Ohlins Shocks and Bub 7 Stealth Mufflers

 I purchased a set of Bub 7 Stealth Slip-on Mufflers for JDsRoad, my 2012 Road Glide Ultra, back in early October.  Unfortunately they were in the middle of a redesign of the muffler tips so they were not immediately available. 

Later that month I decided to upgrade my shocks and after some research decided to go with a set of Ohlins model #3-#4 from MotorcycleMetal.com.  Howard Messner was extremely helpful in helping me determine what length to order and sent me installation and setup document via e-mail.  The Ohlins were delivered long before the Stealths were shipped.  I’ve seen Ohlins on BMWs so I knew they would be well built and high quality.  I wasn’t disappointed with these when I examined them.

I have been recovering from back problems so I decided to wait until the Stealths showed up and install both at the same time.   In the interim I ordered some smaller stuff for some other modifications I wanted to do.  But those will need to wait a bit to be installed.

The Stealths arrived late on January 4th so I got  set up to start the installation the next day.  I moved the bike in position and set up my Eazy Rizer Big Blue Lift.

The next morning I raised the bike on the lift and gathered parts and instructions.   I removed the saddle bags and the saddle to get to the areas I would need access.  To remove the stock mufflers I needed a 1/2” socket for the muffler hanger bolts and a 9/16” socket for the muffler clamps.  The muffler on the left side pulled off easily but the right side took considerably more wiggling and tugging.   The catalytic converter is just in front of the right side  muffler clamp so the right side gets a lot more heat .   This left a pretty much wide open work space to remove the OEM air shocks and to install the new Ohlins.

I removed the air lines from the compression fittings on both  shocks.  I used an allen socket to remove the air valve and it’s mounting bracket from the left side fender rail then reinstalled and torqued (40-50 in-lbs) the allen bolt.  I fished the air lines out from the area under the saddle and put them aside. 

A breaker bar and 3/4” socket made quick work of loosening the two shock mounting bolts on both sides.  It only took about five minutes to remove the air shock system. 

Following the instructions provided by Howard I inserted a metric to SAE converter sleeve into the lower bolt hole of the right shock and inserted the mounting bolt and washer.  I held the shock in place and tightened the lower bolt until it was snug.  I rotated the shock so the upper bolt hole aligned with the upper mounting hole.  I held it position without applying inward force to see how much space there would be between the shock head and the upper shock mount.  They were nearly perfectly mated so I didn’t need any of the shim washers that were provided with the Ohlins shocks.  I installed  the upper metric to SAE converter sleeve, mounting bolt and washer.  The bolt was just tightened finger tight.

I followed the same procedure on the left side but there was a gap remaining between the shock head and the upper shock mount.  One shim washer  wasn’t quite enough but two would have been too much.  The remaining gap with one shim held in place was less than half the width of a shim washer so I only used one.  I applied a little medium thread lock on the top bolt before installing it finger tight.  I then worked my way back through the other three bolts and did the same thing before applying torque (35-40 ft-lbs) to all of them.

I should note that these shocks are adjustable in length.  The length can be set from 13 7/32”to 13 21/32”.  The stock shocks are 13” in length.  The shocks were installed at their minimum length of 13 7/32”.  I was a little concerned that the larger diameter mufflers and correctly configured shocks might create a clearance problem in cornering and other situations.  Many people order the Ohlins #3-#3 from MortorcycleMetal and the rear of the bike will be a little lower than stock.  If I do have any issues I can still raise the height by as much as 14/32”.

I unpacked the Stealth mufflers.  They were packed so well I don’t think FedEx could have damaged them in shipment.   I  had ordered the chrome  mufflers with black tips so I was eager to see how they looked.  I initially ordered  chrome tips but the chrome tip models wouldn’t start shipping for another two or more weeks.  I had seen a set of Bub 7 shocks with black tips and I liked that look too so I decided to change my order to get them sooner. 

There were very solid feeling but didn’t weight as much as the stock shocks.  The workmanship, fit and finish all looked excellent.  I read through the instructions but of course there wasn’t much to it other then getting the torque values right.  About the only decision to make is if you want to mount the muffler with the tips slash up  or slash down.  I went with the slash down so the muffler tips were at the same angle as the back of the saddlebags.  

The OEM mufflers have a bracket welded to the them as spacers for the muffler hanger on the bike.  The Stealth mufflers have flush mounted nuts and they use machined chrome spacers between the muffler hanger and the muffler.  It all gets buried under the saddlebags but it is still a nice touch.  They have nice big exhaust holes at the back but if you look further inside you can see the baffle system.  I guess I won’t need to be as fussy about carbon build up as I would if they were chrome.

There were some differences between the recommended torque values for the muffler hanger bolts and the exhaust clamps.  The HD service manual calls out 96-144 in-lbs and 38-43 ft-lbs.  The Bub instructions were 13-15 ft-lbs (144-180 in-lbs) and 45-60 ft-lbs.  I used the Bub numbers because they should know best what kind of torque their mufflers are designed for.

I measured the distance between the outside flats of the top and bottom bolt heads on the right shock.  This measurement is to establish a baseline fully extended (unloaded) suspension length for the pre-load adjustment that I needed to do.  I used a 24” caliper that I purchased from Harbor Freight for $9.99 .  My measurement was  356.4 mm.

I put the saddle back on and lowered the bike to the ground.  Even with a little difficulty removing the right muffler the installation didn’t take much more than an hour. 

I  have an Eazy Rizer Bike Grab Wheel Chock that I used to hold the bike upright.  The fully loaded sag is recommended to be set at one third of the total stroke length of the suspension.   The stroke length of the Ohlins I have is 77 mm.  One third of 77 mm is approximately 25.66 mm.  So my target fully loaded (sag) length would be my unloaded length minus 25.66 mm or approximately 330.74 mm.  So I set my caliper to this length.

I have saddlebag liners so it was easy to put all the crap I normally drag around with me in the trunk.  I sat on the bike and measured the length.  The shocks were compressed too far so I increased the spring pre-load on both shocks by the same number of turns.  I repeated this process until the fully loaded sag length was correct.

The weather was nice this weekend so I was able to ride about 220 miles.  I am very pleased with both the Ohlins and the Stealths. 

The Ohlins feel great. Even without playing with the damping controls I have a much smoother and more comfortable ride over a variety of road conditions.  They are not jumping , topping or bottoming out on rough road or potholes.  If they can be tuned better than they are now I will be really impressed.  Kudos to Howard for providing a great product along with excellent customer service.

The Bub 7 Stealth mufflers are also keepers.  I was looking for better sound, but not necessarily greater volume, along with some modest performance improvement.  This will be one of my touring machines and I would just as soon minimize my sound induced headaches.

The exhaust tone is deeper than stock.  It doesn’t have what I considered to be the tinny sound of the stock mufflers.   They are a low rumble at idle and sound off nicely under hard throttle but not enough to be a discomfort to my ears.  At cruising  speeds they are a deep tone only slightly noticeable above the wind and engine noise.  I think they sound particular nice when decelerating at lower speeds and coming to a stop.  They also thunder up tunnels and underpasses adequately enough for me.  If they are significantly louder than the stock mufflers the lower exhaust tone more than makes up for it.  The seat of the pants seemed to detect some mild mid to high RPM improvement so they seem to perform as advertized. 

I’m sure they would be dissed by the Thunderheader, drag pipe or other ear splitting exhaust system crowd and probably  others.  If I want to risk a headache I will take JDsHog out and listen to my 2:1 Supertrap SuperMeg.  Yes I know that they are pretty tame relative to some, but to each their own.  Harleys are the Burger King of motorcycles and I can have it my way.    

All the pictures I took during the installations can be seen HERE.