The day after we did the service, the day I was heading back home from my folk’s house, my brother decided that the Sporty should sound like a Harley.  The new Harleys are actually very quiet, though they do still sound good, they don’t sound like what one thinks of when they think of a Harley.

So it was off to my dad’s work to make some modifications! We first started with a 3/16″ or 1/4″ extra long drill bit, and drilled 3 holes in each baffle.  This opened up the sound a little bit, but it was still rather quiet.  So, after finding a 1/2″ long reach bit, we drilled a 1/2″ hole in each baffle, right at the bottom of them.  This netted 3 1/4″ holes and 1 1/2″ hole in them.  This really opened up the sound, and they got a good rumble, a good crackle and it sounds really good.

It didn’t affect the performance either, and there is no lean “pop” on acceleration or deceleration either.  My understanding is you can modify and change the exhaust on the EFI Sporty models without necessarily needing to do a remap of the EFI controller.  But, I have heard of guys that had to because it leaned it out after drilling the baffles.

While I was at my folk’s house over Memorial Day weekend, my brother and I performed the first service on the bike. I know many disagree with this, stating that the dealership should perform it to ensure that the warranty is not voided.  However, it is my understanding that unless you blatantly do something wrong that causes a malfunction, they cannot void the warranty just for choosing to do your own service, even the first one.

With that in mind, before I left I picked up 3 quarts of HD 20W50 oil, 1 quart HD Transmission/Primary fluid and a black oil filter.  I also picked up the service manual for the bike, which cost $60, but has been well worth it already.  It has very good detail and very good step-by-step instructions on everything from checking brake fluid levels to rebuilding the engine.

We changed the oil, the primary/tranny fluid and such after I had ridden the bike to warm it up good. It is really a simple process.  The main thing to do was to ensure that there were no abnormal metal pieces in the primary drainage and on the magnetic plug, as well as the oil.  After we inspected this, we found that all seemed normal, topped the fluids off.  I took it for a short drive to warm it up and took it back to check for leaks.