Anyone replace there stock shocks with Progressive 422's by themselves?
What is all involved with such a feat? I see a lot of posts about the upgrade
itself, but not the actual labor involved. Thanks.

 

Easy job, place bike onjack and lift rear wheel clear of ground, unbolt one shock absorber at front and rear and replace with new one. Repeat on the other side. This job is much easier if you have someone to lift the back wheel up and down when you are removing old shock and putting in the new one. Alternatively if you do not have a jack you can do the job on the side stand by removing one shock absorber and replacing it with the new one and repeating with the other side but this way you will definitely need someone to help you who can lift the bike slightly at the rear. I have done it both of these ways with my girlfriend, Su, helping me.

 

I did it myself. Used my Sears yellow jack & did same as Darkman. I did put some wood under rear tire& lowered jack until I got the fender height I wanted. Then just tightened new shocks up. Old shock mounting bolts were tough to remove.

 

You are gonna need a hammer to loosen the rear shock mount bolts... or a very very very strong arm. Those are in with the strong loctite.

I have heard to heat them up first which I have never done. Both time I replaced my shocks was dead in the middle of the winter in a semi cold garage and never once thought to heat them up.

 

+1 I did that, and I also used a bottle jack from my car instead of my normal lift. easy to do it yourself, just takes and hour or two.

 

I think you should the air ride like Dinger has.