I also went with Progressive mono tubes.What a great improvement over the air suspension up front. Front end feels sooo much better and planted.

 

Yes, we purchased the rights to the IAS technology from Ricor a few years ago, and we are not making the Intiminators is the same building as we make the NexGen Shocks in at our place in NW MS.

Kevin

 

I also went with the Progressive Monotube Cartridges.
No more brake dive and they seem to soak up the small bumps better that stock.
Only took me around 2 hours to install.

 

Progs Monotubes and 422 RAPs, complete transformation.

 

In 2003 progressive was selling a rear air ride system using a Bilstein shock on one side and air bag shock on the other They dubbed it Airtail. Its nice and with the mono tubes in now and bringing bike back to stock height , I say for a softie along with the fork brace it handles great !!


I look for some twisties ( not too many in So FL) but I know an airport that has a sweet stretch of pavement with some great sweepers and I'll go there to get my kicks .

Softies & other bikes look cool low and down in the dirt but they handle not so cool. I would take turns flat as to not destroy my pipes ....as when I sat on bike they were about an 1.5" from the ground upright. What fun was that ?? Bikes are all about going into turns ( besides some other great attributes about them) and to mosey thru the turns slow and methodical sucked !!


Now I can drop a gear and hit it into the turn and the bike stays planted and me & the bike are loving it!! ...........and no fireworks from scraping the pipes into the turn.

If my compressor goes on the Airtail I would grab the 422 Raps ...they perform great as well. Progressive suspensions work good for me. There are better no doubt ...but being a bit more affordable they offer a great product IMO ...

 

I have Progressive Springs and DK Custom products Intiminator Valves.
I highly recommend these if you dont wanna do a cart kit.

It was 360$ for me when I bought them, and I'm running an SE Ohlins rear monoshock.
My front suspension is AWESOME. And I dont feel any need to actually upgrade it what so ever, except maybe add some preload adjustors.
Forget the raceTechs, get the intiminators with the progressive springs. They awesome.

Just FYI, if you get the Progressive Springs for the your bike, and the Intiminator Valves, cut your preload spacers to .5 inches shorter.
For my bike it instructs 2.2 inches as progressive states in the instructions, the Valves are .5inches thick, which means if you cut 2.2 spacers(for the FLBS for example), you will have actually 2.7 preload.
So cut down to 1.75, and you will have 2.25inch preload.
Make sure basically to just subtract .5inch fron your spacers to stay in spec.

Check out my front tire wear at 5000miles.
See how there's no lifted edges? That means the rebound is in spec for my bike. And you can see I use pretty much all of the tire.
This setup is pretty good for riding hard and fast, and the ride quality is Excellent.

 

Thanks everyone! Right now I’m thinking DK Intiminators but not sure about changing the springs. Will progressive springs really make much difference over the stock springs? I’m going with stock height as I was dragging my new exhaust with it lowered too. The bike has 40k miles, will the stock springs degrade that much over those miles? Also, I’m looking for a plush ride not so much for performance, the stock front end just chatters over pavement ripples. Will progressive springs help with that? Thanks again for the suggestions guys!

 

I used spring from RaceTec that are straight weight springs. The difference is in the spring diameter. Stock HD was like .88 wire, and the springs for my weight are 1.35 (if I am remembering correctly. Stock HD are sprung for a 150 pound solo rider. And I am 300 now. The Intimators control the compression and rebound rates, the proper weight springs control the ride height. I like to be close to max ride height as I can for ground clearance.

 

I road trip too much to risk an air ride, a compressor craps out, or something goes wrong...you could be stranded for a couple days waiting on parts. With Softail dual shock set-up. You'll be up and running in no time.

 

Post 17, Jerry.
Chatter.
Typically rebound and compression settings cause chatter, not the springs.
40K mileage, sure the springs may have lost some length... remove and measure to confirm.

Plush ride goal.
Um, I am not so sure about plush.
Sag, ride height, front end dive... plush to me involves a lot of front end dive, suspension bottoming out too much, even a pogo-ing.
The option: Keep the stock springs, add the Intimidators, dial in your "sag" preload spacer, and then experiment with fork oil weights 6, 10, 15 (I'd start w/ 10, then with 6 & 15 being extremes so that you can feel "it".

My vote: With all this time and energy, I would get the springs.

Enjoy your ride.