'14 Road King rear air shocks
#1
09-08-2020 | 03:53 PM
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'14 Road King rear air shocks
I've got a '14 Road King that has just over 10,000mi. and the air shocks seem to be too stiff. After changing the air pressure up or down I still didn't notice a lot of difference in the ride. So, I took the core out of the filler valve.... zero pressure. The ride seems a little better but it may just because I "think" it's better. Have any of you had any experience with the stock air shocks on the RK?
#2
09-08-2020 | 05:52 PM
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Joined: Jun 2017
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From: Atlantic Canada, eh
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eighteight (09-08-2020)
#4
09-08-2020 | 07:42 PM
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Joined: Jun 2017
Posts: 5,181
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From: Granville New York
I took mine off and put on the cheap progressives too. Way better than stock...no more bottoming when riding two up. I know there's alot better available but for a couple hundred bucks it's a good upgrade. My advice...throw those pieces of crap in the garbage and buy the best shocks you can.
#6
09-08-2020 | 09:04 PM
Road Warrior
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,957
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From: Madisonville, La
Make sure the shocks have full travel extension and compression. If they have full travel make sure the air tubes aren't linked or clogged. You can change/replace the shock fluid to a heavier lighter weight to suit your riding comfort. There are many YouTube's in removing the original fluid and replacing. If you still want to change out the shocks there are always plenty of the new oem hand adjustable emlulsion shocks on eBay and the forum.
#7
09-09-2020 | 07:58 AM
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From: New York
I took off the stock air shock and went with Pro Action shocks; http://www.dkcustomproducts.com/pro-...dk-pas-shk.htm
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#8
09-09-2020 | 01:14 PM
#9
09-09-2020 | 09:46 PM
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Joined: Jan 2020
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From: Colorado
Walk in the park and will set you back about $30 if you already have a vacuum pump handy (kind of much have tool to power flush the brake fluid in the brakes every year).
But lets break this down farther first off.
The springs are used to set compression tension rate, and spaces in some cases, will set bike sag as well.
The fork oil weight is used to set damping rate (how fast the shocks will move up and down).
The amount of air in the forks and shocks, is used to set final sag with rider (s) on the bike. The stock springs are set up for the correct ride sag with a 150lb ride alone and no air, then as you start to add weight to the bike, you will add air pressure to the forks and shocks to correct the ride height sag with rider(s) (look in the right hand saddle bag for the amount of air per additional lbs to the front and back to adjust the ride height per added weight over the 150lb rider weight).
So since it the dampening that you want to soften, it means you need to change the fork and shock oil to something thinner to speed up/soften the dampening rates.
The bike comes oem with 10wt oil in the front forks, and 7 weight oil in the rear shocks.
So if your looking for softer dampening in the rear shocks, then need to use a thinner oils in both the shocks and forks to keep the suspension balanced.
So on the shocks since it sounds like you are a thinner rider, would use say 5 weight fork oil for shocks, and would need to change the front fork oil out to around 7weight in forks to balance the bike back out.
Note, I'm a 250lb rider, and run 15 weight fork oil in the front air shocks, and 12 weight fork out in the rear air shocks. And yes, run air in the system to get the bike with rider(s) to set the correct sag, since again, springs are tensioned for a 150lb rider to start with.
If for say it's the bottom of shock travel stoke that is too stiff itself alone, then that is easy to resolve, since instead of the each shock having 12oz of fluid, drop the fluid down to say 10oz of the OEM 7 weight fork oil instead. The increase air volume of the shock/reduced oil level in the shock on full compression, softens the final bottom end stroke of the shocks.
Hell, could be that if it just the rear shocks on bottom of stroke is to0 stiff, too much 7 weight fork oil was added to them to begin with, or oil has debris in it to stiffen it up.
But since you do have some mileage on the shock oil, would just take the time to change the shock oil out to new fluid. Hence Harley has front fork oil duration changes, but since they did not opt to pick up replacement parts for the rear shock (honda has these since the same shocks are used on the older gold wings), never came up with a rear shock oil change duration, and oil weight to use (just sell you a new set of air shocks instead, and kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water isntead).
But lets break this down farther first off.
The springs are used to set compression tension rate, and spaces in some cases, will set bike sag as well.
The fork oil weight is used to set damping rate (how fast the shocks will move up and down).
The amount of air in the forks and shocks, is used to set final sag with rider (s) on the bike. The stock springs are set up for the correct ride sag with a 150lb ride alone and no air, then as you start to add weight to the bike, you will add air pressure to the forks and shocks to correct the ride height sag with rider(s) (look in the right hand saddle bag for the amount of air per additional lbs to the front and back to adjust the ride height per added weight over the 150lb rider weight).
So since it the dampening that you want to soften, it means you need to change the fork and shock oil to something thinner to speed up/soften the dampening rates.
The bike comes oem with 10wt oil in the front forks, and 7 weight oil in the rear shocks.
So if your looking for softer dampening in the rear shocks, then need to use a thinner oils in both the shocks and forks to keep the suspension balanced.
So on the shocks since it sounds like you are a thinner rider, would use say 5 weight fork oil for shocks, and would need to change the front fork oil out to around 7weight in forks to balance the bike back out.
Note, I'm a 250lb rider, and run 15 weight fork oil in the front air shocks, and 12 weight fork out in the rear air shocks. And yes, run air in the system to get the bike with rider(s) to set the correct sag, since again, springs are tensioned for a 150lb rider to start with.
If for say it's the bottom of shock travel stoke that is too stiff itself alone, then that is easy to resolve, since instead of the each shock having 12oz of fluid, drop the fluid down to say 10oz of the OEM 7 weight fork oil instead. The increase air volume of the shock/reduced oil level in the shock on full compression, softens the final bottom end stroke of the shocks.
Hell, could be that if it just the rear shocks on bottom of stroke is to0 stiff, too much 7 weight fork oil was added to them to begin with, or oil has debris in it to stiffen it up.
But since you do have some mileage on the shock oil, would just take the time to change the shock oil out to new fluid. Hence Harley has front fork oil duration changes, but since they did not opt to pick up replacement parts for the rear shock (honda has these since the same shocks are used on the older gold wings), never came up with a rear shock oil change duration, and oil weight to use (just sell you a new set of air shocks instead, and kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water isntead).
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bmur66 (03-24-2021)
#10
09-10-2020 | 03:19 PM
Tourer
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 495
Likes: 24
From: Hampshire, UK
Walk in the park and will set you back about $30 if you already have a vacuum pump handy (kind of much have tool to power flush the brake fluid in the brakes every year).
But lets break this down farther first off.
The springs are used to set compression tension rate, and spaces in some cases, will set bike sag as well.
The fork oil weight is used to set damping rate (how fast the shocks will move up and down).
The amount of air in the forks and shocks, is used to set final sag with rider (s) on the bike. The stock springs are set up for the correct ride sag with a 150lb ride alone and no air, then as you start to add weight to the bike, you will add air pressure to the forks and shocks to correct the ride height sag with rider(s) (look in the right hand saddle bag for the amount of air per additional lbs to the front and back to adjust the ride height per added weight over the 150lb rider weight).
So since it the dampening that you want to soften, it means you need to change the fork and shock oil to something thinner to speed up/soften the dampening rates.
The bike comes oem with 10wt oil in the front forks, and 7 weight oil in the rear shocks.
So if your looking for softer dampening in the rear shocks, then need to use a thinner oils in both the shocks and forks to keep the suspension balanced.
So on the shocks since it sounds like you are a thinner rider, would use say 5 weight fork oil for shocks, and would need to change the front fork oil out to around 7weight in forks to balance the bike back out.
Note, I'm a 250lb rider, and run 15 weight fork oil in the front air shocks, and 12 weight fork out in the rear air shocks. And yes, run air in the system to get the bike with rider(s) to set the correct sag, since again, springs are tensioned for a 150lb rider to start with.
https://youtu.be/q1upvM7udd8
If for say it's the bottom of shock travel stoke that is too stiff itself alone, then that is easy to resolve, since instead of the each shock having 12oz of fluid, drop the fluid down to say 10oz of the OEM 7 weight fork oil instead. The increase air volume of the shock/reduced oil level in the shock on full compression, softens the final bottom end stroke of the shocks.
Hell, could be that if it just the rear shocks on bottom of stroke is to0 stiff, too much 7 weight fork oil was added to them to begin with, or oil has debris in it to stiffen it up.
But since you do have some mileage on the shock oil, would just take the time to change the shock oil out to new fluid. Hence Harley has front fork oil duration changes, but since they did not opt to pick up replacement parts for the rear shock (honda has these since the same shocks are used on the older gold wings), never came up with a rear shock oil change duration, and oil weight to use (just sell you a new set of air shocks instead, and kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water isntead).
But lets break this down farther first off.
The springs are used to set compression tension rate, and spaces in some cases, will set bike sag as well.
The fork oil weight is used to set damping rate (how fast the shocks will move up and down).
The amount of air in the forks and shocks, is used to set final sag with rider (s) on the bike. The stock springs are set up for the correct ride sag with a 150lb ride alone and no air, then as you start to add weight to the bike, you will add air pressure to the forks and shocks to correct the ride height sag with rider(s) (look in the right hand saddle bag for the amount of air per additional lbs to the front and back to adjust the ride height per added weight over the 150lb rider weight).
So since it the dampening that you want to soften, it means you need to change the fork and shock oil to something thinner to speed up/soften the dampening rates.
The bike comes oem with 10wt oil in the front forks, and 7 weight oil in the rear shocks.
So if your looking for softer dampening in the rear shocks, then need to use a thinner oils in both the shocks and forks to keep the suspension balanced.
So on the shocks since it sounds like you are a thinner rider, would use say 5 weight fork oil for shocks, and would need to change the front fork oil out to around 7weight in forks to balance the bike back out.
Note, I'm a 250lb rider, and run 15 weight fork oil in the front air shocks, and 12 weight fork out in the rear air shocks. And yes, run air in the system to get the bike with rider(s) to set the correct sag, since again, springs are tensioned for a 150lb rider to start with.
https://youtu.be/q1upvM7udd8
If for say it's the bottom of shock travel stoke that is too stiff itself alone, then that is easy to resolve, since instead of the each shock having 12oz of fluid, drop the fluid down to say 10oz of the OEM 7 weight fork oil instead. The increase air volume of the shock/reduced oil level in the shock on full compression, softens the final bottom end stroke of the shocks.
Hell, could be that if it just the rear shocks on bottom of stroke is to0 stiff, too much 7 weight fork oil was added to them to begin with, or oil has debris in it to stiffen it up.
But since you do have some mileage on the shock oil, would just take the time to change the shock oil out to new fluid. Hence Harley has front fork oil duration changes, but since they did not opt to pick up replacement parts for the rear shock (honda has these since the same shocks are used on the older gold wings), never came up with a rear shock oil change duration, and oil weight to use (just sell you a new set of air shocks instead, and kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water isntead).
Do the later Road King's not use Type E in the front? I thought type E was more like a 15-20wt?
I am currently running Type in the front of my '02 Road King with progressive springs, the damping is quite fast and hard.
I am about 87kg which is 191lbs, think I should aim for a 10wt in the rear...should balance quite well with the Type E in the front.