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My nickname is Gags, I have a friend that just put Ohline shocks on his 2011 FLTHK and I have a 2012 FLTHK Limited. I am looking at putting on the Ohline shocks also. My problem is that I have a 28 inch inseam. I have HD lowered rear shocks on now. I wish I could lower the Bike a little more [any suggestions] I am also looking at new front shocks.[any suggestions] I am 5'9" about 180lbs I ride 70%single 30%double my wife is 5'2" 130lbs. The ohlines that I am leaning towards are the adjustables. My buddy likes the Progressive's for the front. I only want to do this 1 time. Please Help
It is all about inseam length & not how tall you are. You are forgetting about R-3 which is full riders sag. When I first started doing racing shocks for HD's I increased the riders sag to one third of the stroke. That is for rebound or when the wheel goes into a hole thus the shock extends without (in theory except for gravitational pull) moving the frame. This R-3 is not lost stroke but the stroke is reapportioned to move both ways where your OEM HD shocks are incapable of doing. You do not think of this because the way your HD shocks were designed and have no real technology to control your suspension as rebound situations occur. 1/2 of the bumps go up which is compression and 1/2 of the bumps go down which is rebound in the whole world. Your HD does not have riders sag and you should have been aware that your bike does not sag or go down when you get on the bike.
The length of a quality shock is in the box, when set up properly, is 1/3rd of the stroke (a generalization) shorter when you are sitting on the bike when set up. You do not loose that 1/3rd of the stroke as when riding in the real world the road surface is not flat, it goes up and down. The shocks must be strong enough to control the bike and not rely on the springs for being part of the suspension. The springs only make the bike and all of its contents weightless as far as gravitational pull goes.
Talk to Howard ^^^ at Motorcycle Metal. He'll do you right. My inseam is an inch longer than yours, and with a seat mod by Mean City Cycles and Ohlins as rear shocks, I'm flat footed with a slight knee bend when sitting on my King.
My nickname is Gags, I have a friend that just put Ohline shocks on his 2011 FLTHK and I have a 2012 FLTHK Limited. I am looking at putting on the Ohline shocks also. My problem is that I have a 28 inch inseam. I have HD lowered rear shocks on now. I wish I could lower the Bike a little more [any suggestions] I am also looking at new front shocks.[any suggestions] My buddy likes the Progressive's for the front. I only want to do this 1 time. Please Help
There are many front end options available. The cheapest would be to locate a pair of 20mm HD cartridges found on 2002~2005 fairing models which had one cartridge on one side only. Many took off their cartridge and replaced it with the damper rod system found on the Road King which requires a new fork tube due to the check valve.
A pair can be had in most INDI shops that horde take off parts. You will need the fork caps also as the cartridge damper rod screwed into the fork cap. Remove the springs & replace them with ones that are the proper rate. Than remove these crap pistons with the spring as a blow off valve and replace them with real pistons with compression & rebound shims. The HD cartridges are used in many applications and are now sold as HD premium suspension which is very far from the truth, look like this:
The 20mm piston is very crude and has a spring & a washer for valving This system is only meant to slow the dampening mostly one way. This system can be improved by R&R the piston with a 20mm Ohlins piston and the advantages are it has a Teflon replaceable piston ring for rebuilding, HD has a permanent one. The Ohlins piston has a compression & rebound shim stack that can be re-valved to the riders personal needs. They look like a miniature one of these:
On my web site I give a step by step installation video under Buell, yes, almost the same basic cartridges with slight differences.
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Shocks
