Ride It Wrench It: Vance & Hines Slip On Mufflers

At long last I was finally able to purchase slip ons for my bike!!!! Vance and Hines 4" Monster Rounds! Obviously this is an exciting moment. Now the thing will finally sound like a Harley, not an air compressor. I'll never forget the first day I pulled up to work on my new Harley. There were a couple of ladies from work that were on their smoke break and they noticed I had a new bike. They came over and said "Ooooooh, you got a new bike! What kind is it?" I replied, "It's a Harley Street Glide". They kinda looked it over told me how beautiful it was and then made the comment, "It doesn't sound like a Harley." YAAAARG!!!!! It was a bit embarrassing. So the saving began for at least some slip ons to give it the rumble the thing deserves.

I talked to a lot of chapter members about pipes, slip ons, straights, etc. to make the decision on what to get. I went to the dealership and talked with Gary in the service department about options. He got excited to show me different pipes and let me hear them. I would say he spent a good 30 minutes in the parking lot starting up bikes with different pipes to let me hear the differences. The V&H monsters were the ones for me. Thanks Gary for all the help and genuine care about helping with the decision on slip ons. He also worked with me a few months ago on lowering the rear suspension. We did the same thing, walked around and checked out different bikes and finally settled on Burly Slammers which lowered the rear by 2 inches. They ride great, the bike handles excellent, and my feet touch perfectly on the ground now. I also want to thank the guys at the parts department, they too will go out of their way to help you find exactly what your wanting and offer options to ponder.

The good thing about the slip ons is that you dont have to do any intake modifications or mapping. You get quite a bit more sound, deeper rumble, and their easy to install. Down the road, a long time down the road, I may consider some V&H headers and intake but for now this will be just fine. The next step of exhaust investment is kind of heavy so its just gonna have to wait.

Side note: (The Street Glide stock shocks are air, you can see in the picture the new Burly Slammers I put on a few months back. Unfortunately I didnt take pics of the process of installing them at home. It would have made a nice blog to show how easy it is and that just about anyone can do it.)

So onwards to the installation. I took a few pictures of the process but there really isn't much to it. First take off the saddle bags.

I like to put the saddle bags on a cloth to prevent scratching the bottom.

Now you have to take off 2 screws that hold and support the rear of the muffler to the saddlebag support (1/2 inch socket), and loosen one bolt that holds the muffler on to the header (9/16 socket). Do this for both mufflers.

Then just sit down on the ground behind the bike, brace it by putting your foot on the rear tire, grab that muffler and wiggle it while pulling. It's really that easy, and it will just slide off. Hehe, slip offs to put on the slip ons. Then literally just slip the new ones on, use the 2 bolts that you took off the rear portion of the original mufflers to secure the new ones to the saddlebag support. The slip ons have a bolt to secure them to the header which is the same as the stock mufflers. The only thing you might want to do is measure the distance from the saddlebag support to the end of the slip ons to be sure they stick out the same distance at the rear of the bike before tightening the bolts. Once you have them on be sure to wipe them WELL to remove any oil or residue of any kind. If you dont and you have smudges, oil, finger prints, etc, when you start the bike and the slip ons warm up those smudges will permenantly be ingrained in the chrome. I wiped mine, then used chrome polish before starting it up.

Here is the before pic with the original stock mufflers.