Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Exhaust Will I damage anything?

Had my '08 America for about 3 weeks now. Have 857 miles on it and just recently put a set of the Triumph shorty mufflers on it. Love the sound. Could not put up with the sewing machine quietness of the stock pipes. Question...Put the mufflers on last weekend. been riding back and forth to work (5 mile round trip). No popping or backfiring. Plugs look a little lighter than before. Do I rejet? Dealer said I must.Can I hurt the bike running without rejetting? I DO NOT ride hard. By the way, I was a Honda rider for over 30 years. Could not find anything in their line up that inspired me this time. Wanted a Bonneville, but was little to tight for my wife and I riding 2 up. LOVE the America!!

Thanks for your thoughts.

Welcome to the site, Dale.
I took the stock mufflers off my '03 Speedy about 2 years ago and put on JCWhitney 16" shorties.
Pretty much a straight-through pipe.
Fourteen thousand miles later, I still haven't "gotten around to" rejetting.
No problems. Doesn't overheat in a Florida summer, nothing.
The bike runs like a champ, and is lighter by about the weight of a case of beer.
I'm sure it would be better after a rejet, but it won't damage it.

Welcome Dale to the best site on planet earth if you own a america/speedmaster. I changed the stock mufflers on my america and did not rejet, the only thing I did was remove the AI out to stop the pipes turning blue.

Just be cautious riding a lot of stop and go in town when it is hot outside. The motor will get VERY HOT when not cooled properly because of improper jetting. If it gets too hot, you run the chance of 3 mile island! Be careful, jetting only takes an hour.

You should re-jet , probably don't have to but would be best. At least adjust your pilot screws.

My dealer made a small adjustment to mine when I picked it up new with the short pipes fitted, this I think was just the pilot screws.
If you still have the snorkel in and the standard air filter you are ok.

As Dog suggests, adjusting the fuel mixtures screws is definitely a good idea. You can probably get away without rejetting, but you are leaving some performance potential untapped.
I see you are from Manheim, who was your dealer? Also, a bunch of the Baltimore RAT guys are heading up to Ephrata on Sunday for the monthly breakfast. If you want to meet some more Bonneville folks, you might want to see if that fits your schedule. It's a neat event. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it up this month.

I'll be up at Ephrata. Bought my bike from Capitol Triumph in Highspire, PA. Great bunch of guys.
Thanks for the info.

Ok... I'm confused... there are lots of posts about TORs and they all say something about not having to rejet.

Triumph says you don't "have" to rejet. But to make the bike run optimally, you should. People put a lot of effort and stress into not having to rejet, it's really not that big a deal. I'm going to Maine on Saturday, where are ya? I'll swing by and do it

Triumph also would have you believe that the stock bike is ok the way it is. The stock bike is way too lean for emission results and any improvement in the exhaust system or air intake system can only make it worse than it is. As far as I'm concerned, if you want the bike to perform up to it's design potential, you need to re-jet a stock bike.

You should have no problems, the Triumph "off road" pipes are designed to not require rejetting. On the other hand, if you change to the next bigger jets anyway, You will likely enjoy a bit of a performance increase.