Your in luck if comfort is truly your goal. For your wrists make sure you dont have a death grip. Move your bars for n aft to see if that helps, if not, new bars. The single biggest noticeable comfort change I made was a mustang seat. I went from being in severe pain after 40 min to being able to take 750 mile trips with no problems. This is a pic of that trip with the seat being the only mod.
Since then Ive done a few more comfort mods. Bars that fit me comfortably and shocks that actually have movement. To take it a step past that I have a sheepskin pad and I wear padded bicycle shorts. In full out comfort mode I was able to do a 1000 mile Ironbutt ride in under 24 hours.
And it doesnt have to cost an arm and a leg, everything I mentioned was less than 700 bucks. You can do things one at a time to spread out the cost.........Id start with a seat.
PB, good info and suspension travel are your friend. I'll share my experience of about 17,000 miles. I switched my stock 11.75" shocks out for 13.5" Progressive 440 standards. I am 5' 8" and about 203. Combined with Progressive fork springs and 7w BelRay fork oil I struck on a perfect combination. I figured that the R model has 13.5" shocks, so why not my 1200-C, same chassis exactly. The seat is a Sundowner that has been on there since 50 miles, now 22,500.
Last edited by 1200Cdriver; 11-03-2014 at 06:21 AM.
as you can see, lots of good advice here. mustang seat, r/k or streetglide shocks, and at a minimum in the front, change your fork oil. that will make a tremendous difference. if you want more travel in the front, change your dampers to some "r" model dampers and gain a couple inches in the front...or progressive sells drop in cartridges for the forks. just remember that the info offered will make the sportster more comfortable to ride but with its short wheel base, your still gonna feel some hits. you can change your risers to higher/more pullback etc. your gonna have to sit on some bikes to see what you like. lastly, do you have mid pegs...might try some forward controls. sportsters are pretty bullet proof bikes, but the moco sells what people want. it seems the low/slammed look is what is wanted. there was a time they actually had a bit of travel. good luck
Great information thus far. I just went ahead and purchased a Mustang solo seat directly from Mustang, they were extremely helpful. For those who asked, the bike is completely stock. My next two steps, contingent upon the results with the seat will be shocks, bars and fork oil. Many of the replies have said either Progressive 412's, Street Glide or Road King shocks. Unless I am missing something, it looks like the latter two will not fit my bike? My stock shocks are 11.5" from eye to eye. I would be more than happy going up to anywhere from 12.5-13.5 as I have more than enough clearance I am 5'10", 205#'s. As far as bars, it looks as if the OD is 1". I found some really inexpensive bars on JCWhitney.com, they're called "Bikemaster", but the OD is 7/8", so I don't think that will work. Any additional feedback on shocks and compatibility is greatly appreciated. If there is someone who has a Sportster Low, and has different bars, I'd like to hear your experiences. Thanks again.
Just run the bike with the new seat for a while , the bars will feel different with the new seat .....
If you need to change the bars , harley has lots of them , priced good , lots of options.
Here's a chart of different bars. http://www.sideroadcycles.com/Import...ckBarsOne.html
I used a set from a roadster , in black , that filled my needs perfectly , about $80.00 at the dealer.
Mick
Hello and welcome,
I expect everyone here has noted the problems with seats & shocks, but till we get an idea of your current setup its gonna be hit and miss.
Please post a pic of your ride so we have a starting point, sometimes people swap-out parts and say this is stock when its not.
11-03-2014, 05:36 AM
