rear suspension recommendations

stock shocks on my '80 750h are riding real soft. already tried adjusting them - theyre just old and worn out. what do you guys recommend for replacements? id love something i can ride 2up with and not have them bottom out when we hit bumps (if thats possible )

killcity wrote:

stock shocks on my '80 750h are riding real soft. already tried adjusting them - theyre just old and worn out. what do you guys recommend for replacements? id love something i can ride 2up with and not have them bottom out when we hit bumps (if thats possible )

I bought some Progressive gas shocks and they are really sweet. For riding "2 up" you would have to select the best spring for that. Shocks and springs are sold separate, you can go up in spring weight if you are heavy or you plan to carry a passenger often.

Z1 sells them and has the best prices on most things:

www.z1enterprises.com/SearchResult.aspx?...True&KeyWords=shocks

awesome - so the 190lb rated springs - do they go higher? should they be rated for the combined weight of the rider and passenger? i weigh about 190 and most chicks weight, well, hopefully not more than 120 - 130 right? ha ha

-bj

I had the Progressives with 190 springs on a 750 twin, and at 235 lbs they were too stiff. All I had to do was strap by notebook on behind me and they were perfect, so I guess if I weighed 250 or so they would have been perfect.

I made some rigid struts for mine. No chance of bottoming out there;)

killcity wrote:

awesome - so the 190lb rated springs - do they go higher? should they be rated for the combined weight of the rider and passenger? i weigh about 190 and most chicks weight, well, hopefully not more than 120 - 130 right? ha ha

-bj

The spring weights do NOT correlate to body weights. As I recall, there are two numbers (like 85/125). the first number is how much weight AT THE SHOCK it takes to depress it maybe an inch and the second number is how much to depress two inches or somthing like that.

HOWEVER: the centerline of your body weight is NOT situated directly above the shock, it's well in front of it. So the amount of weight pushing down on the shock is less by the ratio of the length of the respective pivot levers. In other words, Your 180 lb body is probably only pushing down on the shock with maybe 120 lbs of force or some value similar.

My recollection is a "standard" spring weight for my 750 was about 85/125. I have those and they are plenty stiff for me. Maximum spring weights are usually in the ballpark of 140/180. I used to run those and they were WAY too stiff and raised the back of the bike about two inches.

For 190 + passenger, I am not sure which spring is right. I know the guy at Z1 will know. I have talked to him before and he is very smart.

i got air shocks from a goldwing. they fit right on. rides very very nice.

Here's some info about spring rates, single, dual, triple, and progressive.

Spring rates

I got some air shocks new for 100 bucks. They fit right in. I am 6'2" 160 lbs, and I run them empty and they feel great.



There they are in back, this is the best pic I have of them.

Let me know if you are interested in considering a pair, I would be happy to pick up a set and mail them.