Decided to go with Progressive's 444 for my '14 Fat Bob. Doing the swap on the 26th. After talking with the nice guy at Progressive the decision was made to go 12.5", standard springs.

I weigh 182, ride solo. His suggestion was the extra half inch over stock length will give a more pleasant response from the irregularities our Colorado roads are known for lol.

 

those are the exact same as I have, they are a great improvement over stock.

 

Hopefully you wont ever have to deal with their customer service side of things. The service rep I got the pleasure of working with was unhelpful and incompetent.

Sold the Progressive shocks I had with 200mi on them and never considering progressive for my motorcycle suspension needs again.

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I've been using Progressive suspension components for for the past 14 years or so without any issues. The last one I put rears and fork springs on/in was a '06 XL1200R. Made a huge difference over the stock parts.

For my type of riding and budget they've been a great compromise. Of course, being a man made mechanical part they can always go south. It's how a company deals with the issues that makes or breaks it.

 

I put the 444's on my '04 Dyna over 2K miles ago. I think they're great! As they say, anything is better than stock, but I'm not complaining.

 

why change the stock, they are wonderful...i came from sportster 2000 year with progressive shocks....back breaker......SB shocks are very nice

 

is possible that any company has some bad apples, my experience from tech support has always been positive. they are easy to get hold of and have always been helpful for me.

 

I got 13" black Progressive 444's this past winter. I love them so far and my wife agrees they make it more comfortable for her. Of course they aren't as nice as some Ohlins you can get and such but I wasn't going to pay $1000+ for shocks. I paid $380 brand new for the 444's.

 

The stock shocks are pretty poor if you've ever ridden on anything nicer. The stock shocks are basically a friction damper with a spring. Not the most consistent ride, easy to bottom because they dont have enough dampening force and rather soft springs. They're made to be cheap and cushy, many better handling and riding shocks out there. I ran Progressive 430's for 200mi, and the dampening was better than the stock shocks by a long shot, but thats where the good things about those shocks ran out.

I'll be swapping to 12.6" Hagon Nitro's pretty soon.

 

That's a great price! Did you get them locally or online? Do share.