New Fat Bob owner, first Harley for me actually. Still getting used to the Fat Bob with only a few hundred miles in a few days since I've picked it up new but I'm already feeling that a perhaps a suspension upgrade would not be a bad idea.... What are my choices?
Thanks!

 

Shock...Forks...Springs...Drop-in cartridges... Not trying to be a smart @$$ but what did you have in mind? Front? Rear? Both? Lots of options and lots of threads on them. How much you want to spend?

 

What is a good way to go? I am not familiar with what's out there and what works well. I would entertain the idea of doing front and rear and don't mind coughing up some dough (or "fork" over some change? ) to make it right since I'd like to make this a long term relationship.

 

you could try gold valve emulators in front and progressive rear works well for me

 

It really depends on how you ride and what you expect out of your suspension. Do you want the bike to sit lower? Do you want a firmer ride? Softer? Do you ride aggressively? More of a cruiser? Shocks can run anywhere from a couple hundred bucks to 1500 or more. Front fork upgrades can be as simple and cheap as a set of drop ins, to a full on inverted sport bike set up. My point is you really need to spend some time doing your research and be honest with yourself about your wants and needs because suspension upgrades can get pretty expensive and you dont want waste your money on a top notch set up only to find out later that it isnt what you want.

 

As stated before, it all depends on what you're looking for. You really get what you pay for with suspension. $200 shocks ride like cheap *** shocks. Anyone who tells you different hasn't ridden something with quality suspension. I've had a couple of different set ups, from lowering blocks and drop in fork springs, all the way to my current set up with ricor intimidators and weight matched springs with works shocks, which could be considered middle of the road performance wise. I've posted quite a bit about my experiences with these set ups. You can find a lot of good information using the search feature, and suspension questions come up a lot. Howard from motorcyclemetal.com is the go to guy for high quality (read: expensive) suspension components and a lot of members here are running products from him. He does offer some more economical options and I've heard he offers considerable discounts to forum members.

 

Yes, with all the mods going on around here, I can see how my question came across as vague...

I am really looking to improve the ride quality, not to lower or otherwise alter the looks of the bike.

Not looking to get sport bike performance out of the Fat Bob either really, although that is what I am used to riding most. I am actually OK with the way Fat Bob handles overall, I just think the pogo stick rear shocks and the fork can be improved upon with better suspension components. The smooth roads and even semi aggressive riding when the road gets twisty is more or less OK but any rougher conditions and it starts to imitate a "bucking bronco"...

I don't think a top of the line suspension with piggy back reservoirs is necessary so I guess I would be most interested in something middle of the road that has nice damping and rebound qualities and will smooth out the ride as well as make the handling predictable and more precise when ridden more aggressively.

Thanks for your help and replies so far.

 

I spent weeks researching this topic. I finally went with Ricor intiminators for the front with my stock springs ($160) and JRI "B" shocks for the rear ($780). I put the ricors in last week myself and they make a pretty big difference. The JRI's should get here soon and I will do a full write up after I'm done.

 

For what you're looking for, a set of ricor intimidators and a quality rear shock would get you what you want. JRI shocks, that left coast disciple mentioned, are very good shocks. I plan to upgrade my works to JRI in the future. If you want something a little less costly that still performs well, you can look at Works Performance shocks. The Steel and Black Tracker line they offer runs under $500 and offers a significant improvement over the stock shocks.

 

Maybe I am looking in the wrong place, but the best price I have found is about $650 shipped and that is for the single rate.