hi all,


im thinking of putting 12" hagon shocks on the rear of my 1996 wide glide, will this affect anything?


On there now are 13" progressive but they are very old, and I don't know what the stock length was?


thanks


Darren

 

A shrewd choice old chap. I have their basic shocks on my Sporty, which are alright, better than stock, but not exactly special. If you can run to them try their Nitro model, which has better damping and should give you a significant improvement in ride quality.

If you decide to buy Hagons then phone them up, as they will want your weight so they can fit suitable springs, may also advise on overall length. In the case of my Sporty they recommended a longer shock than my stock ones, because theirs have a longer stroke, hence need to be longer to prevent bits of the bike from hitting others. I wouldn't be surprised if they recommend 13" or thereabout for yours (they are metric in fact).

 

Yeah they reccomended the 13" but the trouble I have is with the 13" I'm tip toeing ever so slightly and I wanted to be flat footed at stop to feel slightly better when riding.

I've heard the standard shocks were either 12" or 12.5" ?

 

Tip-toeing ever so slightly is just fine, honest! In 50 years of riding I've had very few bikes I could flat foot on. It's a modern thing and you'll quickly get used to it, if you're not. Harley has only fitted short shocks in recent years, but what length yours are I'm not sure.

The sitting height of shocks is more important than the overall length. Short shocks have short travel, while Hagons IIRC have quite long travel, at least 3". With 1" sag on an adjustable Hagon (they are better for setting up than stock shocks) your seated height will only be a little higher than the cheap stock shocks, which have significantly less travel, hence sag less. Your seated height on a Hagon will not be much higher than on a stock shock IMHO.

Not all shocks are created equal! If you buy Nitros that are a little longer than stock shocks, when seated, you are going to get a much improved riding experience. But call Hagon to get accurate info, so you can make a good decision.

 

Impressed with the variety of shocks they offer. However I didn't see any for Softails... Prices look good as well... I will remember them...

 

I've never owned a softail, so haven't tried hard to find shocks for them, but they seem almost as rare as hens' teeth!

 

I have had both Hagon Nitro and Hagon 2910s and they are both 13'. I really liked the 2910
for the price. I bought them from the San Marcos store in Cali, online. They were very good
customer service and they built them exactly to my specifications in house, and not in England. No problems at all or tweaks. The Nitros on the other hand...Not so much,I ordered from that dude in Connecticut Dave Quinn, I will NOT do that again. I gave him my info and what I wanted done and he was to customer service with it. He just kind of kept bashing the West Coast Distributor for what ever reason, and He never called me to let me know when they were in. After I paid him the 50% deposit he said I had to wait a couple of weeks for him to submit the order WTF? The only way I knew they were in-route, was because my CC got charged. I even called him for updates and he just said "they are coming" ok...After I get them 45 days later, they were not even dialed in to my specs. The West Coast guys on the otherhand, were awesome, Weekly updates,asking for more details on my style of riding and called me the day they were shipped, and they were good to go from the start, no mods or tweaking. I love my Hagon Nitros after I dialed them right, but go with the West Coast San Marcos people, they know Harleys better than Dave Quinn.