Folks: I'm hoping some advise could give me some piece of mind. I have an 05 America. I wanted to experiment with removing some baffles, so I put a spare set of pipes on the bike. The pair is a set of the newer tappered (spelling?) exhausts with the catalytic converter on them. On each side, I removed the last baffle and drilled three holes in the second. Desired sound was achieved and I swear the bike is running better. After the procedure, there was no backfiring on deceleration and the bike pulled nicely regardless of the throttle (ie no dead spots). Based on this I took it out this weekend for abound 150-200 miles. When I arrived home this evening, I noticed my pipes were more "blued". The AI has already been removed. I'm taking this as a good indicator that the bike is running too lean. I will put different jets in it now, however, I'm curious could this have damaged the engine or put extra wear and tear on it. Trying not to worry, but feeling kind of stupid right now. Any advise / consoling words would be helpful.
