I do that Bob. His bike was an 2004 beautiful blue model with a corbin smuggler trunk and Honda top case.
While I agree the newer models do have more crap in the pipes, I have been able to tame a couple 2009's and 2012 models.
So your theory about that goes out the window
Hope your having a nice day though. I'm cleaning the aftermath in the garage today
I'm sure you
are aware that in the earlier ('08 to about '12) cop bikes, actually had different exhaust pipes/mufflers numbers, than '02-'03 & '08 ->'12 non cop bikes had? They had less catalytic crap in them than the '08 -> '12 non cop bikes did, but more than the '02->'07 had. I figured this from the fact, they used to be cheaper than the non-cop bike's mufflers)
Education time...
And you ask, how did I know this, since now prices seem to be the same? Back after buying the 2010 (in 2013), I bought some mufflers off ebay. When I looked at the mufflers, the numbers didn't match the non cop bikes for any of the years. I then looked up the later cop bikes ('08-'12), and there were the numbers.
And the prices of the mufflers said something about them..
In the States (Retail prices - around 2013 is when I did this research):
'03 to '07 where around $600
'08 to '12 were around $950
'08 to '12 were around $750-$800
Looking up Partzilla today, I found the following:
2014 ST1300P MUFFLER, L. (COO) 18410-MCS-305
$1,016.69 $876.90
2012 ST1300P MUFFLER, L.
18410-MCS-D91 $1,016.69 $876.90 (LOL - these used to be cheaper, but not any more!)
2012 ST1300 MUFFLER, L. (COO) 18410-MCS-305 $876.90 (Note, that this is the same muffler as the 2014 ST1300P...
2005 ST1300P (& NON P) MUFFLER, L. 18410-MCS-710
$628.00 $548.56
All of these mufflers look the same, without looking at the numbers you could not tell them apart. The cost is what tells me that more catalyst was added. Why the 2012 cop mufflers are the same price now? Honda was loosing too much money replacing the cop mufflers, when they could be charging the same as the others is my only guess!
Of course, a lot of this is pure speculation on my part, but since I feel the difference in the heat and have been in the same place with two other ST1300s ('04 & '05), and the 2010 was much hotter than either (oh yeah, the other two, were both mine.. well, the '05 was now/then - 2014- my son's, but I was the last to do any real work on it!
So, I doubt if it "Goes out the window" completely!