THE VOICE OF THE AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE RIDERS
THE VOICE OF THE AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE RIDERS |
News Flash
Breaking news and other interesting stuff when it happens...
|
Tailgunner Exhaust Review By Rob Swartz One of the great things about running a dyno service like RDS is that I sometimes get the pleasure of playing with new motorcycles and performance related products. Recently I was enlisted to conduct some dyno testing on new exhaust system products from Tailgunner Exhaust, located out of West Tisbury, Massachusetts (aka - the Vineyard). Tailgunner has been manufacturing some unique looking exhaust components which they claim actually improve engine performance. As I'm always interested in anything touted to improve performance, I jumped at the opportunity to check out Tailgunner's stuff on my dyno. Charley Giordano, one of the owners of Tailgunner Exhaust arranged for me to conduct some base line dyno runs on a bone stock 2006 Harley-Davidson Road King that would be fitted with some of their products. Tailgunner's exhaust system products provided for this feature included the Gunship and the B-52 model line. Both of these 4" diameter lines use a slip-on resonator designed to replace stock mufflers in various applications. Both the Gunships and the B-52's are available in a brilliant chrome finish or a "Stealth" option which is a matte black finish. The Gunships feature a Gatling gun type core with six aluminum barrels driven by a turbine fan. The turbine fan unit inside the resonator housing along with the six "gun" barrels, ride on sealed ball bearings. Reacting to exhaust gas flow, the whole barrel/fan assembly actually spins. I must admit that the sight of those barrels spinning is pretty neat. The similarly designed B-52 model line is also fitted with a rotating turbine style blade assembly inside the resonator housing, but terminates with a jet engine style diffuser cone; these look pretty cool as well, offering a more civilized "uptown" look. Now here's how they work using Tailgunner Exhaust's own words. "Tailgunner™ Rotary Cannon Exhaust uses turbine induced variable back-pressure. When the turbines are spinning slowly they produce a small amount of back-pressure. When the turbines spin fast they act as a siphon, drawing the exhaust out and creating a very free flowing system. By demanding a small amount of back-pressure at low rpm's and minimal back-pressure at high rpm's, you get an overall increase in performance through the full power range. You also get a deep and throaty sound and all the bark without the bite. No more sacrificing low and mid range performance for high-end speed and great sound." In addition to testing samples of both the Gunship and B-52, Tailgunner also wanted me to test their new "True Duels" system designed for the 1995-2007 model years of FL series Harley-Davidsons. The platform provided by Tailgunner for these tests was a 2006 Roadking with less than 2100 miles showing. Based on what Tailgunner told me, and best I could tell, the Roadking drive train was completely stock and in good mechanical condition. I'll refer you to the accompanying Dyno Digs page for the complete results and the dyno graph(s). The dyno graph shows the result curves for the stock machine as well as when equipped with the Tailgunner exhaust components. The stock machine was a very good running '06 TC88 as it made a peak torque of 88.91 ft-lbs and a peak horsepower of 81.45. First up out of the box were the chromed Gunship pipes. In terms of quality, these pipes are very impressive! The units were packed very nicely and the chrome was the best I had seen in a very long time. As I was installing the pipes in place of the stockers, I couldn't help but wonder if they would perform as nice as they look. After removing the stock pipes the Gunships went on without a hitch; the whole process took but a few minutes. After warming up the bike I took some base lines readings without any adjustments. Interestingly the Gunship mufflers made a peak 85.66 horsepower and 94.25 ft-lbs of torque. These pipes alone created a gain of 4.21 peak horsepower and 5.34 ft-lbs in torque with no adjustments made to the air/fuel ratio. This is a significant gain of around 5%. I next tested the B-52 Jet Pipes. Equally impressive in terms of build quality, the units also went on with out a hitch and produced a peak horsepower of 85.85 with 94.62 ft-lbs of torque. This equates to a gain of 4.40 horse-power and 5.71ft-lbs of torque. Again, this is a little over 5% without any adjustments made to the air/fuel ratio. The sounds from both of these resonators are great, not too loud with a great tone; they definitely have their own sound. There's no turbine sound or anything, just a typically throaty Harley sound slightly muffled. The final test I conducted was with the Tailgunner True Duel FL style head pipes and the B-52 Jet-Pipes. The build quality of their True Duel system is in keeping with their exhaust resonators (read-very good) and the chrome is equally impressive. The installation of the True Duel system was not hard and the pipes fit like a glove. The Tailgunner True Duel system comes with all the gaskets and clamps you need; it really makes a difference when you have all the correct parts. The dyno test for this setup came out a little lower than with just the resonators and stock head pipes. This was really to be expected as no adjustments were made to the stock fuel injection mapping to make up for the increase in air flow with the dual exhaust system. Nonetheless, I got a peak horsepower of 82.73 and 91.38 ft-lbs of peak torque. This still equates to a 1.28 peak horse-power gain and a 3.47ft-lbs peak torque gain. Based on my experience with the true duel exhaust systems on the big Harley's, significant gains can be obtained by developing a custom fuel injection map using a Power Commander III. I'd like to get the opportunity to do this in the future. In working in cooperation for this feature with Technical Editor Mark Bremer, one question came up regarding the high temperature/high carbon application of the ball bearings used in the construction of the Tailgunner Exhaust products. Mark was wondering how the bearings would hold up based on typical exhaust gas temperatures of 300-400 degrees. Mark posed the question to Tailgunner and the company indicated that the bearings employed are rated for use within the subject heat range of the application. Furthermore, Tailgunner reports that while their products are warranted for one year, they've yet to see any bearing related failures in over three years the products have been in service use. I my opinion, the Tailgunner products do what the company says they do. The products tested provide a really unique look that is also entertaining any time the bike is running. Tailgunner makes additional models of resonators including the popular Texas Long Gun and the new Tank Buster; these units are both 5” in diameter and are available in both chrome and stealth (black) finishes. There's even a sound bite of a couple of bikes equipped with Tailgunner Exhaust products that you can listen to. If you go to their web site at www.tailgunnerexhaust.com you can see their complete model line for all your custom needs. Call Tailgunner Exhaust products can be purchased directly, ordered on-line or through your local dealer. Tailgunner Exhaust Retail Costs as tested at-a-glance: B-52 Jet Pipes in chrome - $895 per pair Stealth Bomber Jet Pipe (Black) - $1,145 per pair True Duel Headers in chrome ‘95-‘07 Big Twin Dresser - $489 set True Duel Headers Stealth Option (Black) '95-'07 Big Twin Dresser - $639 Gunships Chrome - $995 per pair Stealth Gunship (Black) option - $1,245 per pair
GERBING'S INTRODUCES ITS NEW ALL SEASON SUIT - THE CASCADE EXTREME What's HOT at Gerbing's Heated Clothing?
Jacket $425 - Pants $299
The Cascade Extreme Suit from Gerbing's Heated
Clothing is designed for year-round protection from the elements. For Winter
riding, Gerbing's has incorporated its GHC High
Density Heat technology to an insulated, zip-out heated liner in both the
jacket and the pants ready for you to plug in for added warmth. For that
rainy and wet Fall or Spring riding, the suit is constructed with a durable
400 denier waterproof shell that includes seam sealing, storm flaps and
waterproof zippers to help keep you dry. For Summer riding, just remove the
heated liner and you are left with a lightweight shell with plenty of
venting for air flow to keep you cool. The suit also includes built-in plugs for the option of connecting heated gloves or socks forming an interconnected system. Another feature for the Cascade Extreme is our Dual 2 wiring system. Our Dual system allows the rider to utilize one of our Dual Temp Controllers to separately adjust the temperature for two different items. Gerbing's Cascade Extreme suit will be available in October '06.
For more information, please contact Chris Haffly
Mark Bremer's "At the Flicks" The World's Fastest Indian Magnolia Pictures Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins Frankly, there have been few motorcycle movies that have stirred enough interest in me to actually go out and see them in a theater setting. Call me old fashioned or biased, but I think the last decent motorcycle film with any real value was "On Any Sunday". My wife Kathy, a non-motorcyclist type, had reluctantly agreed to accompany me to see "The World's Fastest Indian" film only under the condition that I first go with her to view "Broke Back Mountain". We had to travel to Waterbury, CT to see the "The World's Fastest Indian" by the time we could fit it in to our schedule. A 2929 Productions promoted by Magnolia Pictures, the film is not syndicated through the mega-theater chains, so you'll have to check out their website at www.magpictures.com for locations where it is playing. Starring in the role of Burt Munroe is none other than Sir Anthony Hopkins, perhaps best known from his Oscar winning role as Dr. Hannibal Lector in the classic thriller "Silence of the Lambs". The movie is based on the real-life story of Burt's dream of traveling from native New Zealand with his 1920 Indian Scout Streamliner in tow to the Mecca of speed, the Bonneville Salt Flats. The film documents Burt's adventures as he stalwartly faces adversity at every turn while keeping his dream in sight. Hopkins wraps himself so completely into this role that one can feel the passion for this man's dream oozing forth onto the screen. My favorite scene in this film is when Burt finally makes it to the Salt Flats; there he reminisces about all the great attempts and record setting adventures he's read about, while suddenly overcome by the realization that he has arrived at his destiny. In this scene, I believe that Hopkins truly captured the passion involved in this story, and that the tears that welled in his eyes were real. Burt's ingenuity and tenacity for improving the bike over four decades is shear joy for real gear-heads, while the storyline involving Burt's relationship with a young neighborhood boy named Tom (Aaron Murphy) was truly heart-warming. Young Tom is the only one who truly believes in Burt, and in the end his confidence is rewarded. Like "On Any Sunday", I do think this film holds special meaning for those of us who've ever worked to squeeze more performance from a motorcycle and have turned a wheel in anger; for us this film pulls like a magnet that others may never truly understand. I think this sentiment is capped in Burt's reply to young Tom's question on whether Burt’s afraid of being killed on his bike; "I recon a man lives more in five minutes on a bike like this than most live in a lifetime." That line really made me tingle all over; like I said, others may never truly understand. While we live in a time where the major television networks and publications can make stars out of idiots, this is a story of a real life hero that you should feel good about; it showcases what can be and is good about mankind. There is tremendous meaning to this story beyond motorcycling for those that are willing to simply see it. Interspersed with humorous scenes and great cinematography, there is enough for everyone in this delightful film, appropriate for the whole family. Even my wife Kathy somewhat grudgingly admitted enjoying this film more than "Broke Back Mountain" once she saw through the story-line hype of that film. Go forth and seek it out; call your local theater….. Mark Bremer
Egor the Eagle says Support Team Motorcyclist's Post! |
|
Subscribe to the
Motorcyclist's Post
Subscriptions are:
One Year (12 issues) $25
Two Years (24 issues) for $45
Send your name and address along with check or money order to:
The Motorcyclist's
Post
c/o Leo Castell
11 Haven Lane
Huntington, CT 06484
To contact the Post by e-mail click on the button...
