Made it to the Laughlin River Run 2014 solely and specifically to purchase and have installed a set of Shotgun Shocks.

Disclaimer, I am in now way affiliated with or promoting ShotGun Shocks and only met JD (the owner) at the rally. I did exchange a couple emails prior to riding out there. With my bike tore down to get all wrinkle black powder coated I had planned to ride to his shop in SoCal to get these installed, but I managed to get done during the rally and made the trip out there early.

After only riding about 150 miles so far on these I haven't found the sweet spot yet but am completely satisfied and happy. I've had air shocks on most of my bikes in the past dozen or so years from Arnott to Hi-Lo to Legend and they all were OK but either you filled up the shocks to capacity to eliminate the pogo effect (to high) or slammed down all the way to hard tail it (to rough), anything in between tended to bounce to much. I can confidently state after logging 12,250 miles on my '14 SGS that those are the best stock shocks I've ever ridden on and have absolutely no complaints about them.

BUT, always a but, I wanted to be able to slam the bike when in town but raise up for those highway miles for comfort. Most importantly I did not want that pogo effect no matter what height I settled on, especially on such a heavy bike as the '14 SGS.

ShotGun Shocks accomplishes this with a cool two switch, two cylinder design. The front switch fills or empties the lower chamber and the back switch fills or empties the upper chamber. Basically pressing the front switch lifts or drops the bike to the desired height and the back switch controls the chamber that pushes the bike down, creating a dampening effect from very cushy to very rigid or whatever in between, thereby eliminated the pogo effect that the other three shocks I've used in the past suffered from. Essentially it is like having the stock shocks installed with ability to raise and lower via simple switches mounted to the horn bolt.

I originally was leaning heavily towards Platinum which is similar to ShotGun Shocks but the deciding factor over Platinum was the ShotGun Shocks have all the electronics built into the shocks, there is even a safety valve that keeps the air intact even if you blow a hose, damage a hose or even remove the hose, plus the lifetime warranty is valuable. Sure these cost a little more but with the promo & rally discount and free install well worth the extra $.

My only complaint which JD will provide replacement free of charge when ready is the thickness of the shocks. The saddlebags fit but it is a snug fit. I just removed the bags to take the following pics and there is no damage to the sides of the bags but I wouldn't want to put that stress on the plastic for hundreds to thousands of miles as that could eventually crack the bags. Fortunately JD recognizes this and is developing new bagger shocks for the '14 models to be thinner to eliminate the tight fit. Free of charge exchange when they are ready

I've installed previous shocks in the past myself, I do all my own work, and they are not to difficult to install but there was always much soldering, routing of wires and hoses, mounting the compressor, sometimes it's VERY difficult to get to the mount location so it was a pleasure to allow ShotGun Shocks people do the install, free of charge of course.

While watching them I was very much impressed, it is literally plug and play. All the cables are quick release connections and they even heat shrink over them to seal them well and prevent disconnections. Very professional, neat and clean. I could have installed these shocks easier than any of the previous brands myself. For mounting the compressor they even include a special bracket to easily mount it behind the oil pan on baggers. It is up high enough that it will never scrape. The switches are mounted into a little bracket that mounts behind the horn cover bolt and can hardly be seen. If you don't know its there you won't notice them. Comes in either black or chrome, you can imagine the color I chose.

Measuring the rear of the bike at the pipes right where the bags end the highest point is 8.125", the lowest point is 4.5" providing about 3.625" travel.
Lowered:

Raised:

Center view lowered:

Center view raised:

Rear view lowered:

Rear view raised:

Bike view lowered:

Bike view raised:

Right shock view:

Left shock view:

Rear shock view:

Top shock view:

Wiring view:

Switches view:

 

Great info....thanks!

 

Nice Review. Sadly your pictures are not showing.. What promo and what set-up did you purchase?

 

I didn't know they made them for touring bikes. thanks for the info.

 

Nice I'm going to start saving up my lunch money for those. Thanks for the review, I had platinum bleed and feed system on my fatboy lo and it is somewhat a hassle to find the sweet spot. Good thing I'm a short ride away (10 min) from JDs shop. Great info!!!!

 

sweet. Nice looking sled.

 

Promo was the introduction/rally. Took off $200 + free install. Hmmm, pics showing on my desktop, laptop & iPad...

 

Just came out with the bagger version. From this forum I heard about him and asked about 8 or 9 months ago so was on his list to be notified. Other than the snug fit they run great.

 

Yep, I'm still playing with finding that sweet spot, got pretty close today, now have to go to the hood to test on the effed up roads there

I'm a good 4 hours away do you being 10 minutes is a plus. I think their better and more self contained than the Platinum and much easier to install. You can't go wrong with ShotGuns.

 

Those are some beefy looking shocks. I like that they're made in the USA & there's a lifetime warranty. That's crazy good! Pricey, but you know what they say. You get what you pay for.