VOL. 54 ISSUE 30 AUGUST 1, 2017 P113
but it's got a lot of brains behind
it. It's got to look at the VIN. It's
got to look at the actual ECM
and figure out which map it's go-
ing to flash on your bike to make
sure you have the right compli-
ances."
The benefit of the Vance &
Hines system is it allows you to
choose from nine combinations
of kits with different slip-on muf-
flers to get the right look and
sound while still enjoying the
benefits of the FPC system.
"At any time you can change
your mufflers, although you do
have to get a new FPC stick,"
says Potts. "The FPC stick is
designed for that specific muf-
fler, so that's the only downside
to it. The FPC stick can send
the bike back to stock mapping
as well. It's not a one-time flash
and go. It will bounce back and
forth between stock and the
tuning map for the particular
riding situation you're in. If you
start out with Eliminators and
you're like, 'those aren't re-
ally my style – I want to go to a
Monster Round', you buy a set
of Monster Rounds and a new
FPC stick, reset the bike back
to stock with the original FPC
stick, and then put the new
Monster Rounds on with the
new stick and away you go."
There's nothing terribly fancy
about a set of aftermarket pipes
but to get them certified by
CARB takes more effort than
you'd think. The team at V&H
went through 10,000 miles of
real-world testing with the CTR
pipes, six days a week. During
this endurance run of mileage
accumulation, several emis-
sions 'bag tests' are performed
to quantify the output of pollut-
ants at certain intervals.
"A Bag Test is similar to a
smog test, but a little more com-
plex," says Potts. "It's a multi-
gas analyzer where they put a
set of tubes on the exhaust and
run it through a 40-minute drive
cycle from a cold start up to 50
miles an hour at different points.
So, that way it gets what CARB
says is a full drive cycle. Dur-
ing that time, they're basically
analyzing the emissions and we
needed to be at the set param-
eters from the stock bike given
to us by CARB. We were able to
meet the emissions standards
of the standard bike, so the
project was a big success."
