Motors TV Harley Davidson Nightster Review
November 20, 2007
Harley Davidson Slip-On Mufflers
October 27, 2007
I purchased these soon after I took delivery of my new 2004 Sportster 883. I bought them to pay the Harley Tax, which consists of installing a less restrictive air cleaner, less restrictive mufflers and adjusting the carburetor appropriately. I chose these mufflers because, unlike the Screaming Eagle mufflers, these are much more quiet. I must be very non-typical Harley owner in that I do not like my Sportster to be loud. I also liked the looks of these mufflers a lot with the slash down ends and scripted “Harley-Davidson” embossed into the rear muffler.
The installation was very straight forward, although removing the stock mufflers was a bit difficult as they really mated to the header pipes pretty good. After removing the stock mufflers I slipped the new ones on using new crossover gaskets and new clamps. These items were included with the mufflers. I reused the bracket bolts from the old mufflers. That was pretty much all it took.
They sound similar to the stock mufflers but ever so slightly growlier. If you are looking for that Harley bark, you won’t find it here. The performance of these mufflers was ok. They provided improvement over stock.
Here is the picture of my bike with the Slip On mufflers.

HD Tachometer Kit for the Sportster 883
October 25, 2007
I happened to get a great deal on this kit at my local dealer so I grabbed it. If you want to save even more money, I’d recommend checking out eBay to see what they have available second hand.
Included in the package is a new bracket to hold the speedometer and tachometer, the tachometer itself and a replacement harness that connects the speedometer to the rest of the wiring. The new harness also includes a new pigtail for the tachometer to be connected.
The installation procedure is very simple and an instruction booklet is included in the package. Installation is very much a plug and play affair so you should no problems even if you’re not a wrench head.
The old harness needs to be unplugged, the speedometer bracket bolts removed and then the headlight eyebrow is removed to make the harness connector come out. Once the bracket and speedometer are out of the bike, the speedometer is removed from the old bracket and the old harness is unplugged from the speedometer inside. The new harness is plugged in, the speedometer is installed in the new bracket, tach is connected by the connector in the new harness and the new double clock assembly is installed back on the bike in reverse order of removal. That’s it. No surprises.
Tip: Put a towel on the tank to prevent damage from the handlebar during installation!
Power the bike up and start it and the tachometer needle is reading the idle speed. Done. Enjoy! I love this upgrade. There is something about the tachometer that makes it pretty much a standard instrument on most bikes except Harleys. Well, now mine has a tach and it works great!




