds on an all new (shorter) inlet
Here's the new outlets which are welded on, as well
Here's the elbow/brace supplied with the system
The complete system in brushed stainless steel...just beautiful!
.
(Message edited by johnboy777 on December 19, 2008)
Sleez: the chin fairing fits. ive built the brackets for mine. the only reason i dont offer them yet is because ive had some cracking issues on the left side bracket (darn HD Twin vibrations!!!). ive already gone through a couple iterations or redesigns and so far, this last one has lasted the longest. but im still not comfortable selling something that i cant fully back up.
heres my bike with the fairing mounted:
Slicker: it gives you about an extra 2 inches of clearance or so.
I plan to run it on the dyno at Biketown HD here locally, after the install. No before and after comparo runs though, as I'm just interested in the where I am (air-to-fuel mixture, powerband, etc.) with the new muffler once installed.... Okay! I'm too lazy for all of that before and after stuff!
Peak horsepower is of no interest to me at all, really, I'm more interested in solid driveability, and good strong power off idle.
Thanks for the info! How much does one of your completed exhaust weigh and how big of a box? Reason I ask is because if I ordered one I'd have to have it shipped USPS (Military stationed overseas).
"Thanks for the info! How much does one of your completed exhaust weigh and how big of a box? Reason I ask is because if I ordered one I'd have to have it shipped USPS (Military stationed overseas)."
I could have sworn you had an exhaust on your bike already.
Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 02:53 am:
The exhaust can is great (good sound, not too loud and great power that pulls all the way to redline in 5th) but I've had a couple of issues with the inlet pipe that has the valve in it. The damned thing rattles A LOT - makes it sound like somethings going to fall off, the mounting tabs are a pain and have broken before. There is a rubber grommet that has to be replaced about every 5K miles. I may just someone make me a new inlet pipe and get a race ecm or tune the stock one. No definite decisions right now but I always have my eyes open.
Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 06:20 pm:
you can get a race ECM for like $50. (thats the cost of the cable) then upload the race data to your stock ECM. done deal. no need to buy a whole new black box. either way you do it, full potential wont be reached unless you tune to your environment and riding style.
can you take some detailed pics for me of the problematic areas on the termi? i MIGHT be able to do a midpipe for ya. maybe. it wont have the valve though.
Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 06:46 pm:
""you can get a race ECM for like $50. (thats the cost of the cable) then upload the race data to your stock ECM. done deal. no need to buy a whole new black box. either way you do it, full potential wont be reached unless you tune to your environment and riding style. ""
Strictly speaking, you can't upload the race EEPROM into a stock ECM.
However, you can mimic a lot of the race ECM's parameters in a stock ECM via the newer version of ECMspy.