The Best exhausts For Harley Davidson’s Switchback Motorcycles

In this buying guide, we’ll be covering the best exhausts for Harley Davidson’s Switchback.

Finding an exhaust for the Harley Switchback is surprisingly difficult, unfortunately, most vendors haven’t updated their fitment listings to display what’s compatible and what’s not.

Luckily we’ve done the research for you, Since the Switchback is a variation of the Dyna we’ve contacted various exhaust manufacturers to find out what exhaust does and does not fit a Harley Switchback.

If you’re picking an exhaust for your Harley do some thorough research to double check it’s compatibility, even though we have done our due diligence it’s something you should check nonetheless.

In terms of our recommendations we’ve tested countless exhausts over the years, and are constantly comparing the best exhausts on the market for Harley Davidson including the Switchback.

We were looking for an exhaust that provides performance gains, sheds a heap of weight, looks stunning and has awesome build quality, Bassani’s Road Rage 2 into 1 did just this. The only downside was that this beast of an exhaust gets expensive.

If you’re looking for something more affordable then we found Vance & Hines Shortshots Staggered Exhaust is by far the best budget choice, you’ll be hard pressed to find an exhaust less than $500 but Vance and Hines somehow managed to deliver.

IMPORTANT! – Make sure you have the correct Exhaust sizing and fitment so you don’t waste your money.

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One Very Important Consideration

Unfortunately the Switchback is one of the lesser known Harley motorcycles and also one of the least ridden, because of this it is harder to find an exhaust that is compatible compared with more common models. So just be weary when picking exhausts for a switchback it’s going to be a little more difficult to find something that fits. When we were writing this review we noticed that compared to other Harley models finding compatible exhausts was a little more tricky.

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Vance and Hines Shortshots Staggered is the best looking exhaust on the market, that’s a beast when it comes to torque and raw horsepower and also being one of the more affordable for the Harley Switchback. With only minor fallbacks such as height and some dubious brackets this is #1 recommendation for Harley Switchback motorcycles.

The short shot is a beast at providing raw horsepower that’s going to send you flying from the traffic lights. It does this firstly because of the weight you can expect to shed when you install this beauty.

The staggered Shortshot’s got a sleek compact design, entirely made from stainless steel. The length is short h and the pipes themselves are relatively narrow. This means the curvature of the pipes will improve the velocity of the gasses your engine produces meaning far more performance gains. This will also translate into excellent improvements in performance, most notably your torque will be a lot stronger because of short piping in length and diameter.

All this newly unlocked speed is going to produce a lot of heat and things will get hot quickly, luckily a full covered heat shield means even after a day’s ride, heat won’t be getting near you or your engine.

Like most aftermarket exhausts made by Vance and Hines the Staggered Short Shot exhaust is loud, it’s got a great deep purr to it, coming with a quiet baffle which is convenient for cross country tours when the noise gets on your nerves. But for those who want to be heard, the Short Shots are a great choice and will definitely wake the neighbors.

Why we think this is the best exhaust overall for the Harley Switchback is also because it’s actually affordable, unfortunately Harley exhausts rarely go under $500 and usually sit around the $700 range. Vance and Hines managed to produce an affordable Harley exhaust that is superior to all the other alternatives we tested.

We’ve recommended the Bassani Road Rage countless times and if you look through our buying guides it’s quite often at the top of our list.

This exhaust brings superior build quality and some pretty sweet weight reductions, plus it’s gonna speed you up around those higher power ranges and lastly it’s sound is a pleasant roar that’s satisfying to listen to even at idle. The only downside was it’s a touch expensive and leans heavily on the upper revs even though it’s a 2-into-1 exhaust.

As you can see the length is quite long and the size of the piping is significantly larger than other alternatives. These variations will improve top speeds although you won’t see as much torque improvements but we still noticed some. We squeezed an extra 15 miles per hour for our Harley Switchback but the stock we switched from was an old clunky piece of rubbish.

If you’re switching from a stock exhaust expect serious weight reductions for your Switchback that’s going to improve your engines performance across the board. The 2 into 1 design is going to improve the velocity of your engines engines gasses, this in turn improving performance.

The Road Rage is made of Chrome which is the best material for longevity and keeping the heat away from vital engine components, it’s also fully covered in a thick heat shield so any heat problems will definitely not be a concern.

While we’re huge fans of Bassani and this exhaust in particular it’s not without its faults. The space between the ground and the exhaust could be higher, for those who ride tight corners the Road Rage could potentially scrape. We’ve never seen this happen but have heard one or two complaints about it.

While heat dissipation and longevity are excellent they do come at the cost of added weight, performance gains won’t be as significant as a stainless steel alternative.

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