Bluraven: While you are the Black Hills tent, can you ask them:

1. What is the correct part number for the "standard" 422 RAP that will fit the 2014 Breakout?

2. What is the correct part number for the "heavy duty" 422 RAP that will fit the 2014 Breakout?

I contacted Progressive via their website, but no response, and it's been well over a week.

Jim G

 

If no response thru email why not just do the old fashioned thing and call them

 

Basically I try never to call any business anymore because the customer service is so crappy! You wait for who knows how long while elevator music plays and a rote message repeats, and when you finally get a live person, you wait again while they put you on hold to get an answer to your question! SOMETIMES, they come back with an answer eventually, and sometimes the call just "drops".

Typing an email usually takes under a minute, and then you move on to another task without having to "wait on hold".

When you get your reply, you have the company's answer IN WRITING, which offers a degree more of assurance that it is actually correct.

Of course, sometimes even the email approach brings no response.

My last attempt to contact the local tollway authority resulted in 3 calls, each with wait times exceeding 20 minutes before I had to get off to do something else, and still no answer. No email channel for the tollway authority either. Sigh . . .

Jim G

 

Wouldn't you know it, the two vendors I really wanted to talk too; Progressive and Klockwerks were there but not setup yet.
I'll being swinging by there Monday, perhaps they will be setup then and I'll ask about the Breakout part numbers.

 

Thank-you, Bluraven! I really appreciate it.

Jim G

 

Nice to see folks having success with the 422 raps... I tried them and even had the factory re spring them with the standard non HD springs and still didn’t like the overly firm ride. I spoke with several techs and engineers at progressive during that time and was told unless your of the plus size rider genre who rides 2up with gear all the time these aren’t a good fit despite our marketing miss advertisement.Having owned numerous sets of progressive shocks/equipped forks in my sport bike youth they were my first choice when upgrading my softail. A bit more money but I haven’t ONCE as solo or the occasional wife 2up rider regretted taking the shotgun shock plunge, money well spent. On the upside progressive makes by far the best springer fork dampener on the market.

 

Prw3, I appreciate your opinion/review of the 422 RAPs as I'm sure other's do as well.
It seems that you certainly tried to make them work but just couldn't get them dialed in to your satisfaction

I think most products have plus and minus's and very rarely is everyone happy with it hence the value of other opinions/reviews such as yours.

That being said I'm sure you meant well, however the purpose of this thread is a review/opinion of the 422 RAPs both good and bad not a review/opinion of other options that others are happy with such as air ride.

There are more than enough reviews related to the air ride option that should provide riders with enough information to make a decision on whether or not to go that route.

Once again I appreciate your opinion/review of the 422 RAPs, but let's just keep this thread at just that; an opinion/review of the 422 RAPs.

As my review has documented so far, I don't feel the 422 RAPs necessarily are a gift from the softail suspension gods, however I really wasn't expecting a ride from the heavens either.

What my hopes/expectations are is for an improved ride that is more easily adjustable that maintains the feel of a softail all for a reasonable price.
At no time have I been hoping/expecting a "touring" ride on a softail.

Also I'll add; that just what is a "reasonable price" is certainly open to individual interpretation.

So far the 422 RAP HDs have met my hopes and expectations and I'm pleased with my purchase decision.
The ride is not perfectly smooth, but it is very much improved over the stock suspension that I had previously.

Today we're off on a 350 mile Devil's Tower/Spearfish Canyon/Needles Highway run that should certainly provide my Wife and I enough ride time to make the final determination whether or not the 422 RAPs HD was a good decision for us.

That being said, please if other's have reviews/opinions of the 422 RAPs, certainly feel free as Prw3 has done to add them to this thread.

 

Well Progressive was nowhere to be found today at Black Hills Harley but neither was Klock Werks so I guess I'll just have to call them to get a new RAP ****.

Sorry Jim, looks like you'll have to call them to get your Breakout P/N.

 

OK this is my final post on my review of the Progressive 422 RAP HDs.
However if anyone has any questions that I can answer I'll certainly post a reply to them.

The Wife and I have had enough riding here in the Black Hills so we've decided to cut our vacation short and head back to the house.

Yesterday we had a 7 hour, 350 mile ride; Sheridan Lake to Nemo to Sturgis to Devil's Tower to Sundance to Deadwood to Needles Highway and then back the house at Sheridan Lake. Only 12 miles of the ride was interstate.

The 422 RAP HDs performed as expected with one exception.
We felt a 15 mile portion of the trip was a bit rougher than we expected but the road was unusually rough, very curvy and we had to keep the speed slow.

We also were carrying about 25 .lbs more weight than when I had set the shocks previously so the added weight may have also contributed to the rougher but not harsher ride. (remember I lost the adjusting **** earlier in the trip so I couldn't just jump off and easily add more pre-load).
I was going to make an adjustment using pliers, but after the 15 mile road ended, the ride smoothed out.


Other than that 15 mile stretch, the ride was very easy going.
We felt the big bumps but none of them were as harsh as with the stock shocks, well perhaps a few were, but certainly not very many.

So in conclusion:
The Progressive 422 RAP HDs do not convert the ride to a cadillac ride, but they do greatly improve the ride quality.

The 422 RAP HDs do take the harshness out of most of the bumps while still allowing for the rider to feel the road.
On the highway the 422 RAP HDs for the most part absorbed the vast majority of bumps without notice.

The 422 RAP HDs do seem to perform best during 2 up riding, but the heavy duty (HD) version is designed for a heavier load so that may explain that.

Let's face it there's not a lot of options out there for softail suspension improvement. Matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken if you don't want to go with air, the 422s are your only readily available choice and if you split your time between 1 and 2 up, the RAPs are your best option of them.

For some the cost of air ride is just too much to bear or they don't want to deal with what appears to be normal maintenance issues associated with air ride systems so for $750+ less at least there's another option out there and that being Progressive 422s.

After about 1000 miles on the 422 RAP HDs I give them a rating of 7 on a scale of 1-10.
1 being riding on a hard tail, 3 being stock shocks and 10 being what some people describe as what the ride is like with Shotgun Shocks.

For the ease of installation, the limited maintenance required and for most a $500 or less price tag, I think for most softail owners the 422 RAPs are a worthwhile improvement and well worth the money.

Thanks to all for the added comments and feel free to add to this review at any time.

Bluraven

 

Nice review, Bluraven! Good description of your experiences with the 422 RAP plus a realistic cost versus value comparison versus the Shotgun air suspension product. Your thoughts about 422 RAP versus Shotgun air system summarize my thoughts pretty well. The cost of an air system is one factor, but the recurring, no-warning, unpredictable, and disabling nature of the repair incidents on the air systems is actually more significant from my perspective. That makes the 422 RAP "a contender" for me, although an experiment I am running right now APPEARS to indicate that on the Breakout specifically, tire air pressure is a HUGE factor on ride comfort - much more than I have ever experienced before.


Jim G