After reading past post on here, I decided to give it a go. Wow, cannot believe the difference it made in the ride. Single or two up. I switched to a 10W. I'm a big guy, almost 6'3" & 276. So single I was running 35lbs of air & two up with the wife & tour pak on, almost 50lbs. The dampening is much better with the heavier oil & wife noticed better ride. After some test riding & pressures with me & with the wife....10lbs one up & 20lbs two up now. If you are not going to switch to Progressives, Ohlins or other custom alternatives, this is a cheap remedy. Just the cost of the oil. And labor of getting old oil out & new in. Pending your size, you may not need to go with 10W.

 

This is on the rear shocks? Did you do anything on the front?

 

Just the rear shocks. May do front forks in the future, but I have no issue with the front. I've heard it makes a difference there though.

 

WHat? no pics, no walk through...

 

What brand oil? Viscosity varies wildly from brand to brand.

 

Ok, here is a quick breakdown. Y’all will laugh at my procedure, but it’s simple & it works. There are other ways that guys have done it on this & other forums. Materials needed:

1) 1/8 MNPT X ¼ barb brass fitting. I bought mine at Fastenal
2) 10W Fork/Shock oil (or lower weight) I bought Maxima 10W at Cycle Gear
3) I also bought new brass Push in fittings too. Cheap at dealer.
4) I bought a cheap syringe at an Ag store. I already had some ¼ clear tubing.

I jacked the bike up on my Craftsman red. Then I put my little hydraulic floor jack under rear tire for support. Let the air out of the shocks. Removed air lines from push fittings. Remove shocks.
Now the jury rigging part. I saw some guys make wood pumps, but I came up with a simple solution.
I took two small pieces of wood, made a little indentation/notch in them & two small pieces of rubber & went to the back of my Explorer’s tow hitch. Remove push fitting & install barb with plumbing tape & clear 1/4 hose on shock. Then I inserted the shock between the two pieces of wood & the shock upside down between my other little floor jack & hitch. LOL! I know what y’all are thinking. I think I jacked it up to full shock compression maybe five or six time before it began spitting air. Oil was going from tube to little catch pan. Did both shocks this way & used my Mityvac to get what little oil was left out.

Measure up 300cc’s or 10.1 oz of oil. Find a way to get your shock to stand upright. I used my syringe to inject new oil back into shock. Slow process. When complete, reinstall push fitting with pipe tape, new fittings come with it on them, being careful not to spill oil out. Reinstall shocks with Blue Loctite & connect air airlines. If you don’t have a Harley shock air pump, you really should get one. They are low pressure & won’t lose air when removing from shrader valve. DO NOT use gas station air hose like I saw a guy almost do the other day. I would suggest pumping up to about 10lbs & test ride. Play with your pressures till you dial it in. This is for stock Tour 13” shocks. I don’t know if there would be a different volume of oil in the Street Glide 12” Low Profile shocks.

 

I did the same thing, but with fifteen weight oil...same big change...great results...

 

I did some 12" SG shocks with Maxima 10W from Cycle Gear. It cut the air pressure settings 50% less than what I use to run was pleased with results.

 

might be something worth looking into..... what is stock weight, about 5w?

 

I used amsoil 10w in my shocks after I took the ohlin 6s off and it works pretty good. I changed my dads out to 5wt or light and he really liked it. He says he can feel the suspension moving now.