six into six question

[shank]

i bought 2001 I/S it already had cobra six into six on bike. i asked if it had been jetted for those pipes the man said the previous owner had them put on and he was sure he did. ok with that being said. Is there any simple way to know? the pipes are blue as hell but that dont realy bother me. I have to choke the bike when first starting for the day and it seems very cold natured stumbles around for a while till it warms up then it runs like a champ just a slight flutter just above idle that i blame on the pipes. can someone please shed a little light for me?

[Bone]

My 98 Tourer is stock and it's cold natured. I leave the choke on a very small amount if needed until I get rolling then take the choke completely off. They don't like cold weather when first started.

[Dave Weaver]

I have heard of Valk owners saying you need to rejet with the 6 into 6 and other owners saying they have ridden for years without rejetting.  Seems to be a personal choice.  If she runs good, leave her alone.  The only way to tell for sure if yours has been rejetted is to take carbs apart and look.  Also, all of the headers on those will turn blue as they are single wall pipes.  You can have them ceramic coated or buy some high temp grill paint if the bluing is too bad for you.

[sandy]

Shank: Your cold startup issue might be the usual new owner choke problem. When you move the choke lever to a pressure point, press it harder so that it moves with more force. The first press takes up play in the cable. After that the fuel enricheners open up.

[shank]

thanks for the info and advice i think i will just ride her . i dont want to mess with those carbs if i dont have to.

[toetruck21]

I have a 99 I/S that has the cobra six pipes on it to.  It too doesn't like starting when cold.  I leave the choke on for about 30 seconds until the RPM's work up to about 2500.  I then shut the choke off and she runs fine the rest of the day!  I have no idea if the carbs have been rejetted or not, she runs great when warm and I don't plan on tearing anything apart if I don't have to.

[mirion]

97 with Cobra 6x6 and no rejetting. Runs fine, actually starts better than my 2000 IS with glass pack exhausts. Another thing I have noticed is that after about 10,000 miles now, the bluing is just starting to show a little on the front 2 pipes, maybe because its rich???

[Foozle]

The Cobra "jet" kit consists of only needles - which are adjustable and more tapered than stock.  This is easy enough to verify.  Any changes to the actual jets were probably done for unrelated reasons (e.g., clogging, etc.).  Terry

[Sigrún]

The Cobra "jet" kit consists of only needles - which are adjustable and more tapered than stock.  This is easy enough to verify.  Any changes to the actual jets were probably done for unrelated reasons (e.g., clogging, etc.).  Terry

This was interesting to know. In that case I do have a "jetted" -01 with Cobras, purrs like a kitten. Well a rather loud kitten but you know what I mean 

Usually requires no choke when started from a garage, after a VERY cold night may need a little choke to keep the idle on about 1000 or slightly above. But only for that.

But I digress..... if your I/S is happy with the Cobras on and runs nicely, I would not mess with it in any way.

Cheers!

Orvo

[Mr Steve]

97 with Cobra 6x6 and no rejetting. Runs fine, actually starts better than my 2000 IS with glass pack exhausts. Another thing I have noticed is that after about 10,000 miles now, the bluing is just starting to show a little on the front 2 pipes, maybe because its rich???

I'd guess lean over rich.  What do the plugs say?

[PhredValk]

When I bought my 99 I/S she had Two Brothers 6x6 pipes on her. Sounded great, tons of fun in town, but I just knew 10 hours on the hiway would kill me so I put the stock exhaust back on.

On decelleration the 6x6 pipes popped and farted, loudly; but with the stock exhaust on her, no popping on decel. I assume that the decel noise with the 2-Bros came from not being re-jetted, as I don't get that result on decel with the stockers. Do your Cobras do this?

Just my 2 cents(CDN).
Fred.

[Ricky-D]

The many chambers and baffling in the stock pipes are the reason they perform so well.

Honda goes to great extremes to elicit good performance from stock pipes and keep them quiet at the same time.

That's why, when you install the 6 into 6 pipe there is a loss of around six horsepower with the motor.

***

[Sigrún]

On decelleration the 6x6 pipes popped and farted, loudly.

Fred.

My, you say it like it's a bad thing......

[Willow]

That's why, when you install the 6 into 6 pipe there is a loss of around six horsepower with the motor.   

That would be a generalization that only applies to the Cobras.  Two Brothers Racing 6X6 pipes do not result in a loss of horsepower and, contrary to one person's experience, they don't pop on decell unless there's a vacuum leak somewhere.

[Mr Steve]

When I bought my 99 I/S she had Two Brothers 6x6 pipes on her. Sounded great, tons of fun in town, but I just knew 10 hours on the hiway would kill me so I put the stock exhaust back on.

On decelleration the 6x6 pipes popped and farted, loudly; but with the stock exhaust on her, no popping on decel. I assume that the decel noise with the 2-Bros came from not being re-jetted, as I don't get that result on decel with the stockers. Do your Cobras do this?

Just my 2 cents(CDN).
Fred.

I went from Cobras to 2 bros to markT no crossover and just bought another set of markt with crossover (yet to put them on).

I liked the cobras, didn't like the bluing, so got the shields, they rusted.  I got the 2 bros with the shields.  The two bros sounded a bit raspier to me until I richened it up, which deepened the sound some, but I still didn't like the sound on the highway.  They started to rust too (probably from riding winters here) and I'm very picky, any rust isn't acceptable.  The MarkT's I love, but the first set has no crossover and no trombones (just silencers), which left me jonesing for them, hence the second set  

As to the question of decel pops, with any of the pipes it is usually due to vacuum leaks.  The 2 bros popped badly on decel once it fell under 3k rpm even after I fixed all vacuum leaks.  It wasn't until I richened it up some that the decel pops stopped.  Maybe this was a symptom of something else, but could not find it and once I made it a bit richer it all stopped.

[Sigrún]

That would be a generalization that only applies to the Cobras.  Two Brothers Racing 6X6 pipes do not result in a loss of horsepower and, contrary to one person's experience, they don't pop on decell unless there's a vacuum leak somewhere.

Willow, would you care to elaborate on this? I am not familiar with 2 Brothers pipes so how are they different resulting in no loss and no deceleration popping?

[Willow]

That would be a generalization that only applies to the Cobras.  Two Brothers Racing 6X6 pipes do not result in a loss of horsepower and, contrary to one person's experience, they don't pop on decell unless there's a vacuum leak somewhere.

Willow, would you care to elaborate on this? I am not familiar with 2 Brothers pipes so how are they different resulting in no loss and no deceleration popping?

I'm really not familiar with the internal measurements and such of either brand.  My experience is from 135,000 with TBR 6X6 pipes on my Standard and 38,000 miles with Cobra 6X6 pipes on my wife's Standard.

I know that when you could buy both brands new, the Cobra website would freely tell you that you could expect a drop in horsepower.  The TBR site claimed a 2-3 horsepower gain.

The Cobras without fail will turn blue at the headers no matter what you do with them.  TBR pipes on a well running Valkyrie will tend to turn a shade of gold but will not blue.

My TBRs have been popping on decell of late, but then I'm well overdue for replacing the carb runner O-rings and have the symptoms to show it.  Until the carb runners started leaking I experienced no popping.  Someone else posted that he had to enrichen his mixture to get rid of his popping.  I guess it's always possible that my mixture was already a tad rich.

I've not had my bike on a dyno, but anyone who has ridden next to me can attest that my Valkyrie has no indication of reduced horsepower. 

[Chrisj CMA]

That would be a generalization that only applies to the Cobras.  Two Brothers Racing 6X6 pipes do not result in a loss of horsepower and, contrary to one person's experience, they don't pop on decell unless there's a vacuum leak somewhere.

Willow, would you care to elaborate on this? I am not familiar with 2 Brothers pipes so how are they different resulting in no loss and no deceleration popping?

I'm really not familiar with the internal measurements and such of either brand.  My experience is from 135,000 with TBR 6X6 pipes on my Standard and 38,000 miles with Cobra 6X6 pipes on my wife's Standard.

I know that when you could buy both brands new, the Cobra website would freely tell you that you could expect a drop in horsepower.  The TBR site claimed a 2-3 horsepower gain.

The Cobras without fail will turn blue at the headers no matter what you do with them.  TBR pipes on a well running Valkyrie will tend to turn a shade of gold but will not blue.

My TBRs have been popping on decell of late, but then I'm well overdue for replacing the carb runner O-rings and have the symptoms to show it.  Until the carb runners started leaking I experienced no popping.  Someone else posted that he had to enrichen his mixture to get rid of his popping.  I guess it's always possible that my mixture was already a tad rich.

I've not had my bike on a dyno, but anyone who has ridden next to me can attest that my Valkyrie has no indication of reduced horsepower. 

Thats kinda funny there Willow.........

Ok, I traded rides with a friend of mine.  He had a brand new bone stock IS with stock exhausts.  I rode his IS, he rode my standard with Cobras/no re-jetting.  We both agreed mine felt like it had more power, and once we traded back riding together I felt I had to ability to catch him or leave him at will......

So...

If I use your logic, then my Cobras show no signs of degrding the horsepower on my bike either.

Bottom line, if you dont have dino numbers to back it up, its all just a guess.  The Valk has enough power to lose a couple or gain a couple and make no real difference unless you are racing......

[Mildew]

The only difference I've noticed was when I took the baffels out. Its a big loss without the baffels but the valk still moves from 0 - 25 in 1st
25 -50 2nd
50 - 80 3rd
80 - 105 4th
105 - traffic in 5th and it will get there just as fast as you can shift without the baffels  

[Redline +]

The only difference I've noticed was when I took the baffels out. Its a big loss without the baffels.

Maybe on your bike...not mine. Chassis dyno confirmed my butt dyno, an increase of 5 hp and 5 ft lbs of torque without the baffles.

Redline 

[highcountry]

My Valk had Cobras when I got it, but along the way, someone removed the baffles.  So I had to go through the hassle and expense of buying new ones from Cobra.  I couldn't find them anywhere else.  Talking to the Cobra guy, I asked about the jets and he insisted that their pipes were designed to be a direct replacement for the stock pipes and required no rejetting. 

[Willow]

I know that when you could buy both brands new, the Cobra website would freely tell you that you could expect a drop in horsepower.  The TBR site claimed a 2-3 horsepower gain.

The Cobras without fail will turn blue at the headers no matter what you do with them.  TBR pipes on a well running Valkyrie will tend to turn a shade of gold but will not blue. 

Thats kinda funny there Willow.........

Ok, I traded rides with a friend of mine.  He had a brand new bone stock IS with stock exhausts.  I rode his IS, he rode my standard with Cobras/no re-jetting.  We both agreed mine felt like it had more power, and once we traded back riding together I felt I had to ability to catch him or leave him at will......

So...

If I use your logic, then my Cobras show no signs of degrding the horsepower on my bike either.

Bottom line, if you dont have dino numbers to back it up, its all just a guess.  The Valk has enough power to lose a couple or gain a couple and make no real difference unless you are racing......

Not at all, ChrisJ.  If you bothered to read my post you'll see I made no claim as to my experience regarding horsepower change with the Cobras.  If you're choosing to argue that Cobras don't steal horsepower, you're not debating me, you're debating Cobra.  They're the ones that claimed a horsepower loss with their pipes.

Just for the record, my Standard will walk away from your bike, but I've made other changes besides the pipes.  I did have OEM pipes on my Standard before I put on the TBRs, so my experience spans that change.

My wife's Valkyrie has always had Cobras, so I can't do any comparison with it.

My first Interstate had Cobras when I obtained it and I switched to TBRs for a significant jump in power.  that one's not a fair comparison, though because the TBRs I changes to were the 6X2 with the crossover pipe.

You have an odd sense of humor.      

[Printer Mike]

My '98 Valk tourer came with Cobras. Previous owner said it ran so well as was he didn't re-jet.

I have the take off stock pipes just sittin' around. Thought about  puttin' 'em back on, but I sure like the Cobra sound....

[Mr Steve]

With the Cobras I could walk away from my buddy's valks with stock pipes, but not run away, although that may have been because the 97 has more stock horsepower than their later years (I was also jetted for the cobras...baffles in).   When I changed to the 2 bros, I could walk away a bit faster, they were a noticeable improvement over the Cobras.  Going to the MarkTs, I can play with them, falling back, catching back up, basically I can run from them.

I had to adjust carbs (pilots and needles) between each set of pipes to get the correct burn both low end and high.  I can't wait to add my new MarkTs with the crossover and see what I get from them.  Of course none of this is worth much without dino numbers, but I'd rate my experience where the cobras lose hp to the 2 bros which lose hp to the glasspack mod.  I never ran pure stock pipes, so can't comment on them.

I also put in the Interstate CDI and springs and K&N with tank shim, but what helped me the most, the kickshifter, I am much faster on shifts than they are and this is where I gain the most ground on them.  I also notice a difference with Amsoil 10 40 over mobil1 20 50.  Oh, losing weight also helped  

[Jason]

I also have a 98 tourer and when I got it it had stock pipes and ran perfect but was way to quite. I got a set of 2 brothers from eBay and thanks to this message board  I put them on and have done many more mods as well by myself saved me tons of dollars thank you. I love my 2 bros pipes the sound the look everything.  I did not do a jet kit  because all the info I read on them said that there best results were with stock carbs.  I bought my bike in Feb 2010 and as of right now I have put 29000 miles on it I pull my plugs regularly and they look great. My wife and I ride tougher so it always has a load on it not trying to be mean just sayn.  I personally love the sound the long ride don't bother me at all the only down side is that they make me want to go faster.

[Chrisj CMA]

I know that when you could buy both brands new, the Cobra website would freely tell you that you could expect a drop in horsepower.  The TBR site claimed a 2-3 horsepower gain.

The Cobras without fail will turn blue at the headers no matter what you do with them.  TBR pipes on a well running Valkyrie will tend to turn a shade of gold but will not blue.  

Thats kinda funny there Willow.........

Ok, I traded rides with a friend of mine.  He had a brand new bone stock IS with stock exhausts.  I rode his IS, he rode my standard with Cobras/no re-jetting.  We both agreed mine felt like it had more power, and once we traded back riding together I felt I had to ability to catch him or leave him at will......

So...

If I use your logic, then my Cobras show no signs of degrding the horsepower on my bike either.

Bottom line, if you dont have dino numbers to back it up, its all just a guess.  The Valk has enough power to lose a couple or gain a couple and make no real difference unless you are racing......

Not at all, ChrisJ.  If you bothered to read my post you'll see I made no claim as to my experience regarding horsepower change with the Cobras.  If you're choosing to argue that Cobras don't steal horsepower, you're not debating me, you're debating Cobra.  They're the ones that claimed a horsepower loss with their pipes.

Just for the record, my Standard will walk away from your bike, but I've made other changes besides the pipes.  I did have OEM pipes on my Standard before I put on the TBRs, so my experience spans that change.

My wife's Valkyrie has always had Cobras, so I can't do any comparison with it.

My first Interstate had Cobras when I obtained it and I switched to TBRs for a significant jump in power.  that one's not a fair comparison, though because the TBRs I changes to were the 6X2 with the crossover pipe.

You have an odd sense of humor.    

still just a bunch of guessing without the numbers

[Airetime]

i bought 2001 I/S it already had cobra six into six on bike. i asked if it had been jetted for those pipes the man said the previous owner had them put on and he was sure he did. ok with that being said. Is there any simple way to know? the pipes are blue as hell but that dont realy bother me. I have to choke the bike when first starting for the day and it seems very cold natured stumbles around for a while till it warms up then it runs like a champ just a slight flutter just above idle that i blame on the pipes. can someone please shed a little light for me?

Ok, with cold weather and the 6 into 6 try this. Full choke (when you first feel resisitance keep pushing as it has 6 carbs to work) idle it for about 20-25 seconds and shut er down. Go grab your garb and put it on, top with your head cap and fire it up a second time, make sure the choke is all the way off. All should be good. Go have a good ride.