I am hoping I can get a few questions answered here. From what I have seen so far on this site there are some very helpful and knowledgeable people here. First of all I have a new 2006 (less than 400 miles) Midnight Star 1700. I have already done the stage three exhaust mod and am a little concerned that I should have waited until the 600 mile break-in period was over before doing it. I hated the quiet sound of the bike with the stock pipe setup. I have since noticed that I can no longer adjust the idle to achieve the "potato potato potato" or "galloping horse" lope that It once had.
Does anyone have an opinion on this? Have I caused any damage by doing the stage three modification?
My next question is how much louder will my bike be with some after market pipes compared to the stage three modification? I'd like to have a better, louder sound at idle, but don't want to spend $600 plus dollars if there won't be that much difference in the sound.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nighthawk

The idle adjustment is the black knob under the front of the air filter you should be able to adjust it to whatever idle speed you want. Some will tell you that adjusting it low will lower your oil pressure to much . I have a oil pressure gauge on mine and it runs about 25lbs oil pressure hot @ 750-800 RPM.and there is no harm in that. The book calls for a min of 8.5 lbs @ 900 RPM. The book also calls for Idle speed to be adjusted anywhere between 850-950. But unless you have a tach its all guess work.
Now on the pipes there are many different pipes and they all sound a little different. Check on Utube for sound bites of R*'s and you will find alot of different pipes to listen to.

Simply Can'ta Lope without Big City Thunder Monster Baffles

i haven't listened to a stage 3 exhaust mod but our bikes have a pump driven by a gear off the engine 950 rpms no lower is where you want to be to keep the engine lubracated. the loss of lope may have alot to do with loss of back pressure from you removing the baffles. i have no experience with stock pipe modding but that my thaughts and other will chime in here in a few

edit: well i got beat to it also the classifieds here there is 5 choices of aftermarket pipes for a good price

I drilled my pipes out the day after I road it home from the stealership with 50 miles on it. The odometer is now approaching 30 thousand miles . When my bike is really warm and I come off of the interstate,it wont lope until I restart it with a cold engine.

Southwest wrote:
I drilled my pipes out the day after I road it home from the stealership with 50 miles on it. The odometer is now approaching 30 thousand miles . When my bike is really warm and I come off of the interstate,it wont lope until I restart it with a cold engine.

Always adjust the idle on a fully warmed engine. Then learn to understand how the bike runs when it is cold. It;s a carbed bike, this is the nature of a carb, this is the purpose of the choke system. A FI bike has sensors and a cold running fuel management ckt to alleviate all that has to be done on a carb bike. Yes, it is still gonna take a mile or 3 to bring oil up to a min. of 140 deg's even on an 80 deg day, and longer in colder temps. Just try not to keep choke on too long, much better to feather the throttle to keep rpm's up till the bike is fully warmed. Unfortunately ya can't have the best of both worlds with a carb, it's manually tuned. If ya richen the idle ckt when it's cold, then it will be too rich when it's warm. FI takes care all of this by use of sensors and the ECU. it is what it is. You can't make a carbed bike run like a FI bike, at least not in the start-up.

I eun vh longshots baffles cut down to 4", and i still cant get enough but that exteme for most ppl , i do suggest the longshots if to loud u can add quiet baffle, if not loud enough do what i did

Night_Hawk1

Your bike will still lope if you get it tuned the way you like. I have heard modified stock muffs that werent much louder than stock and Ive seen the stock cans completely gutted. Trying to compare sound is a crap shoot. Short straight drag pipes with no baffels should be the loudest. No harm will be done by opening up the stock exhaust not even at 400 miles. Due to the bike breathing a little more free the idle RPM likely is high and thats where you lost the lope. My RoadStar runs very well without alot if fiddling with the choke or extended warm ups. I do pull the choke out on start and twist the throttle a couple of times on a cold start. My choke returns in on its own while I ride. I did adjust the PMS a few times to get it right where I wanted it. Given all this my bike gets around 40 MPG and thats a fair amount less than some here so it is getting more fuel but not overly rich.

most likely the reason your bike stopped loping is because you leaned it out a bit by drilling the exhaust. I have found that if the fuel ratio is too rich it will lope. I can make mine lope at will by chokeing it a bit more than needed.. so your probably better off without the lope.