When I am solo, I will have myself (235) and all of my gear (100 +/- including the tourpak). When I pick up my wife in Sturgis, I will probably drop some gear (they are bringing a truck out) and pick up Angie so it will probably add another 100lb. I will probably click the preload up one when I get her.

 

I was thinking the same thing... Maybe your particular bike has a problem with the air shocks and they're not performing as they should?

 

Compared to my 08 SG, I find my 09 bangs in the rear when hitting a hole, worse than my 08 did. The overall 09 ride improvements outweigh the occasional bang, but yes, it is disappointing.

 

I too think my 09 streetglide rides like ****. Run 50 in the rear just to keep it from banging. Im 275 and my wifes probably 125 so we have plenty of weight while riding but.... the ride on my 03 electraglide and my 04 screamin eagle deuce was more comfortable for us than my new "touring" bike. I'm quite disappointed in this aspect of the bike.

 

09 street glide and i to am not happy with the shocks. handles way better than my 06. i am riding with about 370lbs total and i find the bike bottoming out alot. the upside is i never had more than 35 psi. so i will try 45 to 50psi and see what happens.

 

I weigh 250 lbs and run 20 psi solo and with two up we weigh 390 lbs and run 40 psi. Never bottomed out but only have about 1000 miles on it so far.

 

I'm new to riding a HD so I thought the bottoming out was just an HD tour bike thing. I only bottom out 2 up (400 lbs and factory air pressure settings)across rail road tracks and it is annoying after paying 20k for a bike but tolerable no more than it happens. My Softail Vic never bottomed out. The Heritage I test rode didn't bottom out across tracks so I figured it was a air shock thing and knew that before buying the SG. If Victory had something other than the Jetson tour model it would had been a tough choice. Other than rail road tracks the ride is great on the SG and the bike handles as well as my old Softail did.

As far as a 08 compared to an 09 I can say a friend of mine had a 06 SG which I think has the same suspension as the 08 and he would drag his floors boards constantly in turns( in town or riding the twisties) I have drug my pegs about 5 times on my old softail and have yet to drag or even scrape my 09 SG which is a plus because that is a sound I personally don't like hearing. (Talk about a distraction in the turns) Anyway overall I am happy with the 09 SG and think you may have a problem specific to your bike or riding environment.

Sath

 

i use 20 psi in my 08 sg. ride solo, no problems. took me a while to figure out how much pressure to run in the rear. fine now though. testifer, i changed out my fork oil when installing the chrome front end with the screamin eagle heavy. huge difference. it no longer nosedives when coming to a stoplight, and i can go much further into a curve before braking.

 

08's are way different, i never had a problem with my other bike

 

I own an 08 RKC and test road an 09 RKC. My impressions of the 09 were that it felt tighter and stiffer than my 08 as well as harsher over bumps. My test route didn't allow much cornering, but I can imagine all that translates into better handling. The 08 rides much smoother over bumps and generally just feels a little softer. I think that is exactly what you would expect with the new frame/tires/setup. For how I ride my RKC, I don't really need improvements in handling and enjoy the smoother ride of my 08. Maybe they will dial it all in better for the '10 and beyond and have the best of both worlds....the new platform is very good. It's like when they first came out with the 85 C4 Corvette they over-stiffened the suspension settings so it road like a jarring buckboard...by 86 the suspension settings were all calibrated softer and the ride improved dramatically.