Thunderheader 2-1 best sound period !!! : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

RK CRAIG · 10-09-2008, 04:56 PM

MEN,
The best sounding 2-1 pipe is a THUNDERHEADER !! Period!! Great performance ? Yep ! great sound ? yep!! Best 2 into one ?? YEP !!
JMHO
Tj

rob71458 · 10-09-2008, 05:11 PM

Does sound great, but looks like crap. D@D with the quiet baffle comes in second place for sound, looks cleaner and may perform better, Just my 2 cents.

Buddha4 · 10-09-2008, 05:46 PM

T header is OK but I prefer my RB LSR hands down. subtle but really throaty WOT

MaineUltraClassic · 10-09-2008, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob71458

Does sound great, but looks like crap. D@D with the quiet baffle comes in second place for sound, looks cleaner and may perform better, Just my 2 cents.

Yup, I agree.

The Thunderheader 2-1 does sound great..............but looks like crap, heatshields suck, and the quality leaves a lot on the table.

The Fatcat with quiet baffle sounds great, and has all the quality and fit-n-finish the Thunderheader lacks.

I've owned both.........that's my honest opinion.

Steve

skyhook · 10-09-2008, 08:03 PM

if you like loud... #1 is bassani roadrage...#2 is thunderheader...reverse megaphones rock!

MinesWide · 10-10-2008, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RK CRAIG

MEN,
The best sounding 2-1 pipe is a THUNDERHEADER !! Period!! Great performance ? Yep ! great sound ? yep!! Best 2 into one ?? YEP !!
JMHO
Tj

YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER, BUT YOU CAN'T MAKE THEM DRINK......too bad so many can't see the best exhaust..

TheNowhereman · 10-10-2008, 02:07 AM

There are only two pipes that rule HD world for sound and power.
RB Racing's pro stock 2 into 1 and JBV Racing's Guppy III.
Everything else is nuthin but wannbe's.

thundercatken · 10-10-2008, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob71458

Does sound great, but looks like crap. D@D with the quiet baffle comes in second place for sound, looks cleaner and may perform better, Just my 2 cents.

Uh huh ... yet another thread on the "Penis Pipe" (take a good look at it). Had one ... got rid of it ... did it sound good, yea ... did it perform well ... Yea, but not compared to some others. Looked like crap, rusted prematurely, heat shields looked like some cheap "Afterthought" and never fit well.

Now, if they updated the pipe with double wall, non bluing design like most D&D, Vance & Hines, Hardkrome and most of the other quality manufacturers, it might be worth looking at again. Until then, I'll stick to my LSR. Sounds and performs better, fantastic chrome quality ... and doesn't have a "Foreskin" that constantly needs cleaning.

pwmorris · 10-10-2008, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNowhereman

There are only two pipes that rule HD world for sound and power.
RB Racing's pro stock 2 into 1 and JBV Racing's Guppy III.
Everything else is nuthin but wannbe's.

I had a Thunderheader for years on smaller cube bikes and they performed great and sounded great too but when you get to a certain point and start getting serious you have to go to a stepped, big diameter pipe, with a meg and collector that has been tested and track and dyno proven on big hp motors. Other than a custom ONE OFF true dual or 2-1 stepped pipe, the above mentioned pipes are the only ones I know that are for sale as a complete unit to the general public for various types of bikes and fit the bill. I took out a big time builder 5 years ago in a dyno shootout who ran a Thunderheader-It was choking the engine off and even though he had 7 more cubes than me I put him on the trailer.
That being said, it's all relative and a pipe like the Guppy is NOT for everyone. You have to have the motor to appreciate and need it's size pipe diameter, and they still dont have it for Baggers yet. But I promise you, if you heard one on a healthy engine you would agree (go to their site jbvracing.com and click on the sound card of the hemi head softail-turn up your speakers!)

Jeffytune · 10-10-2008, 03:07 AM

Hi.

I had a T-header on one of my bikes, the performance and tone were great, the quality of the welds and the heat shield were quite another.
The thing that really ticked me was the cost of the heat shield, and the fact they only covered half the pipes. i had to cut up my stock shields to get the pipe to stop melting my boots.

For the money, the Vance and Hines Pro Pipes is far and away better quality and the heat shield come with it, not a doubling of the price to get them.

Screamingbeagle · 10-11-2008, 09:34 PM

The Thunderheaders may sound okay, but the quality of the pipe could be better. And hope that you never have anything go wrong with it and you need to deal with their customer service. The company is run by members of the Hells Angels, and they do not believe in any kind of customer service.

MinesWide · 10-12-2008, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Screamingbeagle

The Thunderheaders may sound okay, but the quality of the pipe could be better. And hope that you never have anything go wrong with it and you need to deal with their customer service. The company is run by members of the Hells Angels, and they do not believe in any kind of customer service.

I agree with all that. But it's a great sounding exhaust. Although everybody has different tastes. I'm glad were're not all the same..

shortglide · 10-13-2008, 01:14 PM

I put a set on my 87 FLHS, This is the short one. What I mean by that , is the end of the pipe comes about halfway down the saddlebag. Never had a problem with the heat shields. I seem to get pretty good performance with these, but can't really tell if the header had that much. I put the headers on in 96, I also put on Edelbrock heads, Edelbrock Carb(which was good from off idle to wide open, but sucked for start and idle),after fighting Edelbrock carb for 4 years switched to S&S, crane HI4E ignition,set of Jims lifters, Barnett Scorpion clutch. The bike, while it performs well,the S&S carb doesn't have what the Edelbrock give me at wide open. Getting back to the headers, I've had them on since 96 and there is no glass left in them. I have gotten them hot through the years , that the bafflle has broke itself loose. So it rattles, and you can hear it, that is until you grab a handfull of throttle. Now this bike really sounds good, and I want to keep them on. Well its my understanding about headers, is that a header performs correctly if both pipes are of equal length going to the collector. If you look at the Dynas and Sportsters that run ThunderHeader they are pretty close to the same length, but on the FL's and Softtails they are not. Also on the FL's the headers are longer. On my 87 with them ending halfway down the bag. From where the exhaust comes out of the bag it leaves a burn mark on the bottoms of the bags to where the heatmark is visible coming up around the surface of the back of the bag. No big deal to me. but it must have been to someone , because now they make them longer,so the tips come out past the ends of the bags. I believe doing this also robs some power. So when I got my 06 E-Glide I was going to put on Rineharts, true duals. But as luck would have it, I had a buddy who had a set of ThunderHeaders, with the falsie, and heat shields for $350, so I got them on now. He didn't like them because they were to loud. They sound good , but I want more performance.

RK CRAIG · 10-15-2008, 07:03 PM

Men,
You guys are great ! Great points all the way around, I agree the quality could be better but for all the more Iam ever gonna do with my Bike they will work just fine and those puppies sound great.
Later
Tj

bigdadi44 · 10-20-2008, 12:53 AM

has anyone noticed that they tend to pop on decel more that other pipes