Spoke with Jason at Legend on 6-25-14. They will be taking care of the unit for me under warranty. Great to see a company standing behind their product. When the suspension works, it's great.



First, let me say that I have dealt with the guy's at Legend quite a few times this past year and they have all helped me as much as possible and have been pretty friendly.

However...since I am not the original purchaser of the shocks they won't warranty anything.

I am here as much for some advice as I am to vent my frustration because now it looks like I won't be able to ride until I replace my suspension which I currently have no money to do. (I am a teacher on summer break. Very limited funds for the next 3 months)

Here is where I am:
Tonight the large bolt that holds the air fitting into the shock completely sheared off. (Check out the pics. Best I can get with my phone)

On the left is the air fitting that goes into the shock, on the right is where the other should be. I had a slow leak from that fitting for a while so I ordered 4 new fittings. After trying all of them and finding that they ALL leaked I called Legend yesterday and I was told that it was ok to crank down on the fitting hard to make sure that it was really tight.

So tonight I did just that. And the fitting sheared right off.

And on top of all of that, when I went to remove the suspension I discovered that the bolt that holds the shocks to the frame had broken as well. Looks like it had just been staying in because of the weight of the bike. I'm not sure when that happened. I had the bike into the dealer at the end of last summer and they changed the fluids but the shocks hadn't been touched since.


Heres the info on my bike:

2003 Deuce
33K miles
Purchased March of last year after being hit by a car on my other bike
I live in LA and ride every day.
I've put over 10K on it since I bought it.

In the last year, here are the problems I've had with the suspension.
I know a lot of it is wear and tear but I'm really disappointed that I have had so much trouble.

-All hoses replaced
-Toggle switch replaced 7 times. 4 times while on the road and over 500 miles from home.
-All air fittings replaced
-3 compressors (1 came with the bike that blew out. 2nd one I bought to replace the original and it just stopped working one day. 3rd one Legend DID WARRANTY which was great)
-Today: Sheared air fitting.

So now I am left with a totally out-of-commision ride. The guy I bought the bike from didn't have the original shocks so I have nothing to replace my system with.

As I said, I am here to vent my frustration as much as anything else, but I am open to suggestions on how to get back up and riding without dropping $1500 on a Shotgun system.

-I've checked ebay and craigslist and I am not finding any stock Deuce shocks. I know the Deuce is "unique" and that a lot of Softail parts don't work on the Deuce. Will any stock Softail shock work?

-Has anyone else had this much trouble with their Legend system?

-I'll be calling JD at Shotgun tomorrow just to see if there's anyway I might be able to pull off a set of his shocks this summer.

-Doe's anyone here have, or know of anyone who has, a stock set of Deuce shocks they want to get rid of?


Thanks for listening everyone












Broken bolt inside frame



Bolt that holds the suspension to the frame:

 

Sheared air fittings should be an easy fix...you can get much better quality fittings than those plastic ones...I would remove the swingarm to even attempt drilling that shock bolt out.

 

All the bolts should can be fixed with a little effort and an E-Z Out. Like 84 says get better fittings than what you have if your hell bent on trying to keep it patched up.Sounds like the system has seen better days. Shotgun is 1200 when you get ready. I have a pair of shocks with lowering bolts installed for 50 + shipping if your interested. G.

 

I have never had a EZ out require little effort. Usually it involves broken EZ out bits and a lot of swearing. Still I agree, that is the only way.

 

This thread is one of the reasons I have 2 reservations of switching to any air ride system.
I know that JD is a standup guy and his warranty and customer service is second to none.

However warranty and customer service doesn't help me 300 miles from home on a Sunday out in the wilderness of Nebraska when I have a shock failure.

The cost of the systems is the other reservation I have.

All that being said I still haven't pulled the trigger on a set of Progressive 422 RAPs, because Shotgun Shocks still seem awful appealing.

 

I have stock Deuce shocks. PM me if you still need a set.

 

I have a set of softtail shocks you can have if you just pay for shipping from San Diego.

 

A better fastener extractor is the "Grabit" extractor.
It is a LOT better than the old EZ out, you don't have to drill in as far and they grip better.
Here is a link to the web site for the Grabit bit: http://www.thegrabitstore.com/Pages/default.aspx
Hope this helps.

 

I'm on the fence between Shotgun and 422 RAP's for exactly the same reason. Air ride is cool out front of the bar - but when it breaks, you're screwed.

I'm also not 100% sold on the performance of even the top shelf air systems like Shotguns either. I beat the brakes off my bike (literally, I cracked a Lyndall MMC rotor two weeks ago - good times!) and I want the thing to hold tight in corners, not get squirrelly on hard accell and decell, and not act like a hard tail on long days. I see no sense in spending the coin to invert the front and then ignore the rear.

Anyway - to the OP - looks like you have some offers for OE shocks for cheap. I'd take them. Anybody else feel that it's kinda shady of Legend of leave this guy in the wind just b/c he's not the original owner? Sounds like a cop-out to me... either stand by your **** or don't. Legend lost some points with me on this one big time.

 

I have stock softail shocks if it comes down to it.

Hope you get it fixed. Id be irate if that happened to me during riding weather.

"So now I am left with a totally out-of-commision ride."
Thats not true, because in reality, you CAN ride it slammed. I do. It rests on my bump stops and I ride it a lot like that. I only raise it on the highway because our roadways suck here. I ride it exactly how you see it in my sig pic.