bigmacbkr
06-13-2011, 12:25 PM
We've all heard the old saying, "opinions are like a#* holes, everybody's got one", so the following is only my opinion (assessment) of the three sets of mufflers that are available for the 1700 Nomads and Voyagers. I've purchased and tried all three, D&D's, Cobra Tri-Ovals, and now Vance & Hines Slash Cuts and in that order.
First of all, lets get this out of the way right up front; none have quieter baffles available from their respective maker, in fact the V&H's don't even have baffles, and all three are pretty darn loud especially upon acceleration, so if you don't want loud, stick with your stocks cause you can't quiet them down after you buy them. If you do want loud and want your bike to "sound like a Harley" and turn heads when you motor down the highway, then any of the three will meet that criteria. Secondly, all three pop and backfire, primarily when decelerating, with the D&D's the greatest culprit and the other two about equal with the V&H's not quite as bad as the Cobra's. None are so offensive that they'll shatter windows but brief acceleration then deceleration will get everybody's attention, especially yours.
Now lets go to the mufflers appearances; the D&D's are LONG, inches longer than the others, and stick out beyond the end of everything, bags, and fender, and personally I think they would look great on the Voyager, although they were a little too long for my Nomad. I felt they dominated the appearance of the bike. The Tri-Ovals have the very unique oval shape and won't be mistaken for any others and they probably have the deepest chrome plating of the three, and are truly beautiful. For some reason however, I opted to go back to round instead of oval and I wanted a few more inches of length, but not as long as the D&D's, only slightly longer than the Cobras or stock, so I bought a set of V&H's Slash Cuts and have mounted them. For me, they are about perfect in appearance and sound, that is if they don't get any louder, but the jury is still out because I haven't put many miles on them yet as they haven't been on the bike that long. I do like the double lipped terminus and the "slash cut" ends and they too have good chrome.
In a nut shell, all three are great pipes and all are easy to mount although I had a little trouble lining up the bolt holes on the left Tri Oval, but nothing serious. Be careful not to crush or damage the crush washers in the header pipes when mounting any as they are over $25.00 each!
I hope no one is offended by my assessment if you have any of these, and It's not my objective to persuade anyone to buy one or the other because of my comments, like I said "opinions are like................". ::)
First of all, lets get this out of the way right up front; none have quieter baffles available from their respective maker, in fact the V&H's don't even have baffles, and all three are pretty darn loud especially upon acceleration, so if you don't want loud, stick with your stocks cause you can't quiet them down after you buy them. If you do want loud and want your bike to "sound like a Harley" and turn heads when you motor down the highway, then any of the three will meet that criteria. Secondly, all three pop and backfire, primarily when decelerating, with the D&D's the greatest culprit and the other two about equal with the V&H's not quite as bad as the Cobra's. None are so offensive that they'll shatter windows but brief acceleration then deceleration will get everybody's attention, especially yours.
Now lets go to the mufflers appearances; the D&D's are LONG, inches longer than the others, and stick out beyond the end of everything, bags, and fender, and personally I think they would look great on the Voyager, although they were a little too long for my Nomad. I felt they dominated the appearance of the bike. The Tri-Ovals have the very unique oval shape and won't be mistaken for any others and they probably have the deepest chrome plating of the three, and are truly beautiful. For some reason however, I opted to go back to round instead of oval and I wanted a few more inches of length, but not as long as the D&D's, only slightly longer than the Cobras or stock, so I bought a set of V&H's Slash Cuts and have mounted them. For me, they are about perfect in appearance and sound, that is if they don't get any louder, but the jury is still out because I haven't put many miles on them yet as they haven't been on the bike that long. I do like the double lipped terminus and the "slash cut" ends and they too have good chrome.
In a nut shell, all three are great pipes and all are easy to mount although I had a little trouble lining up the bolt holes on the left Tri Oval, but nothing serious. Be careful not to crush or damage the crush washers in the header pipes when mounting any as they are over $25.00 each!
I hope no one is offended by my assessment if you have any of these, and It's not my objective to persuade anyone to buy one or the other because of my comments, like I said "opinions are like................". ::)