I finally found a few free moments and installed the new shocks.  At first when putting them on I tried to orient them so that the spring pre-load adjuster was on the top like the stock shocks were setup along with all others that I can remember seeing.  However this caused problems with the rebound adjuster hitting the mounting bracket on the swing arm  and wouldn’t allow any movement of the switch.  I then noticed that the sticker on the shock and the writing on the rebound was upside down so I flipped it over.  It fit perfectly now but the pre-load adjuster was on the bottom which was just a strange sight to me.  I suppose it’s that I am used to seeing a piggyback reservoir style and not a single tube setup like this.  At any rate, I got everything torqued down, cleaned her up and went for a ride.  I couldn’t do any real stress testing on them since it’s been rainy for nearly two solid weeks but it does seem to give a better ride on the short interstate jaunt I took.  I also took the time to replace the bar end mirror that fell off a couple months ago and can finally see behind me on both sides again.  Profile shot of the new gear.

Shot of the rebound adjuster.  I really need to go over this bike and replace the rusty washers.  I hate that the PO had this bike sitting outside in the weather for a couple years before I got my hands on it.

The new shocks finally showed up today and I can’t wait to get them on the bike then give it a test run.  I’m told that versus the stock shocks, these are going to transform the bike completely and that I am now going to hate the forks and will want to have those done as well.  The only thing is that these took a while to get here and I lost 20 pounds during the wait time and they are now sprung for a heavier weight than I am.  I doubt it will really affect anything however.