Company: Roadhouse Brand
  Product: Exahaust
   Author: Mark Kowalski      Ride: '98 1500 Classic
Submitted: 1999 Jun 24
   Rating: excellent



Installed the Classic exhaust, the one with the serrated header shields, on my 98 1500 Classic.  The exhaust kit no longer includes the header cleaner.  As Roadhouse makes clear - if you don't disable your reed valves, you'll get some yellowing.  My reeds were already given the marble treatment and I've had no discoloring problems (although the stainless shields have picked up a very classy old stainless hue to them which I like a lot.  I won't say yellowed, more like an old silver belt buckle that gets worn alot and polished only through constant handling).

The direction sheet I received from Roadhouse was a very poor quality photo copy.  They apologized for this when I talked with them and said it's due to their printer's inability to keep up with the demand.  If the directions had good quality printed photos, I'd give them an A- (there were 1 or 2 tightening steps which were omitted).

Why did I talk to them?  Although Roadhouse provides a nice rectifier relo bracket, it was impossible to tell from the "photo" where they intended it to mount to the bike.  As it turns out, it mounts to the right goat stomach mounting hole in the frame, the one with the rubber mounting grommets.  I'm not 100% satisfied with this arrangement because you can't tighten down the bolt enough to keep the bracket from swiveling around the bolt axis.  But it's not going anywhere!

Disassembly of the stock exhaust went fine.  You can follow their directions or service manual.  It takes a fair amount of time to get the stock stuff off, especially if you want to put it all back together to hang in your garage.

Installing the new system is pretty fast since it consists of less parts.  IMPORTANT: make sure you get the header pipes seated well against the new gaskets.  You shouldn't be able to see the gaskets at the edge of the header pipe when its installed correctly.  Once you fire up the bike for the first time, immediately put your bare hand down around the header mounts and see if there's any signficant exhaust escaping.  If there is, shut the bike off immediately and get the header aligned correctly. The rear header acorn nut on both headers is a bear to tighten.  You'll want to remove the right air cover and the right under-seat cover in order to tighten them right.

My bike is running fine without rejetting but there's no reason why you shouldn't rejet if you want some more HP.

Finally, this was the 3rd best mod I've made to the bike, after the Mustang seat and Progressive Suspension.  The vintage look is what drove me to this pipe but they also give a very satisfying sound.  No bark but a lot of nice deep rumbling.  On deaccelaration, they sound like a huge beast gargling with motor oil!  I have the standard tip on the pipes now and have no plans to change it.




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