Forum

[avandr]

G'day from Australia. This is my first post as I have just 2 days ago purchased a 2012 C5 Classic Chrome EFI Bullet. I absolutely hate the ugly / restrictive silencer that came with the bike, I can actually feel the bike chocking up. My question to the forum is which silencer from the Hitcocks range would be best for my bike considering EFI requirements. I quite fancy the Goldstar but would like to hear from anyone with personal experience. Winter over here but still ok for riding, just had an issue with wind chill around the crown jewels area. Cheers

[bikerbill]

Hitchcocks list all the silencers which are suitable for the efi bikes - scroll down the page.
I have the Watsonian Goldstar on mine. Great improvement in performance, but antisocial when wound open. If you're looking for more THUMP than BLAT, the other one would be the better option.
Still winter here too in UK. Endless f***ing winter......

[p]

I'm not an EFI owner, but is that the model that has a double skinned downpipe, which is more restrictive than the silencer itself.....??

[bikerbill]

That may be the case. But I doubt it's "more" restrictive. Just getting shot of that bloody great torpedo tube makes a heck of a difference.

[apparently lucky eddie]

I found changing the silencer made little difference to performance, it is the down pipe that is choking the engine, get rid of that and the improvement is huge. Take off the silencer and look and you'll see what we mean. Changing the silencer will only result in a stupidly loud bike and really pissed off neighbours.

[bikerbill]

My experience, and that of several others over on the CMW forum, has been that changing the stock silencer for one of the EFI specific aftermarket jobs - Watsonian or Hitchcocks - has made a noticeable difference to performance. Yes it's noisier, of course, but also significantly perkier!
It's a 2010 Electra (G5). I replaced the stock silencer for a while just because I got fed up with the loudness, and the difference in performance was immediately apparent.
I don't say the downpipe isn't part of the problem - but to say that changing the silencer has no effect on performance is demonstrably not true.
I also tried a generic Indian RE silencer for a while - sounded right, but the bike backfired like buggery.

[STU]

On my Electra XS changing the silencer to our hosts Goldy made a small difference, but changing the downpipe to the Hitchcocks unrestricted one has made a significant difference! Much lighter too!

[avandr]

Thanks guys, looks like I may go with the Goldstar silencer and a header pipe also, on a scale of 1 - 10 how loud is the Goldstar unit? I am concious of my neighbours.
Cheers

[bikerbill]

The Watsonian Goldie is loud. It's inoffensive ticking over or going gentle, but much noisier opened up, especially in built-up areas! I believe the Hitchcocks version has a removable/adjustable? baffle in it, so can probably be tamed a bit.
I'd be interested to hear how you go with both downpipe and silencer changed - whether the efi adjusts ok. Does the less restrictive downpipe retain the oxygen sensor...?