Been riding my new (2013) sportry for a while now and very happy so far.  I have noticed though that on long rides, my rear end starts to feel every bump and so have been thinking about a rear shock upgrade.  From what I have read so far, either IKON or progressive seem to be the favoured option for sportys, so wondering what everyone thinks.

I realise I'll probably need to look at the fork springs as well, as I have read they the std. setup ain't that good.

All comments/suggestions welcome.

Thanks, Craig D.

you've got YSS from adelaide to choose from too. Supposed to be good, haven't tried them myself yet tho.

i also hear Yss are good. I have Ikons front and rear, with ricor intiminators in the front. I like the way my bike rides! i have also done the old man conversion to a few sportys and found it to be a very worthwhile upgrade. What Sporty do you have?

T1

G'day terroristone, thanks for your reply and suggestions.  I have a 2013 XL1200C 110th anniversary edition.  What is the 'old man conversion' you mention and also what are ricor intiminators (excuse my ignorance)?  have not heard of YSS before, are they available from any motorcycle accessory shop?

 I've currently got a set on 10' shocks from Licks cycles, I mainly got them coz of the look, all black. However I'm very unhappy with them, bottomed out a few times, causing the top belt guard to be scraped. Also had some paint chip off, rust and fading. Gojg back to the stock shocks for sure.

The Progressive Suspension 970 shocks would be nice, there preicy though.

Mate do a search on the site and you'll find heaps of info.

Alot go for IKons, I went for YSS purely because thet are jut down the road.
Anything beats the standard.
Even changing your seat helps.

 +1 for searching the threads that already exist.  Throw some key words in and do a bit of reading.  It's up to you at the end of the day, it gets down to how much you want to spend based on the quality of what you are after.  Do you want better bump control, lower ride etc.  Look for a shock that allows the most adjustability, i.e. compression, preload, rebound.  Is the shock servicable, can you source aftermarket help in Oz or are you happy to buy at the lowest cost online etc....

You might find you end up spending a bit more than you thought you would but you get a better shock at the end of the day.  Plenty have good things to say about Ikon.....Progressive is another option...

Ohlins, Bitubo, Hagon and Penske (some keywords for you to use) are up there in quality/performance etc but offer a different level of shock.

Also consider the final ride height based on eye to eye length, and total stroke length.  I've seen shocks that have long eye/eye length but lower overall stroke length compared to total length (if that makes sense)  The more travel you have available the better the tuning options you'll have.  At the end of the day the Sporty's don't have a lot of clearance relative to other bikes; think cornering ability.  The better the shock you can get that resists bottoming out (based on settting correct spring preload etc) the better.

Best of luck mate

Cheers

IE

I've been wanting to get some 10 inch shocks just to lower the bike a bit. Were they just cheapies spartan?

short shock lower the bike make it look better, give more confidence. but in original post you said on long rides you start to feel every bump. they won't help as less travel. if you want the best go to a specialist that can set up the bike for your weight. Ohlans, race Tech, Fornales all make quality shock Race Tech make parts to set up front end and have agents that are trained to set them up i know two in sydney. the ikon is budget but more like a stock replacement you won't get a big improvement on a long run.

just my two cents have used them in the past i don't like progressive last me five minutes had three sets in my dyna went to race tech custom set up & got it right

 

 Yeah only $200, the looked good but the workmanship is noticably lacking in them after a few months of riding on them.