My wife has a 07 Sportster 1200L. She's so happy about her bike but she felt really uncomfortable on long rides. We tried several spring preload setups, but if we use little preload the shocks bottom out very easily; on the other hand, with great preload the bike feels "too hard" and every pothole is really annoying.
She didn't want to replace the stock seat with a more comfortable one (she likes the look of the stock seat) so I took her bike and had a set of Ohlins shocks installed. It's the 36E model. They're emulsified (gas and oil are mixed together) and come in several lenghts, including the stock length of 1200L shocks (305 mm I believe). So the bike height is unchanged. They come with black springs, which is a pity because my wife's bike is black with lots of chrome. But she has saddlebags on both sides which completely cover the shocks so she didn't mind that much.
At the same time, we had the fork springs replaced with Hyperpro springs. I have been told Hyperpro is a Dutch company, springs come with a specific fork oil to be used with the springs.
When our dealer had installed the new stuff, I got the bike and rode back home.
Hey the bike rode FANTASTIC!!
It was VERY comfortable (which was the issue my wife was mainly concerned) but what really surprised me was how nice the ride was. Cornering was way better than before, and so was braking. We were looking for comfort but we also got performance. What impressed me was that the suspensions now are plush, but never bottom out. Never.
Certainly this is the best upgraded she ever had on her bike and if we could predict that we would have done this before Stage 1 (SE a/c, SE mufflers and SERT).
Yes Ohlins are expensive but as always you get what you pay for.

Stefano - Italy

 

Great info. Thanks!

 

thanks for the review. the sportster shocks are junk. im planning on upgrading this winter.