Are you looking to upgrade the pipes on your Harley Davidson?The stock Harley pipes just not getting it done for you anymore?Well we've got some tips to help you make the buying process easier.
We've been eating and sleeping motorcycles for a number of years so we've learned a thing or two about saving money on Harley Pipes.
Follow along with these tips and let's see if we can't find you the perfect set of Harley Pipes for your motorcycle and SAVE you money doing it.
Tip 1: Don't buy Harley Pipes out of a magazine or catalog.
What I mean by that is you never can tell what the pipes will look or sound like until they are mounted on a real live Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Pipes that look great on a custom chopper might look terrible on your stock softail.
Don't trust the pictures because they can sometimes mislead you into thinking something looks better than it does.
If you look, you can usually find a bike that has the pipes you are interested in right in your own hometown.
It's much better to see them in person rather than a catalog.
Tip 2: Don't ask people's opinions on what a certain pipe sounds like.
Sound is very, very subjective and what sounds terrible to someone else, can sound like music to your hears.
I would suggest that you spend an hour or two at your local Harley Davidson dealership on a Saturday morning.
Trust me, at most Harley Davidson dealerships you will see almost every make and model of bike and pipe combination roll up on a Saturday morning.
There is nothing that can be substituted for being able to see the pipes on your bike and more importantly HEAR them in person.
Tip 3: Buy the best quality Harley pipes that you can afford.
Pipes can make or break a motorcycles look and sound so buy the best that you can afford so you will be happy with them.
Most of the big brand names are building a quality product these days but you need to be leary of those bargain basement pipes or the up and coming companies that haven't proven themselves yet.
I would suggest Vance and Hines, D & D, Supertrapp, Bub or Rinehart as brands to look to first.
There are many more but I have personal experience with these brands and they are all high quality companies.
Tip 4: Once you have your selection narrowed down to the brand and model of Harley pipes that you want to buy then go online and check out some of the deals available there.
You can save as much as 30-40% buying on eBay as you can buying at your local dealer.
If you are going to install them yourself then you can save even more money or you can have the dealer or your mechanic install them still.
Trust me on this, the dealer WILL NOT give you any kind of break for buying the pipes through them.
They might tell you they are installing them for free but in most cases the price is built into the pipes anyway.
Tip 5: Make sure you buy everything you need to complete the job.
In most cases a new set of pipes is going to require either a rejet if you are a carburetor bike or a reflash or PCM upgrade if you are fuel injected.
If you skip this step you are risking your Harley running extremely lean, which can be detrimental to your motorcycle.
Most Harley's nowadays are fuel injected and one of the easiest ways to take care of the fuel needs of a near stock Harley Davidson is a DynoJet Power Commander.
It installs easily and will allow you to custom tailor your fuel mix to your pipes.
I could literally go on and on and on but I think you get the idea.
It's time to hit the road and find the best set of Harley pipes for your motorcycle and your tastes.