Cat Code one more time...

[Kampy]

Hello all.

Been doing a little research on the removal of this imfamous piece of technical hardware. What I've learned so far is that there is no real concensus on the merrits of removal. Clearly i'll need to pull the thing out and see how my bike responds. My question here is, are there any known long term negative effects from doing this? If i pull the plug and like how it runs I'll want to leave it out. Any evidence that this will be bad for the bike over the long haul?

[Micky Motor]

Mate,
Mine has been out since almost new, and now I have 65,000km up with no problemo. Go for it !

M Motor

[Derry Walsh]

Observations since pulling my catcode plug on my '01 SL,
Gas mileage has suffered. My fuel light comes on consistently around 96-99 miles after a fill-up.
The bike overall is MUCH smoother. Little or no surging and no abrupt shut off as throttle is rolled off in tight corners.
Top speed has not suffered. Real world, side-by-side tests have conclusively proven.

As I travel for work extensively, I have had the opportunity to discuss the removal of this plug with many BMW techs around the world. The only negative comment was the possibility of the cat. Converter becoming clogged. It was noted however that as the "S" is typically ridden the way that BMW intended their motorcycles to be ridden, there would be no build up and subsequent clogging of the cat.

[Josey]

Pull it.
Yank it.
Toss it.
Go bye-bye with it.
Sionara it.
Hasta la vista it.

My only remaining observation is that I, too, use more fuel, which indicates that it's running rich. As catalytic converters really hate lots of unburned fuel being dumped into them, this would explain the warnings Derry relayed.

Additional observation: Trash the plug. If your cat clogs, trash that, too...