In my last yarn you might have seen that I was dreaming of more noise and power, well I can report that the dream is now a reality. I met up with Luke Rafferty at Harley Heaven’s Sydney store, and we went through Harley-Davidson 920-page parts and accessories catalogue and worked out what would be best suited for the Iron. I wanted to make the bike a bit louder on the road so people could hear me coming, but not that hard sound that sets car alarms off and wakes up sleeping babies. I wanted to get that traditional Harley pop sound rather than a crack.
Luke and I decided on a set of Screaming Eagle pipes and a black heavy breather. He also suggested that I run some new grips and forward controls before throwing it on the dyno. We then called in Michael Huntington, head tuner at the Sydney store, to tune it up to perfection. Michael learnt his skills under Dan Lesnock, Harley Davidson’s Lead Technical Service Manager, and the man behind the famous Pepper bagger.
You can see the results from the charts below, but I can tell you first hand the difference was like night and day. Before the bike seemed to have a few flat spots through the rev range, and was having trouble breathing or reaching its full potential, especially at about 2500-3000rpm in the low gears. Now it has really woken up, it has a lot more snap to it and the flat spots are gone. The difference in the throttle response is unbelievable – from low down right through to the top end. It performs better, looks better, and I can really hear the difference.
Michael and Dan nailed it on this bike and I couldn’t have been more impressed. It’s great to meet people so passionate about what they do.
Harley-Heaven Sydney
75-85 O’Riordan Street
Alexandria NSW 2015
(02) 9317 8777
