Take a bit of time and look at this website at your leisure. From perusing the HD Forum website hundreds of times I gather that 90% of our Ultra riders (including me) are dissatisfied with their rear suspensions whether stock or aftermarket, whether air or not: too bumpy, bottoming, no sweet spot, or just plain uncomfortable on long rides whatever the complaint.

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Suspension.html

This is enlightening, but fails to give me the solution for what I need to do to get my Ultra to ride like a Cadillac. I do not want to feel the damn road. I am too old to want to feel the damn road. If I wanted that I would have bought a rice burner.

I ride a 2006 UC with an aftermarket air ride. It is NOT lowered.

 

I don't know if the ride you seek is available. I think I have gotten the forks tamed with a combination of Progressive standard height springs and Ricor Intiminators. The Ricor product took the harshness out of the bumps and the springs react to the road accurately.
HD rear shocks are a joke. I've tried Progressive 440s and liked them, although they can have a hard top-out. I now ride Works shocks and they ride better than the 440s. I'm not looking for a Cadillac so I can't tell you that they are what you are looking for. They are more on the sporty side.

Good luck.

 

you want your bike to ride like a caddy? simple, go ride a sportster for a couple of weeks, then get back on your bike. problem solved....

 

Beemervet.......I have the Ricor Intiminators with the stock HD springs.
also Ricor in the rear.

The ride is definitely sports bike like, but very solid and stable both in tight turns of rough pavement as well as high speed sweepers with rough pavement. You can certainly feel the road, but very, very stable and responsive. In normal "touring" the front seems a little harsh.

Did you use progressive wound springs or straight windings......and did you do the valve/springs at the same time or one at a time to see the difference in just the springs or valves ?.........(sorry about the run-on question).

The stock set up is "sorta" Cadillac......but it nose dived like crazy during heavy breaking, wallows in corners and bottoms out. Just tying to find a fine line between the two. I will settle on the sport bike ride feel for my personal tastes.

With a 900+ lb bike I do not think both worlds are possible.

 

True!!!

 

Works shocks I may have to try them as I also think the stock shocks are bad.
I was going to try the Progressive 440s but may hold off. I hope your infor works for me.

 

I have installed Progressive springs in all my bikes since I discovered them, around 1980, as well as every front end I've worked on. $60.00, major bang for the buck.
The Intiminators I installed this spring, and wish they made them years ago.

I set up my suspensions to have a "sport/touring" feel.

 

Give Brian a call at RICOR. Tell him your normal riding weight and how you usually ride and what the majority of the road conditions you ride on are. He will tune the shock specifically for you. We can give you a Caddy ride, with Intiminators in the front and tuned rear shocks just for you. However with a Caddy ride, you will have the potential to bottom out occasionally on the big hits when they do come up.
Hal

 

Quote:
"This is enlightening, but fails to give me the solution for what I need to do to get my Ultra to ride like a Cadillac. I do not want to feel the damn road. I am too old to want to feel the damn road. If I wanted that I would have bought a rice burner.

I ride a 2006 UC with an aftermarket air ride. It is NOT lowered"

The problem w/ ride is mostly from the high unsprung mass (wheels, tires, rotors, calipers, etc.), or more precisely the sprung-to-unsprung mass ratio. If you lighten the wheels, it'll ride better (lowers the dynamic force from moving suspension masses that are going into the frame). Or, if you increase the bike load by adding a passenger, cargo, tools, etc., it'll ride better (higher mass resists/dampens this dynamic force). Beyond that, the saddle is the last defence against road shock.
You can go to softer springs (on aftermarket shocks) plus longer shock travel in the back, where most of the bad ride is comming from. The longer travel allows the use of a softer spring w/o alot bottoming.
If you have airshocks (w/ internal springs), the softest ride you can get is w/ a minimal amount of air pressure that yields a minimal amount of shock bottoming.
I personally feel the best improvement in ride quality (comfort) comes from a suspension saddle. I had a police bike w/ the air ride saddle, and it was great. I didn't know just how great is was until I replaced it w/ a big Mustang saddle for 2-up touring. I now use a H-D hammock saddle on my '09 RK, and it has made the biggest change in ride comfort (reducing road shock).
BTW, you have a more comfortable ride w/ your '06 than folks w/ the '09-up baggers due to their massive suspension weights.

 

Traxxon ak-20 front end.....about 1200.00.....give Howard a shout he knows suspensions.