Yeah, that was a good looking Fat Boy. Is it lowered any or do the white walls give that illusion?

 

It's lowered in the rear. I started with the cheap ebay lowering bolts. I tried all different heights but settled on 3/4" lower than stock. While dealing with height issues I was constantly fighting weight issues due to a heavy passenger and luggage issues. I wanted as low as possible, but no scrapping, and as soft as possible without bottoming out. I set the bike up with a one inch drop and the shocks on their loosest settings. Put a piece of masking tape on each shock as a marker point. Then spent multiple rides solo and loaded. Raising, lowering, spinning the shock cans with that stupid little spanner...... you know what I mean. I finally settled on (I think) two or three full turns on each shock, and 3/4 inch drop. It really seemed to be the bikes sweet spot. Not too stiff solo, and still practicle loaded two up.

 

Thanks for your input, I will give that a try

 

There are different rate springs available for the stock shock. Google springs for softail shocks.There are a few options.

 

If I was looking for a new set of shocks, I would try to find a shock that has adjustable pre-load, adjustable dampening, and available with a variety of spring rates. Most any of the aftermarket shocks have adjustable ride height, so that's a given.A hi quality shock should also be rebuildable. I know its hard to find shocks with all these features.

Knowing some shocks have adjustable pre load can help tune your setup to your liking. But, what about the dampening? I would think adjustable dampening( valveing ) and to have ability to taylor the spring rate to your ride would be very important to me, just my opinion.

Seems to me that many softail shocks come with one spring rate that only have pre load adjustment at best. The more pre load that is cranked in, the less the dampening can control it! From the yrs Ive spent dealing with race cars taught me that spring rates and valveing must be adjustable. Other wise you must live with the ill effects of what the shock is lacking.

The Works shocks seem to get good reviews for the guys that have them.
I have looked at them on there site, and see a narrow body shock with adjustable ride height, and not sure if the have a choice of spring rates or not? They must have the spring rate, and the dampening dialed in pretty good to keep there customers happy.

So, in the end of it all,it might take a hi end set of shocks to do all these things. And if you can get a set with adjustable dampening/valveing that you could ajust for one up, two up,and loaded would be ideal. I havn,t searched for what is out there for shocks in a while. So, could be better options out there now. But searching a while back looking for shocks with adjustable dampening I did come across one brand, Ted Tine. These are comparable in price to the Works shock with adjustable dampening, and worth a look at.

http://tedtine.com/performance-produ...AIL-99-LC.html


Good luck in your search

 

just throwing this out there
Have you tried setting your preload? I turned mine 4 complete turns it helped mine a lot.

 

Thanks for your input, I have heard of Works before but yesterday I gave them and Racetech (didn't even know they made a Softail shock) a long look and they both want to know rider/passenger weight and other information. They sound like they are trying to match spring rates and valving to best suit the individual customer which has to be far better than an off the shelf one size fits all application. I plan on giving both a call to discuss their products. Maybe it's just me but if I have too much adjustability then I will never stop screwing with it, at least that is the case with my Shotgun. For right now I will install my stockers while my Shotgun is out for repairs and play with them, I've added adjustable bolts to those to play with the ride height as well.

I would like to thank everybody who has participated in this discussion. I was very skeptical about starting a rear suspension thread in the Softail forum, most of the time it gets pretty ugly.

 

When I first got the bike I did, but after taking the shocks apart to install the adjustable lowering bolts I don't believe I did it right. Going to revisit that once I get them back on the bike.