Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Progressive 812s...$164

Well mine have arrived; but does anyone have any tricks/tips to make doing the swap easier?

use a jack to raise your bike to take the tension off while you replace your shocks. That's about it.

I just got mine about an hour ago. Hopefully I'll get time tonight to swap them out.

My only complaint (and it's super minor) is that there is no indicator or anything to tell you by looking at them what the pre-load is set at. The instructions do say they are set at the lightest when they come from the factory.

Just ordered mine.

Now just need some saddle bags and I am all set for my end of summer trip.

Got the shocks yesterday. Installed them last night. It was a piece of cake. I did remove the R2-D2 looking hardware covers though for a more stripped down look. Put on about 60 miles last night and they're feeling pretty sweet compared to the stockers.

They look Great! Where did you get the peg hangers?

Those are super sweet looking.

I had to remove the top chrome covers so they would fit with the Corbin seat.

The peg hangers are homemade. A member on here cut the design on a CNC. I bought them off him, welded the passenger pegs on and took it to my local powder coater. I think the color's called silver vein. I had him do the bolts to match. It was Seattle Powdercoat that did the painting. I went with them because they had no minimum size/cost requirement.

I was gonna say, I thought those looked like Rob's old peg hangers! They look good coated.

Very Cool, Soren. They look great!

I'm slow and old I guess. I paid $219.

Thanks for the tip Soren.

Using a simple scissor jack, I was able to do the swap in about 30mins, working solo (I hasten to add I strapped the front down first)

Photos when (if) it stops raining!

I put mine on today. I took the chrome covers off both the top and bottom, both to make them fit better with the Corbin, and because I didn't especially like the look of them anyway.

Had a little trouble getting a couple of the bushings from the stock shocks off. A little PB Blaster and the vice-grips did the trick. Whole operation tool 50 minutes.

Check your preload. The instructions say that they come set on the lowest setting, but mine didn't.

Man, what a difference! I still felt the bumps but there wasn't as much of a bouncy feeling going over them. They don't compress nearly as much under acceleration, so there's not as much of that squat-and-go feeling when you start from a stop. And when you give it some gas in a turn, it feels much more planted. None of that sickening "sliding out" feeling (is this what people mean by "wallowing"? I've heard that term a lot but never known what it meant.)

These shocks would be a decent investment even at the list price. For under $200, it's practically manditory.

Mine showed up today . Pretty quick really.
I'll get them on tomorrow and get some pics up. I hope there's no trouble trying to get the old ones off.

Finally got mine on tonight. Getting the bike ready for a poker run tomorrow.
The bushing nearest the chainguard absolutely would not come off. Had to cut off the rubber part and carefully heat it with a torch. The paint was thicker in there or something. The new shocks are tighter against the seat. They were both set up for the right side, had to rotate the baloney cut section around on one. Instructions said to remove the caps first, but I didn't read them til I was done.
Anxious to check them out in the morning.

OK, did a 122 mile poker run yesterday and another 120 miles or so today. The new shocks weren't as magical as I had built up my expectations, but are much better than stock. My back doesn't hurt like it usually does after a couple hundred miles. In the twisty section on the way home was the most noticeable difference, don't have to slow down for the little bumps and ripples in the asphalt around the curves.
I greased the posts and bushings with white lithium as suggested above. I heard loud sqeaking as I was putting my bike in the garage. The baloney cut shroud on one of them was rubbing on the spring. Pulled it away with my hand, hope it stays.