What are we looking at here? Is this the real deal or is it just a crazy novelty? That's what we thought when we first saw the Gunships from Tailgunner Rotary Cannon Exhausts on a bagger. One of the first questions that came up in discussion was, "What do the mufflers do?" It was then that we discovered that the end cap on the Gunships spun, kind of like a Gatling gun. We thought to ourselves, OK, this is something different, something crazy.
The guys at Tailgunner told us that they have seen a lot of exhaust systems on the market that have a gun-type look and seem to be more stylish than functional, so they designed a cool-looking pipe that sounded good and added power to a motorcycle using their "Tailgunner Technology." When the turbines on the Gunship pipes are spinning slowly, they produce a small amount of backpressure. When the turbines spin fast they act as a siphon, drawing the exhaust out and creating a free-flowing system. By demanding a small amount of backpressure at low rpms and minimal backpressure at high rpms, you get an overall increase in performance through the power range. We also found out that Tailgunner had a couple other slip-ons for baggers from '86'-'08-the B-52 Jet-Pipes and the Mach II. B-52 Jet-Pipes have a two-piece turbine as well, but it is static (non-spinning). The inner blade is off set to the outer blade creating the needed backpressure, and looks like a jet turbine. The Mach II has clean, simple end-caps and flow-through power baffles that come in 16-inches for a quieter ride or the 10-inch baffles for a more aggressive sound.
We called Horn Cycle Works in Pomona, California, to put the Tailgunner pipes to the test. Shop owner Curtis Horn told us he had a stock '08 Ultra Classic up on the dyno and pulled 59.6 hp and 72 lb-ft of torque. The customer would love see the pipes at work and get any extra power.
1. Here are the three styles of slip-ons we are going to test: From left to right, the Gunships, the B-52 Jet-Pipes, and the Mach II. | 
2. After the bike and the stock pipes cooled down, the saddlebags were removed and set aside on a packing blanket. Then the mufflers were removed from the header pipe. Shop tech Nolan loosened the pipe clamp using a 9/16 socket, then the two 1/2-inch bolts on the hanger brackets. | 
3. The first set of slip-ons were the Tailgunner Mach II Classic mufflers; the pipe is 4 inches in diameter and 29 inches long, and can be shipped with a 16-inch removable power baffle for a quieter ride or a 10-inch power baffle for a more aggressive sound. The nacelles (end-caps) are CNC-machined and available in either an anodized stealth black finish that won't change color, or polished aluminum. MSRP $549.00 as seen here. |
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