After 60K miles, the front suspension on my '09 FXD is so mushy that I can damn near breathe on the handlebars and the shocks will compress. It's making riding a little difficult, especially on hard turns.

So, I just ordered the heavy-duty spring kit from Progressive Suspension (part #11-1546). I got the heavy-duty because I weigh in at 270 so the bike is always getting a hell of a load on it (and figure too this should last forever and one less thing to get the next 100K miles).

Looking in the service manual, this looks to be kinda a big job. I've only got a kind of 'lift' that will get the bike up maybe 9". Will that be enough? I also don't have a bench or bench vice and of course no fork leg holder tool.

Will this actually be one of those jobs that it might be better to let my indie do (if I can afford it!) or is the service manual making it look harder than it actually is?

 

You don't have to take the forks off. Just raise the front wheel off the ground and go in through the fork caps. Make sure you change the fork oil while your in there with that many miles. You can use a pump to pump the oil out from the top of the forks

 

Thanks rooti.

The service manual sure seems to have a whole bunch of things to do if this is actually easy enough to do it the way you say.

Anyway, gonna give it a shot when the package gets here. Wish me luck.

 

Plenty of help here. Alan has a tutorial with pics of taking everything apart if you go that route. May not be a bad idea to do a fork rebuild kit with that many miles.

As long as I'm spending your money, get some ricor intimidators while your in there.

 

I had the stealership do my `09 Dyna fork seals with new and heavier fork oil. $370. This was my fault, though, since the seals failed at only 13K miles. At about 10K I had trailered the bike incorrectly by attaching straps to the handlebars and pulling down too much to secure the bike. This damaged the bottom seals. `Learned the hard way. So, if you ever trailer your bike, strap the front wheel forward into a wheel guide. Don`t put any tension on your forks AT ALL. And secure the back end with the straps on your swing arm.

 

Who's Alan and where is this tutorial?

Hmmm...rebuild kit sounds expensive

Those intimidators sound expensive too. After rent and bike payment and groceries (and insurance quarterly of $75), I usually don't have much more than $300 per month I can put in my pocket to use for gas and stuff like this fork-spring fix...disability checks don't go far, heh.

 

Okay, got the 'kit' and all it was was the heavy-duty springs and the tubes.

It was simple as pie *AND* during this fix I found out why I've been having to change out wheel bearings every 12,000 to 25,000 miles - the left fork tube was about 3/32 of an inch *lower* than the right fork tube where you measure from the top of the tube cap to the top of the upper tree (the book calls for it to be .43-.50 in).

I always had trouble with the 'balance' of the bike and for the life of me couldn't figure it out. For instance, if I took my hands off the handlebars, the bike would lean slightly to the right or I had to lean my body to the right to keep it straight and upright and balanced. Once I set it where it was supposed to be, I took the bike out for a spin.

Amazing what these new springs have done and the small adjustment fix I had to make!!

The springs have given the bike a smoother ride again and aren't darn-near bottoming out on the slightest little bump in the road.

The small adjustment I had to make made the bike handle almost completely different from what it used to be like. It now balances like it's supposed to when I take my hands off the handlebars and turns like it's supposed to, and another big difference is that it has far less rolling resistance. Simply astounding what 3/32 of an inch can do to the ride of a bike!

So, here's my huge approval/good words/product rating for Progressive Suspension. This is now the second thing I've done to the bike that's made such a huge difference for the better - the Michelin Commander II tires (which are giving me superb mileage @17K+ on a rear tire so far), and the heavy-duty springs from Progressive for the front forks.