GL1500 Rear Replacement Spring/Shock

[XJSRider]

I've been searching for hours and no luck I can't be the first person in this position.

The air suspension on my 1500 works. The back end feels sloppy and mushy even at 55 psi. I would like to replace the coilover shock only. Progressive 450 and 416 are no longer available. They have a 412 now but it comes in a set and you lose your air suspension.

I would like to replace just the OEM coilover, preferably something with a heavier spring. I would like to stiffen up the rear end but still be able to adjust preload/ride height with the air suspension. Can anyone help? Thanks.

[XJSRider]

So my update here...

As we know 450 and 416 are discontinued.

I called up Cyclemax and was told now that they believe the 412s will be discontinued soon as there is no date given for when Progressive will have more. Cyclemax had reached out to Progressive and offered to buy 100 of the 416 units, essentially asking them to manufacture a run for them exclusively, but Progressive never got back to them. Cyclemax was unable to suggest a traditional coil over shock to work with the stock air shock.

This link for Hagon Shocks shows the British division makes a monoshock for gl1500 that lets you retain air suspension:

http://www.hagon-shocks.co.uk/catalog/p ... tno=M61105

It is not listed on the American version of the site. My next move is to talk to them and see what they have... good opportunity to get custom spring rates. Payload on my bike will range from about 175lbs (me) to 375 (me and gf and fully loaded bags). Ideally Air shock pressure with just me around 5psi then dial up to 50 for when fully loaded and get good suspension feel at any weight. I want to keep the air suspension to be able to adjust preload without ripping bags off the bike.

Next concern is my ability to service the air shock. There are conflicting reports as to whether or not it is rebuildable. Parts Fische:
https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda ... k-absorber

Oil Seal (91257-KE8-003) is still available. Ring Backup and Ring stopper are not. I have not had my shock apart but these unavailable parts look like they are metal and would not need replacement. The assembly that appears to go in where the air line attaches contains a lot of little o rings, they are not available, but I'm sure could be found at McMaster-Carr. I know people can change the fluid in these. HAS ANYONE REBUILT A STOCK AIR SHOCK? Some say it can be done, some say it can't, I haven't seen anyone post that they actually have done it. Oil seal seems to be the only thing that would wear out, why sell the part if it is not serviceable?

I will update what I find about the Hagon shock. If anyone has info to add please chime in. All the posts I find on the subject are from the glory days when Progressive made air shocks. There are so many 1500s still on the road why aren't more people making suspension components? It is frustrating. Thanks.

[Elmobile]

I looked into replacing my rear shock on my 1990 sidecar unit late April. I contacted the distributor for Hagon in NA. They are located in Nova Scotia but also have a warehouse in Maine. They were very helpful in providing me with lots of info.
They can be contacted at the following address:
British Cycle Supply Compagny
Importers, suppliers, & wholesale distributors of parts and accessories for pre1988 British Motorcycles.
604 Davison Street, RR3, Wolfville, NS, Canada, B4P2R3
In Canada call 902-542-7478
and
50 Connecticut Rd, Loring Commerce Centre, Limestone, ME, USA 04750
USA and International call 201-880-0366
http://www.britcycle.com
Please reply to: info@britcycle.com
Fax: (902)542-7479


See below an extract from their reply... All $ figures are in CAD dollars. You would have to contact them to have the US prices!

Thanks for your interest in Hagon suspension for your motorcycle. No reason to have anything shipped to you from England when we have air freight shipments arriving in Nova Scotia all the time from the Hagon factory. . Normally I would invite you to visit us in Wolfville, but our parts pickup counter is closed due to the virus situation, and in any case, our prices include shipping to us from UK, post to your door from our warehouse, and all taxes.
I would like to confirm a TOTAL price to your door of CAN$672.75 for the Hagon M61105 Monoshock for your 1990 GL1500 SE Honda Gold Wing sidecar rig, and would check when I placed the order order to see if Hagon recommended going with a stiffer spring rate due to the sidecar. It would be helpful to get an idea of your weight and estimated load and percentage of time loaded, if possible.
If the factory feels it might be better for you to buy a pair of shocks instead, I will let you know, but as your compressor is working, I think you are best sticking to the original configuration. Pricing for twin shocks is as follows, though:
Standard Road Shocks with 3 position spring preload adjustment, black body/chrome or black spring ( stainless body available at additional cost) $343.85 pr. TOTAL
2810 series, also has 10 position damping adjustment $557.75 PR. total, ditto on stainless body
NITRO series, all stainless and alloy, factory rebuildable, has same damping adjustment as 2810 but infinite spring preload adjustments, $936.10 pr. TOTAL
All Hagon shocks come with a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty, and a spring adjustment tool.
Mark Appleton
British Cycle Supply Company
Established 1977
Warehouses in Canada and the USA.

I have not dealt with them yet but the Canadian store is located near where I live. They have a very good reputation among the community!
Cheers,
Hope this help...

[XJSRider]

Thanks for the response! It seems like you posted contact info for a distributor. I'll give them a call if my email direct to Hagon does not get a response.

[WingAdmin]

I have used custom Hagon shocks before on a build, where I needed a specific height/travel and a specific weight capacity that they did not have a shock for. They built them to my specs, and it worked amazingly well. They shipped them from the UK.

[oakback]

HAS ANYONE REBUILT A STOCK AIR SHOCK? Some say it can be done, some say it can't, I haven't seen anyone post that they actually have done it. Oil seal seems to be the only thing that would wear out, why sell the part if it is not serviceable?

I rebuilt my air shock recently, but I'm currently in the same position as you. I'd really like to replace my coil shock, as it still feels terrible with a passenger on the rear.

I replaced the oil seal and used the backup ring and stopper ring. The backup ring is solid metal, it doesn't look like a swear item. The stopper ring is, from what I can tell, some kind of very stiff spring steel. I'm no metallurgist, so take that with a grain of salt. But it doesn't look like a wear item either. It was very difficult to remove the stopper ring. I felt very confident in reusing both of these items.

I also took apart the compressor and cleaned out the crumbly foam filter stuff, and cleaned up and oiled the tiny compressor. I also had a local tube-and-hose shop rebuild new air hoses for me with modern banjo fittings (he's open to doing mail orders if anyone needs it).

It seems to work fine, except that my PSI won't get very high, according to the LCD screen anyway. But I can definitely adjust the pressure, and use the "output" air (albeit at a incredibly slow rate of inflation, borderline useless compared to cheap 12v inflater you can get anywhere). The lower air shock bushing does not exist as an off-the-shelf item you can buy. I improvised (read where someone else did this) and pressed a PVC pipe segment in its place. Seems to work fine I guess?

Anyways, I'm curious to see what you end up getting for the spring shock. I'm going to be riding to Daytona Biketoberfest with my wife and luggage, and it would be great to not worry about bottoming out on hard bumps.

[XJSRider]

Here is response I got:

Hello,

Our mono shock unit for this application is designed to replace the LH side shock unit, and will work in conjunction with your Air compressor system fitted to the RH side of the bike.

Costs are £249.58GBP + £60.00GBP for shipping direct to you in the U.S.

To process an order for you, please forward the following details via email or telephone :-


Full name:
Contact number:
Card holder address:
Delivery address: (if different to above)
Rider weight:
Passenger weight:
Amount of 2 up riding:
Card details: (please note we do not accept AMEX or PayPal).

Please allow approx. 10 – 12 working days for build & dispatch to you.

Regards

Hagon Sales Team

+44 (0) 208 502 6222
----------------------------------------------------
Works out to about 400 USD to my door, I'm going to go for it. Need to clarify with them my riding will be about 25% solo, 50% 2 up, 25% 2 up with luggage.

[oakback]

I see that the Progressive 412 is still available. What's the difference from the other Progressive shocks? Is it spring rate/weight rating?

[XJSRider]

412 is designed to replace stock coil over and stock air shock with (2) 412s. You lose air suspension. You need to set preload manually. It is fine if you always ride with the same amount of weight on the bike but a PITA to adjust if your payload varies. The guys at cyclemax think 412 may be discontinued. Out of stock at Progressive maybe a distributor still has a couple hanging around.

[CWN]

These might work for you ?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/YSS-Duo-Shock- ... 3088006257

[XJSRider]

I've heard good things about YSS shocks used on smaller bikes. This particular setup looks like you lose the air shock so it is a non starter for my situation. Good option for someone looking to replace a failed air shock with standard coilovers.

[XJSRider]

I ordered the Hagon shock. Had them setup solo rider at 190 lbs which covers me, my gear, a bunch of extra chrome bits PO put on the bike and basic tools. For passenger weight, my lady is 130 soaking wet and suited up plus 50 lb luggage allowance so max payload will be at 370 lbs.

They say that normally they set it up for zero psi in air shock to accommodate solo rider, I asked that they work the spring rate so that at 190 I need to have around 10 psi in the shock so I can soften the ride when cruising solo if I want. Then plenty of capacity in airshock for when 2 up.

Coming from sportbike world I would rather have the ride a little hard than soft if it had to be off in one way or the other. Plan to drag peg pretty frequently on this thing on backroads.

Excited to see how it will handle, especially with new progressive forks, rebuit calipers and masters and stainless lines. Bike is all torn apart now, still need to pull UJoint, fluids and lube on drive line, mount new tires and rebuild from forks. Going through the whole bike putting in like 2 grand of parts but it should run like new when I'm done. I'll post up some pics when it comes in and do a review in about 3 weeks when I get it all back together.

[XJSRider]

This sucker came in the mail today. They quoted me 2 weeks to fab and 1 week to deliver. Had some issues with my card getting declined (fraud protection) which with the time difference caused a couple days delay. Overall it was about 2.5 weeks to fab, shipped on Thursday was here on Monday morning. Came out to about $400 bucks to my door. The spring rate was based on my weight/passenger weight/luggage weight and the preload is very adjustable. Will need to play with it to get the correct suspension sag. I need to do some research but I believe you want about 1/3 total travel to happen when you sit on the bike. Typing that it seems like a lot. Like I said I need to do some research. There is a valve as well to adjust the dampening. Hopefully I can get the brake line thing sorted and check out how it rides soon. Got the new CV joint/boot/driveshaft/final drive put back on yesterday. Man I had some choice words to say fighting with that boot.

[Graham B]

I've got the prototype Hagon rear shock on my 1990 Wing. They had my bike for a week so they could measure, setup and test. That was six years ago. It gives a much firmer ride which is not to eveyone's taste but that does mean I can scare some of my sports bike friends when they see my Wing doing things they don't expect a Wing to do!

[Thegonads]

I ordered a custom rear mono-shock for my Suzuki GSK1100EFE several years ago from Hagon UK, they were excellent in all aspects, I would recommend Hagon to anyone.
The original Honda shock on my 2004 GL1800 with EZS Monro Lux sidecar is working fine, now I have topped up the pre-load oil.

[trike lady]

If you can find a decent set of used HD air shocks from an Electra-Glide you may have a winner, they are made by Showa. Measure your present shock eye to eye and then the HD one.

[wezx]

I’m still seeing 416’s available on eBay and elsewhere and Progressive still lists them on their website which is strange...? I wonder why they would quit making them? Seems like just Goldwing owners alone would be buying them in numbers to justify their continued production...maybe not?

[4given]

I’m still seeing 416’s available on eBay and elsewhere and Progressive still lists them on their website which is strange...?

As near as I can tell all the 416‘s on eBay are Harley Davidson specific. They won’t work on a GL 1500. The 416‘s that are(were) made for a Goldwing are 1633‘s.

[wezx]

I’m still seeing 416’s available on eBay and elsewhere and Progressive still lists them on their website which is strange...?

As near as I can tell all the 416‘s on eBay are Harley Davidson specific. They won’t work on a GL 1500. The 416‘s that are(were) made for a Goldwing are 1633‘s.

Ah...ok...makes sense now, thanks!

[XJSRider]

First ride with the hagon… Set from the factory, 0 psi in air shock, just me on the bike and no plastics or saddle bags, felt like a nice firm ride. Honestly I would like the ability to soften it JUST a touch, so I am going to dial down the valving and see how that goes. Will most likely reduce preload just a bit. Compared to the sloppy mess I had before it is for sure an improvement.

With the added weight of the rest of the bike and tools, I think a touch of pressure in the air shock will be good for just me and I can dial up the pressure when the lady is on the back.

It is not dialed in yet but looking like very positive results. I'm honestly shocked at how good it is right out of the box with zero preload or dampening adjustments. Hagon was great to work with. Only issue I had during install is the bushings were very tight (I suppose that is a good thing). A touch of grease helped them go in. There was a tube on the bottom eye that acted as a spacer in the OEM setup, I did not need it with the Hagon. The shock can only install one way which made it pretty idiot proof. Just make sure when you mount the shock the allen screw for the dampening adjustment faces away from the bike so you can access it!

[Graham B]

The Hagon does give a very firm ride and you will feel more of the road. That gives me more confidence because I can feel what's going on. I've also fitted Hagon's progressive fork springs. My Wing now scares the pocket rocket racers because my Wing now does things that Wing's aren't meant to do - especially when it comes to corners.