Def. man not disagreeing with you at all, like I said I ran the yellow ohlins on my track bikes. But on my hog I am alittle more color coordinated and like my mixture of black and chrome

 

With the limited suspension travel on a Dyna most people running stock shocks would be awed by the difference of ride you can get by switching to a quality set of shocks. Not cheap but well worth the investment

 

No plans to unless I have to have the shocks disassembled for service.

 

Yeah my brother who has a 2009 dyna rode my 2010 dyna with the ohlins and his exact remark: "what the ****... Those shocks make the whole bike handle better... My shocks suck!"

 

That's the thing with black... It goes with any color.

 

I've been a long-time Ohlins user on my sportbikes and after trying out a set of Progressive 440HDs for about 1,300 miles now I came to the realization that I'd never be satisfied with anything less refined than Ohlins. The Progressives are better than the H-D OEM shocks, but still well off the mark from what I've experienced on my other motorcycles.

So, Howard at Motorcycle Metal has shared his wealth of knowledge and experience with me -- a cruiser shocks 101 if you will -- and we have a set of Ohlins on the way for our '11 Wide Glide... #3 - #3 (329mm) with the optional black powder coated springs.



Howard knows his stuff and calls it the way he sees it. If you want "performance shocks" that deliver excellent handling, comfort and control then he's the guy.

 

Just a follow-up...

Received our 329mm Ohlin's #3 from Howard / Motorcycle Metal on Tuesday of this week and fitted them up the same day.

As has always been the case on my other motorcycles, switching to the Ohlin's transformed the ride and handling of the Wide Glide. Gone is the harsh compression stroke, undampened rebound and constant road chatter... none of which could be tuned on the OEM or even the Progressive 440HDs. Instead of feeling like I was on a hard tail most of the time, it's now nearly on par with the exceptional ride qualities I get on my Ohlin's equipped BMW R1100S. Can't wait to see how they feel when I adjust them for two-up riding today and get my wife's impressions.

Of course, the down side is I now know I'll need to do something else with the forks, i.e., I see the 30mm Ohlin's cartridges in our future as well.

Installation was pretty straight forward, other than having to go out and pick up four 1/2" spacers to install outboard of the shock mounting eyelets to off-set the more narrow mounting eyes. Actually, what I found at the ACE hardware store were technically collars, but they worked just fine.

The only other nit was that the spring size spec'd for our weight was not available in black. So, if you look closely in the photos you'll notice that our shocks have a yellow-jacket look to them, i.e., two-tone black outer coil with a yellow inboard surface. As a quick fix to satisfy my wife's lack of enthusiasm for yellow springs on an otherwise black & silver motorcycle, I wrapped the coils with black vinyl electrician's tape for this weekend's rides to camouflage the Ohlin's-yellow coils.

Next week, the coils will come off the shocks and be sent over to a local powder coater for a proper, permanent black finish. In hindsight, I should have been more clear in making my desire to pay the very reasonable up-charge for having Howard send the springs to his local powder coater before assembling and shipping the shocks. Live and learn, eh?

 

Howard set me up with Ohlins shocks out back and the cartridges in the forks, and the bike handles great.

As for the color, (I have the yellow springs) I planned to black powder coat the shocks once I had them dialed in. Funny thing that happened along the way was the color grew on me, and the bike gets more attention now than in the previous 10 years combined because of the yellow springs and gold canister. It kind of became the "signature" of the bike, and gave it a different look than the other dynas on the road.

Bottom line is, chrome, black or yellow the Ohlins are awesome shocks.

 

My wife Debbie gave the new shocks a big thumbs-up accompanied by a huge smile... She was truly amazed at how much more comfortable it was.

As we approached a set of railroad tracks that she's familiar with she braced for the usual jolts and nada... smooth as silk. Even going over speed bumps became a non-event with a stiction-free compression stroke and controlled rebound.

Simply awesome! As I suspected, she found everything about riding the Harley "better" during yesterday's 60 mile 'first run' with the Ohlins. The saddle was more comfortable, she never felt like she needed a 'break' and was just generally amazed at how smooth all of the roads suddenly became.

The bike definitely sits up quite a bit taller when parked on the jiffy stand and rides about a 1/2" taller. Interesting how visually different it makes the bike appear, but given the quality of the ride... who cares.

Again, my local BMW dealer is an authorized Ohlin's service center with an Ohlin's spring compressor, so they'll pop-off the springs on Tuesday and the springs go to a local power coater the same day. Hope to have those back and remounted by next weekend! Today, I think we're headed for the mountains to enjoy the fall colors and the improved ride and handling.

Just gotta decide how long I can resist pulling the trigger on the front cartridge replacements for the Progressive springs.

 

LOL, reading these posts is hard on me. Ordered my Ohlins 'way back' on 19 Oct. I wait.....