It's been a while since I've had a bike. Just bought this 2016 Deluxe. I have it booked in for new suspension and a service in a couple of weeks. It rides nice but the standard suspension is pretty average and the bike sits a bit too low for my liking. I am putting on YSS rear shocks and doing the front springs at the same time. 

Nice one mate.

You'll notice a great improvement. On my 16 Heritage, I fitted Progressive 422 shocks to the rear, and Progressive monotube cartridges to the forks. It tightened it up nicely. I like the cartridges as only a dribble of oil is needed in the legs, just to keep seals and such nice and wet, and only needs changing when the OCD kicks in.

Thanks mate, I did look at the full drop in kits for the front but don't really have an extra $1400 to spend on it atm. My mechanic reckons that the springs with the adjustable settings on top of the forks makes a big difference. 

What's the front end set up you are going to use? I find suspension a bit interesting.

YSS kit

Do you know what rate the springs are Steve? I couldn't find out on their website, at least not on my phone anyway.

No I don't, the mechanic wants me to take the bike into him before he orders anything. I'll let him know what I'm wanting the bike to do and then let him decide what he thinks will work best for me. I will be opposite of most people and want it a bit higher. I know they look cool lowered, but I like to ride around corners without dragging the boards or anything else.

Yeah good plan, spring rate matters lots and depends on what you want it to ride like with your usual load.

At least with the new rear shocks you can adjust them up or down. I'll probably get him to put a bit more preloaded in as well. On my old Heritage the rear preloaded was wound up quite a bit when the front springs were done. That really made a difference as to how it handled. A bit firmer but no wallowing or scraping around the corners, unless I pushed it 😄

I've not ridden a softy with those yss rear springs, interesting looking varmints, being as this is the first softail I've owned I'm no expert on what is best but I'm on my 3rd set of rear shocks in 10 years, stock ones work ok wound up but well you know, I ran Fornales for a few years, they were great until disaster struck, was going to exchange them for another set but they vanished in the post, took it as a sign and had a yak with Dan from Traxion about Bitubo shocks, he rated them so I grabbed a set from Italy, they do a good job.

I used YSS on either one of my Dyna's or Streetglides. From memory they were pretty good. There just isn't much choice when it comes to aftermarket shocks for earlier Softails. I think the 2018 models onward get a better selection. My mechanic has installed a few pairs of YSS Softail shocks and he reckons they are a good thing. A lot better than standard HD ones. To be fair my shocks are 9 years old now. I could only find YSS, Legends and Progressive shocks. I've not been a fan of Progressive , I've found them to be too harsh. When I mentioned Legends to my mechanic he said they are pretty good but not as good as YSS in his opinion. Legends are also about $300 to $400 more expensive.  I'm not sure on what the advantages are of the drop in cartridges for the front end. They are over $1k more to but than springs and emulators. I don't think I've owned a bike with aftermarket emulators before. From what I can gather you can adjust either compression or rebound with them. To me now suspension is my first go to with bike mods. It's no good making them faster if they won't go around corners. 2nd job will be to get the seat modified. It sits me to far forward, I'm only 168 cm. I don't know how the taller blokes ride these things without being cramped up.

Decided to give these a try instead of just upgrading the springs. They are a few weeks out as they have to come from the States.

I have a set of them in the shed, I ran them for a few years, this is just my take, plenty of happy campers out there, they handle bigger stuff really well, never had the front bottom out with them and I did hit some big stuff at times.

Haha yes sounds like me, always changing stuff. I might run a 21"front wheel yet. If so that would definenetly give more height in the front.