Harley-Davidson® Shocks – Upgrade to Progressive

Hello, everyone, I'm Bob LaRosa. Welcome to "Fix My Hog." Today we're gonna take a look at rear suspension. Whether it be a Sportster or it'd be a Road King, like this one we have up on the lift. First thing you need to do is go to DennisKirk.com, type in your specific model, the year. Keep in mind, rear suspension is as critical, if not more critical, than the proper front suspension, the operation of the front fork assembly. The factory uses an oil-filled, air-compensated shock assembly. The reason I particularly don't care for this style of rear suspension, is it uses a common feeder. You have one location that you can put in low pressure air and it fills both the shocks uniformly. Problem with that, when you go and take your motorcycle into a turn the shock that's under pressure, what's known as jounce, when the shock goes upward or traveling over a bump, the jounce reaction of the shock that's getting compressed the most forces the air to the shock that is receiving the least amount of pressure from the corner. That kind of works backwards from what you would like. It allows the bike to wanna sag in a right-hand turn, so to say, the right shock will get smaller, the left side shock will get taller or stiffer. It kind of forces the motorcycle to the ground. You wanna try to enter a corner with the shocks as square to the road as possible. That way the longer you can hold the motorcycle upright entering a corner, the farther you can enter the corner without really leaning over. For this particular application we're gonna remove the factory assemblies and we're gonna install the 444 Series. These shocks are American made. The 444 has been available and has been road proven for more than a decade now. As with any product you may buy, always open it up, check all the instructions, check for proper application. These shocks range from an 11 inch to a 13 and a half inch. Don't necessarily go as short as possible, especially if you're gonna ride with another passenger or you have a tendency to load your saddlebags. Leave yourself a lot of suspension travel. Allow that shock to jounce and rebound correctly. Always open up the packages. You'll see these shocks from Progressive, again, these are the 444 Series. They no longer require a spanner wrench. You can, when they're mounted to the motorcycle, just adjust the spring preload by hand with the top cup. This is a progressively wound spring, which means there is a tight section of coils and then they start to spread out as it runs the length of the spring. Progressive makes a great product. Again, DennisKirk.com, you enter your specific model, your year, and they'll give you a broad range of suspension components. Progressive does supply very well-made, very well-assembled products. They have a limited lifetime warranty. And in all honesty, unless you use this product out of its proper application, you'll never need to utilize their limited lifetime warranty. Let's take a look at what's required to install the Progressive shocks on the rear of the Road King. As usual, make sure everything that comes with the components that you're purchasing is packaged in the box. Take a moment, lay it out. Any critical spacers, sleeves for the eyelid of the shock, any hardware that you're gonna need to use, make sure you review the instruction supplied by the manufacturer. Always refer to your service manual. Use the service manual not only to remove all the stock suspension components, but make sure you also check the service manual for correct torque specifications when you install the new Progressive shock. Another thing you need to bear in mind, tools. There's a very limited number of tools needed to deal with rear suspension changes, but you will need a center jack so you can relieve the pressure off the motorcycle to remove the shock as an assembly.