Ya good idea, you've got nothing to lose, can always add them later..but I'll
be surprised if you find the need to!!

 

JMO for consideration- The better dampers are the "other half of the equation" in suspension improvement. And since the forks will be pulled and opened up, might as well do it at same time. Using better springs with the stock dampers will be slightly better- you'll have less sag / softness, but the damping rate is still going to suck. damping controls nose dive, spring rebound, provides high speed stability and cures things like that scary washy feeling you get hitting bumps in a corner. In short, upgrading springs alone (regardless of brand) is a small improvement. upgrading springs plus dampers is a huge improvement. IMO it's worth the added money spent if you care about doing a complete beneficial upgrade.

Progressive makes a nice set of aftermarket dampers as well- and they do work very good. The only single reason I prefer the Ricor dampers is the Progressive dampers require modifying the stock fork sliders. You have to disassemble the fork sliders from the fork tubes (pain in the ***), drill out the stock fork slider damper valve holes (pain in the ***), and then reassemble the fork sliders to the fork tubes (major pain in the ***).

So with the Ricors it's just "drop in" easy, and equally as effective benefit as the Progressive dampers without the pain in the *** or extra 2-3 hour of shop labor time.

You could always keep the stock dampers and run heavier 15w or 20w fork oil- that would give a bit better damping than stock- but I don't know to what effect.

FWIW-

 

Hummmm...No wait, that's not right!
She's my navigator. While I'm watching out for the texting goofballs, she's looking at street signs and where we're needing to go.

 

I had the "No shock removal" 2" lowering kit on my FXSTC and the ride was abysmal. Bottomed out over the smallest of bumps and handled crap! I won't be fitting it to my BO!

 

Not surprised...the two inch leaves no travel left. The 1.5 still leaves some travel. I've had my 1.5 collar in for a few years now. Handling is fine. Ride is fine unless you hit something big.

 

Ok thanks for the advice. I've not actually tried the 1.5 collar. I might give it a go as they're fairly quick to add/remove.

 

+1 - yup 1.5" is about the most you can go on the stock swing arm and stops. any more than that and might as well make it a rigid

 

Also depends on the weight added by the rider