Memphis Shades 21" Windshield:
Installation:
Installation was pretty straightforward. In order to install this windshield on a Mean Streak (or Marauder 1600/Boulevard C95), you need a specific Mean Streak installation kit available from Memphis Shades. This puts the total cost of the kit and windshield to right about $240. One nice thing about it though is that since the installation kit is designed for our specific bike, the instructions are for our bike and not just a generic install kit where you have to figure most of it out on your own.
The brackets clamp to the top part of your forks using some type of soft metal (probably aluminum) that doesnt seem to scratch the forks. They are adjustable but since I dont think Mean Streak fork size has ever changed, I doubt anyone will ever need any of the other positions.
The clamps themselves aren't hard to get on, but to get them correctly spaced and straight is a bit tricky. This kit is called a "quick disconnect kit" and although I would agree with that, I would say that you'll want to leave the brackets on the bike while the windshield is not in use, because its rather tedious getting these brackets lined up each and every time.
The windshield mounts to these brackets using another aluminum bracket which is bolted directly to the acrylic windshield. These brackets have notches in them that slide into two shafts on the fork brackets, and are tightened down by an allen head bolt which is on the fork brackets. Memphis Shades gives you two allen keys, a long and a short one that you can throw into your bike's tool kit for removal on the road.
Once the windshield is mounted to the bracket, and you're sure everything is straight, you can tighten everything down. Removal of the windshield off the brackets is extremely simple. Just a twist of each of the 4 allen bolts, and the windshield comes off. I would highly recommend having someone holding the front of the windshield, while youre loosening the allen bolts, otherwise it could fall off the front of the bike. I guess you could do this yourself if you are confident in your strength and coordination.
Appearance and Riding Impressions:
The windshield and install brackets look well made. I guess its good they used aluminum (I think) installation hardware so that its softer, but you can definitely tell its not chrome. If you are a chrome nut, these might not look too good to you, but I have no complaints.
The windshield I got was the one with the 7" headlight cutout and it fits perfectly around the headlight. On top of the headlight there is maybe 3/4" clearance, and on the sides maybe 1/2". I didnt actually measure this, but it looks about right. The gaps on each side of the headlight are even, so it has a nice look to it.
I think that the Mean Streak looks better without any windshield, but the reason I bought this one was for long trips. I do have a helmet already, but I wanted a shield to lessen wind fatigue on my body.
Heres the bad news. I am 5'10" and when riding the bike, the top of the windshield is in DIRECT view of the road ahead of me. Its not a huge deal, but as I go over bumps, my vision goes from the very top of the windshield to barely over it, and back and forth. If I duck my head down an inch or two, I look straight through it, if I stick it up higher, I look over it.
This produces a very annoying effect of going in and out of the windshield, which shifts light, making things like theyre bouncing around because of the angle of light is different when going through the acrylic. If you look at the pictures above, the third picture is me sitting on the bike with it upright and me holding the camera approximately where my head would be while riding. The top of the ladder is about where my eyes would be looking if I was on the road.
Another thing I noticed is that since my head is even with the top of the windshield, my helmet is in the "buffeting zone". Its not noticeable at speeds below 50 mph, but at highway speeds, my head is basically vibrating from the wind. I havent done an A/B comparison, but I rode this bike for almost 2 months without a windshield and I dont remember this effect. I will post back with more info later, but honestly, the buffeting gave me a headache on a 1 hour ride last night.
I would guess that shorter riders like 5'8" and under wouldnt have this problem.
Other than that, its a nice unit, but if this thing is going to cause visibility problems and give me a headache while riding, I am going to sell it.
Vance & Hines Big Shots Exhaust:
Installation:
This exhaust was on backorder for a couple weeks so I didnt know when it was going to arrive, but thankfully it came yesterday, so I eagerly went out to install.
Like the windshield, this exhaust is made specifically for our bike, so the instructions were made with pictures of our bike so there was little guesswork on the installation, but they didnt cover removal so some parts took a little bit of guesswork on what to remove.
The pictures are all black and white and are very pixelated, so in a couple of them, it was hard to tell what they were trying to show you. There was one part of the instructions when mounting the rear mounting plate that weren't obvious. They tell you to remove the black rubber vibration dampeners when removing the old exhaust, but they never mention reusing them. Since its impossible to mount anything back there with them missing, I just put them back in. I know that probably sounds obvious to some, but why would they tell you to remove something that you need? It was little things like this that I think V&H could improve upon with their instructions.
As a whole, the instructions were good, but if V&H would have spent maybe an extra 10 minutes getting better pictures and being a little more thorough with their descriptions, these could have been excellent.
Anyway, the installation was pretty smooth and straightforward. The hardest part was mounting the heatshields to the pipes. You need to secure them with bandclamps like the stock exhaust, but I noticed that in a couple spots, especially the front cylinder head pipe, the heat shields didnt perfectly line up with the pipe underneath. I needed to use some muscle to force it to fit and that made getting the forward most band clamp installed. After taking a break and drinking a beer, I was able to get it though.
My bike has barely over 1000 miles on them, so the exhaust gaskets looked to be in excellent shape. Keeping them in the exhaust ports was a bit tricky, so I just got some gear oil and dabbed a little oil on the cylinder head side of the gaskets with my finger. This was enough to get the gaskets to stick to the inside of the cylinder heads so they wouldnt fall out while trying to wiggle the head pipes in the hole.
Most everything reuses the stock nuts and bolts, so getting the exhaust on wasn't too hard. I did this all by myself with no extra pairs of hands. I had a blanket on the ground under the bike, so that if something fell, it wouldnt get scratched.
Appearance and Riding Impressions:
Fit and finish is pretty good, but not perfect. Based on the some of the bad reviews Ive read on other exhaust systems, I would say these are probably very good, but there still was room for improvement. Like I said earlier, the front head pipe heat shield didn't perfectly fit over the head pipe itself, so it took a bit of muscle to get it lined up correctly. Also, the rear tailpipes line up correctly, but they're angled differently. Its hard to describe, and you can't really see it in the pictures, but its like the metal on the rear heatshields was formed at a slightly different angle from the other one. I would consider this a nitpick cause you really need to get down there to see it, but if you were a perfectionist, it might peeve you a bit.
When I first fired the bike up I was a bit surprised. Honestly, I've never heard another Mean Streak or even a Vulcan with pipes before. All I am familiar with is Harleys and I didnt want that obnoxious sound of straight pipes that a lot of guys like. I realize these have interchangeable baffles, so for some of you who dont want a loud exhaust, beware.
I wouldnt call it overly loud, but there is a bit of raspy "tcha-tcha-tcha" when cracking on the throttle. I like it, but just be warned that this is not a quiet exhaust.
I do not have any type of computer alterations like a PCIII or a Techlusion programmer, and I would say the bike rides pretty good for stock tuning. There is an occasional backfire if I crack on the throttle and then suddenly let off. I will definitely want to block off my reed valves because it burbles quite a bit when decelerating. It actually doesnt sound too bad, but the backfiring has got to go.
The Big Shots are a 2:2 pipe, but they have a cross over tube which supposedly gives them a power advantage similar to a 2:1 exhaust. I'll be honest, I have a Trans Am that is making around 500 HP, so nothing really feels fast to me anymore (not even the T/A), and Ive always have a poorly calibrated butt-meter, so Im not sure if I feel a power increase on the bike.
I did crack on it a couple times, and the bike took off pretty good, and I think I feel more power, but I'm not sure if its just a placebo effect. I will say this though, theres definitely no loss of power!
I am happy I went with this particular exhaust. Installation took maybe 2.5 hours, with about 1 hour of that time spent just getting the bandclamps installed. Had they been installed right out of the box, it would have been a 1.5 hour install and I've never installed pipes on a bike before.