FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
and
ANSWERS
DK Custom Products
Do I need a tuner/ jets to do a Stage I?
There is a lot of conflicting information on this all over the Internet. Here are the facts. Harleys come from the factory with a lean condition. This is due to EPA regulations. Then you add more air through the Air Cleaner and opening up the exhaust. If you are adding that much air, you are just making an already lean condition worse. So, your bike will run without some sort of fuel management, but it will be far from running good.
Do I have to get my bike Dyno Tuned when I do a Stage I?
No, you do not have to get your bike dyno tuned in order for you to get a stage I upgrade. There are different things you can do in order to get a good tune on your bike. All of these things depend on how much money you are wanting to spend, and what modifications you are planning in the near future.
The XiED Products will work well on most bikes when adding a free flowing Air Cleaner & Exhaust.
The Power Vision's included "Auto-Tune Feature will give a better tune than most Dyno Tunes.
Which air cleaner is best for performance?
There are only a few companies making true performance intakes anymore.
DK Custom Products
NRHS
Hammer
We don’t know of any others. Pushing blow-by back into the air cleaner is counter productive to performance. What comes out of the breathers is primarily exhaust and oil. It is also hot. Engines perform better with cool dry air and gas… not hot oily air and gas. Additionally the exhaust gas has a lower oxygen content, displacing oxygen on each combustion stroke. Which is another performance robber. Oil will build up carbon deposits on the pistons, leading to pinging/ tuning problems down the road.
What exhaust is best?
There are 3 main factors that are considered in upgrading exhaust:
Looks
Sound
Performance
There are dozens of companies making hundreds of different looks and levels of sound, and almost all claim big performance increases.
The approach DK Custom takes to exhaust is to address performance, and to a smaller degree, the sound, leaving the looks to each persons personal taste.
Once a person has chosen the look, and general sound that they like (go to bike nights and listen until you hear the sound you like, then ask what they're running) in slip-on mufflers or entire exhaust systems, we have a small component, Thunder Torque Inserts, that can be added to almost any exhaust slip-on or system.
The "W" Series Thunder Torque Inserts (TTI's) will slightly deepen the tone, and, more importantly, will increase the low and mid range power by 5%-20%, by reducing engine pumping loss, & increasing exhaust gas velocity. The Patent Pending TTI's are literally the most power increase per $ spent of any mod that can be done to a Harley-Davidson motor!
Is an external breather really that much better for performance?
Yes. There really is no argument on this subject. The simple fact is engines perform better on cool dry air than they do on hot dirty oily air. When you install some sort of external breather, but change nothing else, you see a bump in performance from that alone. When engines breath internally like they do on stock bikes and most other aftermarket air cleaners, it builds up carbon deposits. These carbon deposits raise the compression ratio, which hurts performance.
What is a Stage I?
A stage I is when you change from a stock air cleaner and exhaust, to a free flowing air cleaner and exhaust. When you do this, you also add fuel to the mix to have what is referred to as a stage I upgrade.
What size tank lift is best for my bike?
It’s actually very simple. Since we always suggest that you check for clearance, you take a step back in this process and see what look YOU like on YOUR bike. Here are the steps:
1. With your bike on the kickstand, take the bolt out of the front of the tank.
2. Loosen (do not remove) the bolt at the rear of your tank.
3. Take a towel, or something to that nature, that is soft and won’t damage any kind of paint, and roll it up.
4. Take this roll, and place it between the backbone of the bike and the tank. You can adjust the thickness of this roll to adjust the height between 1.5”, 2”, 2.5”, and 3” (Sportsters, Softails, and Tourings). For Dynas 2”, 2.5”, and 3”.
5. Then, take the handlebars and turn them all the way to the left, then turn them all the way back to the right, this ensures that there are no clearance issues.
By doing this, you are not only able to make sure that you can install the tank lift with no fitment issues, but you can also see the height at which you would like your tank lift.
Will a tank lift affect my usable fuel capacity?
Depending on the size of your tank ( 2.1 gallons-6 gallons) and the size tank lift, ( 1.5”, 2”, 2.5”, or 3”), it could possibly reduce your usable capacity by ⅛ to ⅓ of a gallon
However, in the real world, most people do NOT run their tanks until they are dry. Since that is the case there is no practical difference in useable capacity 99% of the time.
With a tank lift your fuel light may come on a bit sooner, but the fuel light acts as a type of “electronic reserve”. Generally there is still a gallon or more of fuel left in the tank when the fuel light comes on.
There are four different fuel gauges on Harleys. Not every model has all of them.
1. Digital Gauge
2. Analog or mechanical Gauge
3. MTE (miles to empty) read out
4. Fuel light.
The digital and mechanical gauges are notoriously inaccurate. While you can get to know how yours works with time, most use the trip meter to let them know when they are getting near needing to fill up.
In our experience, the MTE (aka Fuel Range) gives a fairly accurate reading. Remember, when it gets down to 10 miles, you still will have approximately 1 gallon of fuel left.
As mentioned above, the Fuel light is a type of “electronic reserve” when it comes on you will still have around a gallon of fuel left in the tank (if it is operating correctly). The way to know for sure is to pull into a gas station as soon as the light comes on. Fill up your tank. If you have a 3.3 gallon tank and you were able to put 2.3 gallons in, then you know that your light comes on with 1 gallon left. Do this a few times to get a feel for it.
One factor that affects all the gauges is going up or down a hill, or around a long left hand turn. You can watch your gauges go down even though you have plenty of gas. This is because the fuel pick-up in your tank is on the back left side of the tank. As the level of the gas in the tank is shifted on a hill or in a long sweeper, the gauges will give a false reading until you are level again.
Important Note: In a long left turn, or a steep hill, the fuel light can come on, even if you have a couple of gallons left. When you level out, it will not go off. Once the fuel light comes on, it will not reset until the ignition is turned off.
Now, down to what tank lifts do to the usable mileage. A tank lift could cause your fuel light to come on a little sooner than it did without one, and it could show you have less fuel than what you actually do. This is due to where the fuel pickup is located at on your tank. It is already in a sort of odd place, and leaves fuel at the rear of the tank that does not reach the fuel pickup. When you create a higher angle on the tank with a tank lift, it can leave more gas that will not reach the fuel pickup.
The fact of the matter is, for most, this possible loss won’t even be noticeable. This is because the only way you will notice that small of a loss of usable fuel, is if you drain your tank dry before you fill up each time.
What is a deluxe option with a tank lift?
This just refers to a rear tank lift. It allows the rear of the tank to be moved up and back up to ⅜ of an inch. This product is not required on most bikes but is especially useful on pre 2004 Sportsters, all Softails and Touring Models.
What is the difference between a Tri-Glide Lift Kit & a Tri-Glide Comfort Lift Kit?
The Tri-Glide Lift Kit & The Comfort Lift Kit replaces the stock shock mounts of your Tri-Glide. They both give an increase of 1.25" at the shocks and 1.6" at the rear of the bike.
The difference between the two is that The Comfort Lift Kit also slightly changes the angle of the shocks rearward on the swingarm. The suspension now absorbs more of the smaller and larger road imperfections, resulting in less of the bumps being passed on to the rider and passenger.
Net result is a Smoother, Plusher ride.
Live Free - Ride Free!
