In an earlier post, I outlined some catalog-surfing I did to find longer shocks for the longer Guzzi swingarm. Sadly, while the length and spring-rate were right, the damping rate was way too high.
The result was a rear end that lost traction under throttle when hitting bumps, crashed over bumps so hard that it burnt out the rear taillight bulb, and was just generally very unpleasant on anything but the most perfect road.
My goal was to get the vehicle on the ground as soon as possible so I could figure out what my real problems were; so to that end, it was a worthy endeavor as it got me moving. However, time to find a real rear shock situation.
I initially searched for custom rear shock builders (ie. Ohlins, Ikon, Fox) and there is one big problem – the 15″ (390mm) free-length (eye-to-eye) is fairly rare, and most Harleys and others are looking for shocks *shorter* than the stock 13″ – and to find longer ones was a real crap shoot. And Ohlins are just unreasonably expensive.
That led me back to Hagon, the guys who make the front shocks, as I saw they had damping adjustable twin mono-tube rear shocks.
https://www.hagon-shocks.co.uk/
A gentleman named Dave responded, and was extremely knowledgeable and very willing to help with this project. They have just recently released a 390mm replacement shock for vintage trail bikes (ie. Triumph scramblers), and have a good spring rate and adjustable damping.
We went with a 53mm spring diameter, as a standard 65mm would hit the final drive-housing. Only downside of the smaller diameter springs is that they can “bow” when compressed, and that would cause them to rub on the damper body and scratch the paint. Dave had a solution and fitted some PTFE/ABS tube protectors, and included a spare set for safe keeping.
Bolted right in, and the ride quality is instantly better – drastic and vast improvement, for a very reasonable price.
