F.Y.I. - I tried to buy a Thundermax for my '14 SGS today and was told that they don't make them yet? I emailed Thundermax from their web site and they had a guy from Zipper answer my email. He said he had no idea when they would be available but he'd "put me on the list".

 

does not surprise me, they need to get hold of a bike and reverse engineer the ECM, figuring out all the changes to the system, then design their own board and case, get it manufactured and into production.

Give them a few months and there will be one available.

 

I live 2 miles down the street from Zippers. One of my neighbors works there and he said they are working it and should have something soon. I'm waiting as well.

 

Nice to know. Thanks for the info.
At least it's winter here in Colorado so I'm forced to practice great restraint, at least until it gets up to 32. Ride safe Fellas.

 

I bought MGS Custom true duals for my SGS, and I like them a lot. After getting a tune and the SE air filter, it runs great. Same fit as the 13.

 

I'm considering the MSGs. Do you have any pics of them? How's the quality? What finish did you choose? I kinda like the black with brushed tip.

 

No pic's with me now(at work). I got one of their "blemished" sets for $699. I got chrome with black tips, and I opted for the "loud" version.

I love the way they look. The black, slash tips line up at almost the same angle as the saddle bags. So they look like HD designed them. They noise level is perfect too. Before I bought them, Chris told me the sound is surprisingly quiet at an idle or at cruising speed. But when you rev the throttle, it's fairly loud.

As far as the quality, I've had an issue. The rear pipe heat shield. The hose clamp bracket closest to the rear cylinder broke. MGS is replacing it free and they are doing the new bracket in a more robust fashion. Hopefully the new one won't break. Other than that, i'm very satisfied. As far as the pipes being "blemished". . . . I checked them closely before install and I can't find what is blemished.

Rob

 

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate the information. I'm leaning towards the black ceramic with the loud baffles.

 

I thought about that color too, but since I have a vivid black, I decided not to. If I had Denim Black I might have though......

 

Technology changes by HD can turn out to be a killer for companies like Zippers and their Thundermax replacement ECM concept. It takes a lot of time and money to dissect and understand how to duplicate a new ECMs functionality. The new ECMs central processor may operate at a much higher bit rate, include built-in encryption that may make it almost impossible for a smaller company to crack the firmware and continue with a replacement product.

This happened to Revolution Precision Performance's Engine Management System when the 2011's came out. HD changed things in the ECM, increased the processing speed (bit rate) of the unit, and I believe RPP (correct me if I am wrong) decided not to pursue the R&D required to crack into the ECM. Remember they did not require that you replace the ECM which was/is the concept of the Thundermax product. Their approach at RPP was to add wide band O2 sensors, a sensor data interface module, then simply re-flash the stock ECM with new ignition and fuel management data to match the customer's cams and bolted-on engine, header, muffler upgrades. RPPs product idea was a good approach because in using the stock ECM, functionality was not lost in the areas of anti-knock ion sensing and other engine/safety management monitors internal to ECM firmware and sensory data flow. Regardless, RPP decided not to go past the 2010 model year with their product.

Replacing the ECM, the Thundermax approach, requires absolute and total attention to detail and cannot be accomplished without very extensive reverse engineering not to mention the eventual cracking of the stock 2014 ECM firmware, designing a matching connector interface, etc. This is certainly not an easy task for anyone, including Zippers, to accomplish.

It certainly will be interesting to see if Zippers will be able to duplicate the functionality 2014 ECM and continue with their product line or at least some variant. It's a risk for them to try to determine how many they can sell versus how much it will cost them to create the product. Always a difficult decision. Then if HD changes again in 2015 anything about the ECM, well you start to see how a company like Zippers may just throw in the towel since sales revenue would probably not pay for the front-end work to create a new product so often.