I’m loving my 2018 Heritage and getting close to my 10,000 mile service. In the interests of experimenting I decided to try the HD low profile rear shock on the bike. At 5’6 the stock suspension fits me fine and performs flawlessly, but I like the posture of the lower Deluxe and was curious what that would be like on my Heritage which sits higher similar to my old RK.
Shock was $320 and I decided to try the install myself. It would take a normally skillled person about an hour....took me 3 hours although I wasn’t rushing. I recommend the service manual. You do have to remove the rear fender which was easy. Overall it’s a one man job although my son helped me eyeball lining up the bolt holes with the jack on the install.
The shock is only 3/4” lower than the stock unit so it’s a pretty minor drop, but it’s still noticeable when sitting on the bike. It changes the attitude enough that I’m happy with it.
Ride: it still needs to break in, but wow 3/4 makes quite a difference in the firmness over the taller stock unit. It’s not harsh, but is much much firmer. The original rode like a caddy by comparison. I’ll be interested to see how much it improves over a few thousand miles. I still find it perfectly rideable though.
Lean angle: I ride some aggressive canyon roads here in CA and so far, keeping the front suspension stock, I don’t feel I’ve lost any noticeable clearance in turns. Very happy about that.
Side stand: Stock stand works fine with the new shock. A little more upright parking, but still comfortable leaned on the stand.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the minor tweak to the ride position/attitude. The lesser performance isn’t too bad, and still better than a lot of previous gen stock HD suspensions I’ve ridden. If I paid for the labor too I’d probably be a little more dubious about the cost to value ratio, but being able to do it myself, and reverse it if needed, makes me glad I tried it.
Got some other mods coming so I’ll eventually post pics, but seriously the difference in ride height with this change is more felt than seen.
Here is my 2-cents about lowering the '18 Heritage.
As I reported in a previous thread, I have lowered my Cherrry, both front and rear, using the H-D Low Profile Suspension. I also installed the rear monoshock myself but opted to hve the front installed at my dealer. When they installed the Low Profile Front Suspension, I had them use the heavy fork fluid. This eliminated all of the sloppy dive prone suspension of the stock suspension but I did not find the added stiffness to be very noticeable. To me it actually feels to be smoother ride at the handlebars.
They also installed the shorter Jiffy stand as recommended by H-D. I found that placing the bike on the Jiffy Stand after it was lowered is easier then when stock. I attribute this to the slightly lower Center of Gravity which makes the bike feel lighter. Stll need to kick it 3 times to make sure it is fully down before I trust it is going to hold up the bike.
I did not find the ride changed significantly with the lowered rear and then I did not find any change in the ride after the front was lowered either. I did find the bike felt lighter and it made my ability to ride it much more comfortable for my short stature. A combination of the lowering, my reach seat (now also modified by MCC) and a set of adjustable ROX Pivoting Adjustable handlebar risers has me sitting in the bike as opposed to just sitting on it.
I did lose a little bit lean angle as now I will scrape the foot boards in a hard turn which did not happen before it was lowered (at least by me).
One bad thing about lowering the bike is that my bike lift does not fit under the the bike as the frame has only about 3 1/2 inches of ground clearence. I use the VLIFT for regular maintenance and detailing so I need to run the bike up on a set of 2X8's to get it up the extra 1 1/2 inch so the lift will fit underneath and I can lift the bike without any problem.
Although my Cherry is a Heritage, I now kind of think of it as a Heritage-Deluxe.
07-26-2018, 02:55 PM
2018 Heritage Low Profile Shock review
