Continuing along with the muffler discussion, when I was looking for a photo of the Conti mufflers I decided to look a little deeper and went in search of a video. The one above features a highly modified Ducati Sport without Contis. Instead, it has a pair of reverse cone meggas, as the British say. If you're a fan boy of the bevel drive Ducatis like I am, you'll want to watch the whole thing. If you just want to see, and for our discussion hear, a 750 out on the road, skip ahead to the 4:00 minute mark.
Comparing open pipes on the Ducati with the Sportster is a lot like the apples to oranges thing. The Ducati engine is a 90-degree twin, the Sportster a 45-degree twin. The state of tune from the factory favors the Ducati, but it has a long stroke for torque similar to the Harley. Later model Ducatis had a much shorter stroke to bore ratio. I've owned both and the later ones revved more like a Jap bike.
With the 45-degree design of the Sportster, they can't do much to change the bore/stroke ratio because they run into interference issues with the pistons due to the narrow vee angle. When comparing the two, I remember reading in one of the bike mags back in the seventies Ducatis were a Harley for the thinking man.
So, listen to the Ducati in the video to get an appreciation of what, in my opinion, a vee twin with open pipes should sound like. This is not a slam against the Harleys, they just need those drag pipes toned down a bit. The mufflers I ordered for the Sportster will be here this week. That should tone it down to a reasonable level.
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