Shocks are one of the most frequent subjects in here, for good reason, as your post emphasises! The stock ones are mediocre at best, but many of us find them darned awful when carrying our favourite passenger. So when looking into shocks take into account if you want to carry someone else further than round the block! It matters when changing shocks, but is routinely over-looked in threads like this one.

 

I put the 412's on my bike, we ride 2 up most of the time. They were supposed be the hd version but I'm not sure that's what I received. Using the stiffest setting they were still bottoming out on nearly every bump. Changed the oil in my stock air shocks with Bel-Ray 10Wt, big improvement over the 412's and the stock oil in the air shocks. All is well now, ride is good. 412's are back in the box on a shelf, money wasted.

 

Im not trying to steal your thread of anything but did everyone that has put 412's on a touring model get the little paper in the bushings bag that stated that bushings to use for what bike, and the one that was for the FL models say something like "2000-2008 5- speed"? Its the only instruction for the FL model and mines a 2014 so i just used my best judgement and used what i thought I needed for install. Sorry again. Rob