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I just bought a '96 Vulcan 800 Classic last week. The previous owner removed the baffles from the exhaust (sounds cool but too loud for everyday use). He told me the carb was re-jetted but I can find no record of it in all the receipts he gave me and the bike seems to be running very lean. It is backfiring at certain times, etc and all my research in the manual and online points to a lean carb setting being the problem. If I put a set of stock pipes back on, will this probably cure the issue? I really do not believe the carb was re-jetted, I'm 99.9% sure it is stock.

If you have the stock pipes already, then I'd say go ahead and slap 'em on, you've got nothing to lose.

It might be beneficial to find a shop with an Exhaust Gas Analyzer, just to be sure. An EGA can tell you if you really are running lean, and it can also tell you (Once you put the stock pipes back on) if you've solved the problem. I forget if PA does emissions inspections for bikes (I know they do for cars) but anywhere that does emissions should have an EGA.

Well, I didn't win the auction for the stock pipes. Would something like this work in the pipes I have?

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Sear ... hbtn.y=12

I really don't think it would work well. For one thing, you are experiencing a lean condition due to minimal backpressure. Nothing about these suggests that they add backpressue. Since you believe your jetting is still stock, either find a set of original pipes, or find an aftermarket set that is guaranteed to work w/ the stock jetting. (Or rejet)

You may be concerned about excessive nose, but your primary concern should be to fix the excessively lean condition of your engine. This is more likely to cause problems in the long run, and can't be fixed by short-term solutions.