G'day,

Just fitted Progressive Suspension 444 series (heavy duty) shocks and std fork springs on my 13' widey.

The rear set turned up and fitted beautifully. They look good on the bike and performance is superior to factory shocks. Hand pre-load adjustment means no longer needing to carry a tool to set. I fitted 12 1/2' shocks over the standard 12" to increase cornering angles.

The front set turned up shortly after and there are a couple of things to be aware of when fitting. Contrary to instruction booklet, these can be simply dropped in; no need to remove whole fork assembly.

Jack bike up so front wheel is off the ground.  After pinch bolt has been undone, undo the fork tube cap with your hand over it as there is considerable pre-load on it and it jumps up a bit coming off the last thread. Remove steel spacer, flat washer and spring. Used some wire to reach spring. Fit new spring (tight coils facing down), flat washer and supplied poly tube spacer. Supplied spacer is 4 5/8" long and when fitted was sitting 1" below fork tub giving no pre-load whatsoever. Bike sat 2" lower than stock and felt mega soft during bounce test in the shed.

I removed supplied spacers and sourced some poly pipe of the same ID & OD dimensions. I cut new spacers at 5 1/2" which put them flush with the top of the fork tube when fitted. After a little effort to fit the fork tube caps and tighten pinch bolts, the bike maintained stock ride height and felt alot better when bounced. Took the bike for a road test and what a difference it has made to the front end. Smooth as silk and soaking up all those rigid bumps whilst hard cornering.

While all this was going on I contacted Progressive Suspension and they assured me the correct spacers were supplied. Communication and back up was good and i have advised them that they may want change the spec for 2013 FXDWG.

Part numbers for the sets used ar as follows:

444 Series HD         444-4048B/C
Fork Spring Kit         11-1525

Hope this is is useful for anyone considering Progressive for their dyna.

Cheers, Hicksy.    

How much do you weigh...I put 412's H/Duty on mine and it was a jarring experience...I'm about 105 k'gs but maybe my back is cactus...An idea of total cost???

 

Cheers...Sparra

Thanks for the info

I'm looking at 444's for the rear of my street bob

Where did you buy from?

Would love to see pics too

Just wanted to say thanks for the informative thread/post, it really helps when someone else has actually done a mod you`ve been thinking of and then lets others know how it went.. I have the same bike as you Hicksy and I want to do the same mods in good time. I just want to get a bit of life out of the suspension before I spend dollars on a fix for what Harley jokingly calls `suspension`. So far since new I`ve done the obligatory Stage 1 tune and added a Sundowner seat and National Cycles flyscreen, all I wan`t next is to make the bike soak up the bumps a bit better(been looking at 444`s on Ebay) and that should do it for a while(yeah right).

D'day,

Thanks for your responses.

Front springs were $140 off Ebay.

I weigh 97kg and bought the 444's off ebay for $560.

Ihave the 444 HD's on the lightest spring pre-load setting and they are very comfortable with no bottoming out (had to have the stock springs on second highest pre-load setting). Havent tried 2 up yet but im guessing i'll only need to wind them half way up.

Went for a good ride with the boys yesterday and was even more impressed with the performance of this suspension. Can only imagine how good it'll be once everything settles in over the next couple of thousand k's. Now to convince the missus.

Cheers

Hicksy 

Great write up mate

Would love to see some after photos of the WG

Cheers

Thanks for the write up.
I have 430's on the rear of mine.
Front feels like a pogo stick. Time to invest in a spring replacement.

yep

i have just gone through the same deal replacing the shit suspension that the motor company thinks is suitable.everything is built to a price hey.

anyway i bought the same set up , 444,s for rear and progessive springs for front in November last year. Rears are the ducks nuts and like ol mate i weigh near 98kg and have the setting on lowest and have been two up no probs.

as for the front ,,,,,well. that was a fuggin shock when i put the front end on the ground!!  could not believe how fuggin low it was. emailed ol mate at progressive and same answer as Hicksey, 4 n 5/8 spacers. so i waddle off to Bunnings and bought two 2' thick wall pipe PVC pipe fittings and sat them on top of the progressive supplied spacers and with a bit of swearing n cursing ,got the bastards in the tube and the cap on. cost $6.00.

what a great ride she is now. no front end dive under brakes,shit hot through the twisties and the rear is smooth as duck shit. pity the motor company cant do this from the start.like i say it,s all about the money,built to a price.

so now me has to buy another seat cos it,s giving me hell . the bikes got 10,000km on it and the seat felt not so bad until about 8000km then it got hard as.