Wow is all I can say, Howard is a super nice guy, who clearly knows his stuff, I have read so many things about him being abrasive and surly I was almost leary to call him, I couldn't have been more wrong.....

We talked at length about the issues I have living on Long Island/NY and the crappy roads we have, and made valid suggestions, didn't force any product on me, in fact he said he had nothing to sell me till the end of the week so do some more research on a specific product and give him a shout tomorrow.

Thanks a ton
Dave

and no I am not a shill for him, never met him, never been to his part of florida.....

can't wait to make my decision and fix this pig....

 

I live in the UK and am a very happy customer! You have a real treat in store if you do what I guess you are thinking of.

 

So, Dave, what did you find out/decide? I also have a 2009 Ultra and am considering suspension improvements, initially at the rear. Any others with experience with Ohlins/Penske, etc., please feel free to chime in as well.

Thanks!

 

My shocks are enroute!! I ordered a set of JRI from Howard, they should be here mid week so I won't be able to report till next weekend, I see your in FL, MM is in Davie, if that's close I believe he also does install's I would have loved to have him install them for me and see them set up by a pro.

I can also tell you he was adamant about me calling him when they are in my hand before I even get them close to the bike!!! Definitely not forgotten once the sale is done.....

can't wait..

 

Great news, thanks fore the reply. I'll be calling MM this week; I see on Howards site that the JRIs are not shown for touting models. Did you get a brand new offering? What else did yo consider?

I'll look forward to your experience, please keep us posted. Good luck!

 

I considered the ohlins and the penske, the penskes are really expensive, the price on his site is per shock, not a pair, the jri's are made in NC, if you do a search they are a pretty impressive shock company ie: nascar.....
the price was about the same as the ohlins and from my conversation with Howard he worked with them on making them work for the HD market, they don't even show them on their own website, I am not sure of how many are out there, but the red bike on the MM's site is Howards personal ride he really seems to know his **** so I took the chance.....tell him you read my post...and your a member for a price discount....and be prepared for a lesson on suspension

dave

 

I got the shocks installed with howards help (on the phone) last night, road to work this am and I am pleased but clearly there is room for adjustment which there is plenty of. Briefly the small patches on the highway are no longer beating up the bike, the heavy bumps are much softer no more violent jarring, but I know there is a ton of adjustment and learning to be done. The shocks also need to break in so I am not going to go to crazy with setup for a few hundred miles

 

Dave, thanks for the initial report. Sounds like things are working out. What adjustments do you still want to do? ride height/sag or compression/rebound?

How was the install? Howard spoke with me about shims (washers) to properly align the shocks and swing arm. Did you go through that?

Looking forward to further reports, thanks.

 

The install was pretty straight forward, I didn't need shims the shocks lined up just fine.

You definitely need a helping hand to set up the shocks and hopefully you get a better helper than my neighbor who was befuddled by the whole thing.

To simplify the install you are basically mounting the shocks lifting the bike off the ground, measuring bolt to bolt, then you sit on the bike with your buddy holding you up or use a wheel chock and set the sag which is 1/3 the stroke on my particular shock its 30.66mm.

For example my shock was 349mm bolt to bolt, we set the shock to be 318 bolt to bolt with me sitting on it.

That is an initial set up the shocks will settle in as howard said "call me in 1000 miles" then you reset the sag and start to fine tune the shocks for more or less rebound, more or less dampening.

I am NO expert by any stretch of the imagination but that is BASICALLY how it works

And again I spent at least an hour on the phone with Howard last night...it doesn't get any better than that.