I finished installing my new black Ikon shocks and fork springs yesterday, and the change in ride and handling appears to be a big improvement over the stockers. These were sourced from Newspeedmaster.com, and they arrived withing two days of placing the order. Here are my comments:
General: You will need to place the bike on a secure stand to take the load off the front and back of the bike.
Shocks: Getting the originals off was a PITA, because they had become stuck to the mounting studs on the bike over the past years. I had to work the bushings off with a pair of channel locks, and the isolators were ruined as a result. The old shocks were placed in the trash. I recommend lightly lubing the bushings on the new shocks to prevent this from happening.
Springs: Piece of cake. Cover your tank and headlight with towels to prevent dents and scratches. Take off your handlebars and swing them forward over the headlight to rest. Remove the caps at the top of the forks carefully, as there is a pre-load from the springs. Remove the spacer tubes and fish out the springs with a wire hanger. The springs will have fork oil on them, so have a paper towel handy and remove them slowly so that the fork oil drips back where it belongs. The new springs are longer than the stock ones, so you will either need to cut the spacer tube back OR do what I did, which is to cut some PVC pipe to fit. 6 inches in length worked perfectly for me, and I used a hose clamp on the PVC as a guide to ensure precise measurement and angle when sawing the pipe. Reverse the order of disassembly, and you're done.
Project time in total was 1.5 hours, because of the PITA shock removal. ANYONE should be able to do this with a bike lift and some basic hand tools. You may need to make a trip to Home Depot for the PVC.
This was bike money well spent!
