Ducati vs. harley exhaust note, why the difference?

[jerryz]

A Ducati that sounds like a harley is running badly , A Harley that sound like a ducati is a really very hotted up bike ...........yes it can be done I did a 1200 sporster Flatracker years ago ,400lbs  stage 4 engine  ,dyno at 95bhp on reverse cone supertrapp system is sounded evil and went like stink but the investment was $10,000 just for tuning  cosmetics and handling cost another $10,000

[jerryz]

I love sportsters but thats a really UGLY BIKE

[NorDog]

DP, I know that's why a Harley at idle gets that patented 'potato-potato' sound.  That's the diff in degrees.  No, what I'm talking about is what Teddy says.  You can get a Duc to sound like a Harley but almost no one seems to want to   But I've never heard a Harley sound like a Duc.

Scott

Maybe it should be pointed out that the newer "Twin Cam" big twins don't have the traditional "potato-potato-potato" cadence of the earlier big twins.  This is because they idle higher (around 1100 rpm I think).  The earlier big twins, including the Evos I think, idle around 700-800 rpm.  An old H-D big twin idling at 700 sounds very different from anything else because of both the degrees of firing and idle rpm.

A few years ago I was at Lake Holbrook in Wood County, Texas.  Some guy on an old Knucklehead came through the otherwise empty parking lot.  He told me he had just resorted the thing, and indeed it look like it just rolled off the showroom floor.  Those bikes had a manual advance timing actuated by a twist grip on the left side of the handlebars.  It was rather cool to see him pull up, put it in neutral (with the tank shift), and then to hear the fast idle settle into the "potato-potato" as he twisted the grip and retarded the timing.

Granted, from the perspective of today's technology the thing was a dinosaur, but it was cool nonetheless.

[CCEMN1]

I heard that the Japanese were making a clone of a '47 Knuckle Head, but with updated materials & technology. I think that would be a pretty cool ride. Granted, not a "motorcycle", but more akin to comparing a Model-T Ford to a ZO6.
Regarding sound, You have to keep in mind that most Harleys & their chopper clones are running in such a poor state of tune, it's ridiculous!
If you look at the pipes on almost any Harley other than a stocker, they are usually magenta & purple. Thank God my Duc doesn't sound like that! 

[bigiain]

A Harley that sound like a ducati is a really very hotted up bike ...........yes it can be done <snip>

+1

I've got a friend who rides a FatBoy with (amongst other things) a two into one Leo Vince exhaust that'd look perfectly in place on a Japanese sportsbike. It sounds a _lot_ like a Ducati...

big

[64duc]

  I'd like to hear that sportster with termi carbon pipes. I almost bought one of those in 1963 when they were the fastest thing on the street in the U.S. They were one second faster in the quarter mile than my '64 Diana Mark 3 250 cc.    Harley 883 - 13.5
Ducati 250 - 14.65  




  Then along came the Kawasaki 500 two stroke triple.   12.60 @ 108 mph

[ducpainter]

 I'd like to hear that sportster with termi carbon pipes. I almost bought one of those in 1963 when they were the fastest thing on the street in the U.S. They were one second faster in the quarter mile than my '64 Diana Mark 3 250 cc.    Harley 883 - 13.5
Ducati 250 - 14.65  

Still have the Diana?

[64duc]

  Matter of fact I do.  Or at least some of it.

[ducpainter]

nice