I recently fitted my 2010 Street Bob with a pair of Progressive 11" 430 shocks and drop-in front fork (lowering)kit...looks great...rides not so great!
I have already established I should've gone with the standard shocks and not the heavy duty ones...they feel way too hard for my 230lb bulk and of course I can't soften them at all...my mistake.
My main concern is that tonight when I was out for a run and running pretty hard through a long right hand bend...the bike hit a bit of a bump which set the whole front end into quite an alarming weave,I had to ease up pretty quick to avoid an off...I had gone through that stretch of road faster and harder with the stock suspension and had no issues at all so have I wasted my hard earned or is it a case of style over function and I need to slow down?anyone else had similar problems with this progressive set up?
I intend to email progressive for their views but thought I'd sound out the "troops on the ground" first.

 

it has to be how the preload is set up on the shock have you adjusted that? sound like it is way to stiff... did you swap fork oil or still running the crappy stock stuff? i would highly suggest you swap out to 15w fork oil... i run spectro in all HD's i just like it... you take 26.9oz per leg on that bike

 

Yes preload is set as soft as possible but as I mentioned cos these are heavy duty shocks it all still feels way too solid...I still have the stock oil in the forks as I intend to strip them out over winter and get the lowers powder coated so thought I'd change the oil then...seems like I'm pretty stuffed with the shocks,should gone for standard weight springs..might have to cut my losses, stick them on ebay and get something softer...or eat more donuts!

 

I am 230 and run the 11 HD's they move alot for me unless they are on the stiffest setting... just double check... and on the front if your going to coat no reason to swap oil just wait it out... if you need help with the coating we do a special for forum members for trees and lowers

 

Im 230 as well and I have the 440's HD on my glide. Set on the softest setting(no preload) they are perfect. Nice consistant travel on bumps

 

Had some time to look the bike over today....now I'm thinking the issue is with the front end....front brake on and bouncing it up and down feels like its bottoming out/sticking at a stand so who knows whats happening at speed!
Might try swapping out the Progresssive drop-in kit tonight and re-install the stock springs see how that works out only problem then is that the rear is lowered and the front isn't...but at least it should handle better...did wonder about putting longer spacers in although I have fitted the length recomended by progressive....don't know what else to try.

 

typically if you feel it in the back it is in the front and vice versa with suspension issues

 

Dropped an email to progressive...here's a copy of their response..

"Hello

Below is a paragraph that is taken directly out of our install instructions for both of the kits you have.

Changing the chassis and/or suspension on any vehicle will
change the handling characteristics of that vehicle. Care should
be taken when operating the vehicle with such modifications
while getting accustomed to the new handling characteristics.


Lowering the bikes ground clearance and travel will cause the bike to bottom out more often due to that reduction plus the riding style will need to change due to the lowered height."


No real advice there then!

 

My set up is stiffer than hell as well. Scared the crap out of me just the same on a tight corner with a bump when I first installed them. It is slowly getting better as I break them in. The good thing is that I am aware of it and ride accordingly. Dropped front and rear close to 2". Rear is on 2nd from light due to bottoming it out once.

 

Lowering the bike will affect your handling, usually for the worse. It does look good but doesn't work too well. On a bike you also have issues when lowering because you change the angle of the front suspension so things don't work like they were designed too.