What a difference an inch makes!

New Progressive 412 rear shocks on the Stone. They’re all shiny and chromey and I wish I’d gotten black covers instead. The shiny chrome makes the rest of the bike look dirty. I’ll try cleaning it and see if the chrome starts looking good.

Replacing the rear suspension was surprisingly easy. It took only about 20 minutes. OK, granted that Turnsignal Tim did all the real work, but I was there and it was really straightforward.

What amazes me is that one inch shorter and it seems like my bike is a toy now. I’m going to take it up on Skyline in the morning to give it more of a chance, but I’m really amazed at how much the bike changed by using a shorter shock. I’m very very tempted to go back to the stock shocks and/or get a set of shocks that’s the same size as the stock ones.

I’ll report back after I do some more riding on it.