I say get them. They look much better and if you lose reception you can return. I have them and they work fine. Dealer tech told me where they suffer is on WB and AM neither of which I use so no biggie. Supposedly actually improve CB range over the whip, but I haven't test it yet.

 

I have a HD shorty antenna and listen to both FM & AM radio. I don't notice any difference from the stock antenna other than appearance.....then again, my wife often accuses me of being deaf

 

Do they look better than the stock whip antenna....yup, sure does

Does it work as good as the stock whip antenna....nope, sure doesn't.

If you live in a big city with lots of stations and strong signals they work ok, but once you get out on the open road you might as well not have anything on.

 

I have the shorty antenna and have not had any issues with reception yet.

 

Agreed, looks much better than stock. Reception sucks in comparison though, even in town. I have the Harley Davidson shorty and find it barely acceptable in town.

 

The 'shorty' is less efficient than the standard whip. If you live in an area with strong radio signals, like a big city, you probably won't hear much difference. But if you leave the city for the country, or if you live in the country, the shorty antenna will give you static where the standard whip won't.

alan

 

I replaced the stock with the shorter ones and took a long ride into the high country. I hadn't given the short ones a thought but by end of the day do remember thinking that the radio I was listening to was clearer than I had heard in my car. They do look a lot better than the whip.

 

You mean some of you are using FM?
We listen to the IPod or the CD 99.97% of the time, the o.03% is for weather

I wont hold it against you. LMBO

Oh by the way it's good to see you back in the saddle. Bout time.

 

I just put the HD shorty BOOM antenna's on my 14 Limited. The AM/FM/WB part # 76388-08 $29.95 and CB part # 76386-08 $29.95. I wanted to test the reception difference. So with the bike parked in my garage I tuned to an FM station in a town about 80 miles away. With the stock antenna I could receive the station but had a lot of static to it. I left the radio on while I switched to the Shorty BOOM AM/FM/WB antenna and to my surprise while the station still had static it had less and the station was coming in louder then with the stock antenna. So I would say it works just as good if not slightly better then the stock antenna. I didn't test it on AM or WB. I didn't test the CB antenna either but I have read on previous post on this and other threads that the Shorty BOOM CB antenna has a better SWR and actually works better than the stock CB antenna. The HD antennas are 19" long and have a wire raped around a fiberglass whip which makes the length of the antenna wire the same length as the stock whip. I know others that have bought the aftermarket flexible short antennas that didn't work well at all. So if you want to go short spend the extra to get the HD ones. I have noticed http://www.eglidegoodies.com/id109.html sells shorty antennas part # SU9-B19H for $39.99 a pair that are the same length and look identical to the HD ones. I don't know if they are the same and work as well or not, but they look like the same antennas.

 

Have had both AM/FM and CB on mine for over six months. Don't really listen to AM so can't comment on that. FM reception is equal to or a bit less than stock whip. CB is equal to or slightly better than stock whip. Seems to be somewhat subjective depending on your location, terrain and location of stations. I'm happy with them and if FM reception is not good, I just switch to my USB Thumb Drive. There are compromises with most everything but I'm mostly satisfied with their performance and especially their looks on the bike.