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.