We all know that the suspension on the sportsters is pretty terrible. I have just purchased a set of RK shocks for the rear and I am now looking to upgrade the front suspension. I was pretty set on getting the progressive springs, but after doing some research, a lot of people have added the Ricor Intiminators as well saying its the best combo. Well, if you consider the price of both the progressive springs and the intiminators, your at the $300 mark. For roughly the same price, is it better to go with the monotube cartridge kit or the springs and the intiminators? Anyone have any experience with the monotube kit? Or should I be looking at other options? I have heard nothing but great reviews for the springs and intiminators. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

No one?

 

If you do not throw away the rock hard spec tires first, you are just putting a bandaid on the problem.

Start from the ground up is what I tell evryone I know if you want a better ride. OEM spec tires no matter the brand are hard and way too heavy. The hardness makes it a rough ride and the suspension needs to deal with tire weight along with trying to keep the ride smooth.

My current rear tire is half the weight of the OEM tire and no where near as hard. A real tire along with a preload adjusted to my weight and the ride is 100% better.

Get some real tires first, then suspension.

 

Street glide shocks went on the rear of my iron first, then new metzler me888s and a few days after that, progressive front springs. Long story short, it's a new bike. I looked at the monotubes and decided I didn't want to tear the entire front end apart to install them or spend the extra cash.

 

Looking to improve my ride and a lot of riders around me said same thing. Start with the tires first.

 

I agree with Dusty about tyres, although the Michelins on my SuperLow are quite decent. Try some Avons on your Iron.

However turning to your forks, don't use progressive rate springs, use single rate ones matched to your weight. I have Race Tech in two of my bikes and Emulators in my Sporty, Intiminators in my Glide. I can't recommend the Emulators and it is too early to judge the Intiminators.

A feature of installing new springs is setting sag. You will probably find with your Iron, as I did with my SuperLow, that when you sit on your bike more than half the total available travel is taken up. Restoring sag to the correct 1/3rd of total travel will raise your front end a little as well as giving you more stroke to ride on.

 

I couldn't agree more with tires making the biggest difference, if you have the stock D401s and switch to a more modern/premium tire like metzler, michelin, avon, etc it will handle like a whole new ride, make sure you have appropriate pressures per tire spec. Regarding the progressive springs, not that I disagree w/ Mr. Brown just had a different experience. Progressive part # 11-1527 (about $80) with the included spacer not cut gave me just over 1.5" of sag on my 2010 iron, just about perfect in my opinion. They rarely bottom out as opposed to consistently w/ the stock springs and do not dive to full compression every time I stop. The best part is how well they feel planted over sketchy pavement especially in turns. For the money HD air shocks and progressive springs work in my cost/benefit mind and I'm not sure if paying twice as much or more for another option would yield that much more of a benefit.