89stroker
Active Member
Good Day,
I just thought I would give my first impressions of my front and back suspension upgrade that I finally pulled the trigger on.
Why I ultimately decided to upgrade is that I have never been happy with the way this bike rides, I found (stock suspension) the front end choppy while the rear end bottoms hard and the rebound nearly launches me an my passenger off the seat. In the rear, I tried every air presuure setting as well as I have changed oil in the shocks from 5wt to 10 wt to 15 wt to 20 wt and I just have not found improvement. In the front I have tried 2.5wt, 5wt, 10wt, 20 wt again I just wasn't happy.
So, what I landed up doing is purchasing progressive front springs part #11-1131 and progressive 940 ultra touring shocks part #940-4020UT. I researched this a lot, I know there is better (much more expensive) suspension parts out there but by my research I thought this would be my best bang for my buck. Ordered from USMotoman as it was the best pricing I could find. Rear shocks a breeze to change and the front end was not much harder to do as I have worked on front ends quite a bit over the years. I finally got a chance yesterday to take the bike out 2 up for a few hundred miles. My 1st impressions are AWESOME, this is how the bike should have ridden off the showroom floor. I did have some bottoming in the rear only due to starting on the softest setting. Thoughout the day I kept increasing preload on the rear shocks, I am at 4 turns and have no bottoming (there is a full 11 turns of preload available). Shocks are set easily by hand, just need to remove saddlebag and turn by hand.
I am finding so far that the bike rides much, much better. With stock suspension I could feel every crack in the road, now it is smooooooth like butta. On bigger bumps it is much improved as well, rebound on the progressive 940 is much more controlled than the stock air shocks that used to act like a catapult.
I will thow out an update after I get some more miles on the suspension and get it dialed right in but so far it is a way better ride. If someone is on the fence about pulling the trigger on a set up like this, you will be very pleased with the results.
I just thought I would give my first impressions of my front and back suspension upgrade that I finally pulled the trigger on.
Why I ultimately decided to upgrade is that I have never been happy with the way this bike rides, I found (stock suspension) the front end choppy while the rear end bottoms hard and the rebound nearly launches me an my passenger off the seat. In the rear, I tried every air presuure setting as well as I have changed oil in the shocks from 5wt to 10 wt to 15 wt to 20 wt and I just have not found improvement. In the front I have tried 2.5wt, 5wt, 10wt, 20 wt again I just wasn't happy.
So, what I landed up doing is purchasing progressive front springs part #11-1131 and progressive 940 ultra touring shocks part #940-4020UT. I researched this a lot, I know there is better (much more expensive) suspension parts out there but by my research I thought this would be my best bang for my buck. Ordered from USMotoman as it was the best pricing I could find. Rear shocks a breeze to change and the front end was not much harder to do as I have worked on front ends quite a bit over the years. I finally got a chance yesterday to take the bike out 2 up for a few hundred miles. My 1st impressions are AWESOME, this is how the bike should have ridden off the showroom floor. I did have some bottoming in the rear only due to starting on the softest setting. Thoughout the day I kept increasing preload on the rear shocks, I am at 4 turns and have no bottoming (there is a full 11 turns of preload available). Shocks are set easily by hand, just need to remove saddlebag and turn by hand.
I am finding so far that the bike rides much, much better. With stock suspension I could feel every crack in the road, now it is smooooooth like butta. On bigger bumps it is much improved as well, rebound on the progressive 940 is much more controlled than the stock air shocks that used to act like a catapult.
I will thow out an update after I get some more miles on the suspension and get it dialed right in but so far it is a way better ride. If someone is on the fence about pulling the trigger on a set up like this, you will be very pleased with the results.
