I should preface this by saying that I'm after a 'cost effective' solution to improve the rear suspension on my wife's '09 FXDL (I know there are a number of posts floating around RE: shocks - but they all seem focused on a higher price point).

She's not an aggressive rider, but the stock shocks seem devoid of dampening and I'm looking for an incremental improvement; anyone have thoughts/experience with the 412's? (or similar $$ alternatives?). FWIW, I'm staying with the stock length...

Thanks in advance!

 

From experience I'd say that if the 412's are better than stock I couldn't notice the difference. They're not bad by any means, but really not much of an improvement.

 

412's are an improvement over stock as long as you are changing like for like. For instance, going from a 12.5" stock shock to an 11" aftermarket, any brand, will totally change what you are comparing, and probably feel very stiff and unresponsive. Stick with a standard height shock. Lowering the bike looks cool....but you loose suspension travel which we all know is what helps absorb the hits, which is what I am assuming you are looking for, especially on a much lighter female rider.

For a single up rider, the standard 412 will feel very nice compared to the stock shock on the softest setting. For heavy and 2 up riders...go with the HD 412, which has a heavier spring to start with. I ride mostly 2 up...so went with the HD. Very nice 2 up, but still a little stiff when riding solo. For the money...these are good shocks. You performance freaks...keep your comments to yourself ;-) This is for his lady

Of course...if you want to spend the bucks, there are many more to choose from. Even in a lowered shock, there are some very high tech choices....just depends on what you want to spend .

 

I tend to agree with this. I will say, that I am a bit happier with the 412's now that I got he adjustment where I want it. I ran them on the fourth of gift stiffness settings for a while and they did fairly well except harsh bumps. I slowly softened the setting until I landed on detent #2 (one click up from the softest setting.) Now, the ride is comfortable with just enough to soak up harsh bumps but not bottom out. The softest setting was cushy but felt like it was close to the bottom on harsh bumps. It also felt a bit washed out from side to side. One click up made a lot of difference.

As some of the other posts suggest, better handling can be had with much more expensive shocks, but the 412's do provide a good ride balance after playing with the settings.

I ride solo all the time, carry no extra weight and I weigh 210 lbs.

 

Thanks Guys... I just ordered a pair.

As stated, I was after an cost effective/incremental improvement; especially since my wife has her heart set on a new bike in the medium-term future (hoping for the 103 on an FXDC; or better still, resurrection of the FXDL (yeah, I know you can get them in Japan)).

All the best

 

OK bro first off if your lady weighs less than 150lbs she just doesn't carry enough of a load for dampening to occur. IMO if you don't cancel those progressive 412 shocks you will be disappointed. They may be slightly better than a stock shock in terms of when you take a bump they may keep hugging the ground a little better than the stockers but that will be the extent of the improvement. Best thing is stick with stock on the lightest setting and train her to lift her bottom a little when she cannot avoid a pothole or rail groove etc. I know because I wasted 450$ , and I'm not too proud to admit it, on prog. 440's once. that was enough to teach me a good lesson. I let those go for 1/4 of the cost last year. My advice is set those shocks as light as possible and wait for the new ride before throwing money out.
My apologies to progressive, they make good competition shocks for dirt bikes and such, still stiff shocks but your standing up on a dirt bike or your not having much fun that said heavy bikes need very high quality suspension you very literally get what you pay for. You would be much better off spending that money on getting her a nice cushy seat.

 

Well that cost effective order will cost you more in the long run when you buy shocks for the second time. You should have just tried your stock shocks on the number 1 or 2 setting before you did anything....would have been free.

 

HEHEHEEE that's basically what I told him!

 

I'm a big guy and ride two up a lot and I find the stock shocks massively under sprung and under damped.

I've run the HD version of the 412 shocks on my last two dynas. First one was not a fair comparison as I went for the 11" shocks and had to run them effectively rigid for clearance.

This time around I went with stock SB height (12.5") and love them. Much better than stock.

The HD ones are pretty firm but that's how I like it.

 

Yep, kinda funny they ask for advise already knowing that they are going to buy the cheepest thing they can find and actually expect results