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Sportster shock swap

  • Thread starter Thread starter musicman
  • Start date Start date
M

musicman

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On the 550, when I bought it the shocks it had were aftermarket ones that had really bad rust, just rusty springs with rotted out bushings. So I bought the Emgo set thinking "well, they should be better than those at least", well, not really. Waste of money! They hardly moved with the 550 sitting on them, every bump I hit I thought my spine was going to come out my forehead. So off those came and I bought a $20 set of 1982 (iirc) shocks of ebay, they worked great for a while, until they soon lost all their dampening and again, just springs.

Fast forward to last week, got sick of the pogo ride, at night I'd hit a dip in the road and couldn't see hardly anymore the bike bounced so much, headlight all over the place! Said "that's enough of that, time to upgrade". Priced out a set of progressives, can't even remotely afford those! So I bought a set of rear shocks with 7k miles on them off ebay for a 2002 883 sportster, they seem to be about a 1/4" longer or so than stock. Pressed the bushings out of the $20 ebay shocks, and put them in the Harley shocks (branded SHOW?), and voila, best ride I've ever had! They're PERFECT for this bike and my 220lbs, turned the spring collars up one notch, other than that I couldn't possibly be happier. In the corners the bike handled the best it ever has since I've owned it. They look brand new too, so much cheaper than new stuff :D

I paid about $60 for them, and I saw them cheaper, but I paid more for these since they were really close to me and I could have them here in 2 days after I paid.

2012-09-01_11-40-38_239.jpg
 
Those would be Showas, the same brand Honda uses. Showa is good stuff and if they work for you then you done good. Now we're going to have Suzukis running around with Harley mufflers and shocks.
 
I bought some almost new Showa 13" take off shocks from a Sportster cheap ($20) and used on my GS1000G for 500 miles. I liked the extra 1/4" clearance and the ride, but one of them blew out and leaked. They were shortlived but better than old stock GS ones...wish they lasted longer. I've used the cheap Emgo or whatever brand new set they were, for $75 and found them too stiff and worse than using the old stockers for riding around here.
 
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old_skool said:
I've read on a lot of other forums of people trying to use the sporty take offs on big bikes with the same results, ok for the smaller and lighter twins.
Click to expand...

Well, I thought it out by saying that the Sportster is still equal to or heavier than my 540lbs GS1000G and took a chance...now that I think of it, not sure it was just off a Harley that had a 13" shock. But they're all over 500lbs.
 
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It's well worth keeping your eyes open for Hardley shocks on fleaBay and CrackList.

HD people spend vast amounts of money in a way that's hard for GS riders to comprehend, so it's not too uncommon to find aftermarket shocks. If the owner bought the bike used, they're sometimes totally unaware of what they have.

Someone around here recently scored a nice set of Progressive shocks pulled from a Herdley, and I've seen very nice multi-adjustable shocks go cheap.

I do love the irony of Japanese suspension on all those "100% 'MERKIN WOO!" Hardley-Ablesons. But that's another topic for another day... :rolleyes:
 
After reading this thread and needing shocks badly for my 650E, I looked on Craigslist and found a pair off an 01 Sportster that she bought new and swapped for shorter ones at less than 2k miles. I bought them for $20. What a difference they made.:D
 
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