Manufacturer of rear shocks for the 2023 Tri Glide?

[HD120AUS]

Hi all,

Hope everybody is well.

Does anyone know who Harley-Davidson used to manufacture the rear shock absorbers on the 2023 Tri Glide?

Or would anyone know the following specifications from the standard rear shock absorbers that Harley-Davidson supply on the 2023 Tri-Glide?

shock body length

outer diameter

thread pitch for the preload adjuster

spring diameter

Alternatively if you are located in Melbourne, Australia and you have upgraded your rear shocks, could I borrow your originals for a week or so?

 

[rhino 2]

Hi all,

Hope everybody is well.

Does anyone know who Harley-Davidson used to manufacture the rear shock absorbers on the 2023 Tri Glide?

Or would anyone know the following specifications from the standard rear shock absorbers that Harley-Davidson supply on the 2023 Tri-Glide?

shock body length

outer diameter

thread pitch for the preload adjuster

spring diameter

Alternatively if you are located in Melbourne, Australia and you have upgraded your rear shocks, could I borrow your originals for a week or so?

Hey Rich..........Curiosity is killing this Cat.....What are you trying to Accomplish???

 

[My Turn]

Pretty sure they are Showa. You should be able to buy somebody's take offs steep cheap.

 

[Notgrownup]

Like above, pretty sure it’s Showa.

 

[HD120AUS]

Hey Rich..........Curiosity is killing this Cat.....What are you trying to Accomplish???

Hi rhino 2,

I am researching and investigating whether I can utilise the factory Harley-Davidson remote preload adjuster and accompanying hydraulic mechanism from the top of the standard set of trike shocks and adapt it all to work with a higher quality set of aftermarket twin shocks from the likes of JRI, Nitron, Ohlins etc.

It appears that the only set of twin shocks I can find with the remote preload adjuster are these cheap quality units that come standard on the trike.

As the others have posted it appears they are Showa branded, and despite me just learning that they are Showa branded I am still struggling to find all the specifications of the shocks.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Hi rhino 2,

I am researching and investigating whether I can utilise the factory Harley-Davidson remote preload adjuster and accompanying hydraulic mechanism from the top of the standard set of trike shocks and adapt it all to work with a higher quality set of aftermarket twin shocks from the likes of JRI, Nitron, Ohlins etc.

It appears that the only set of twin shocks I can find with the remote preload adjuster are these cheap quality units that come standard on the trike.

As the others have posted it appears they are Showa branded, and despite me just learning that they are Showa branded I am still struggling to find all the specifications of the shocks.

Or you could get a set of quality shocks that dynamically adjust. See them HERE.

Video on the subject of auto adjusting shocks that dynamically adjust for riding conditions.

btw, I have a take-off pair of OEM's that I was going to put up for sale on ebay. We're about 9700 miles apart, or I'd welcome you to inspect them for a week or so.

Kevin

 

[My Turn]

I think he is looking for easy spring preload adjustment, not damping adj......

 

[HD120AUS]

Or you could get a set of quality shocks that dynamically adjust. See them HERE.

Video on the subject of auto adjusting shocks that dynamically adjust for riding conditions.

btw, I have a take-off pair of OEM's that I was going to put up for sale on ebay. We're about 9700 miles apart, or I'd welcome you to inspect them for a week or so.

Kevin

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your reply and thanks for your offer to come and inspect the Harley shocks you have, the 9700 miles is a little bit of an issue though!

First of all I must congratulate you on your company, all of the research, design and development that you have done and are continually doing and making components in the USA that we can trust. You are making everybody's ride safer and more enjoyable so please keep up the great work.

I watched your youtube video and love that your 13" inch shocks have 4" inch of travel which is identical travel to that of your 14" inch shocks. May I ask is the reason people choose 14" inch shocks over the 13" inch shocks so as to make the steering feel lighter or is there some other reason I am not aware of to increase the rear height by an extra inch without increasing the working travel length?

Your Inertia Active Suspension is a fantastic feature to have, adapting a remote hydraulic preload adjuster to these shocks would be the icing on the cake for me if it were available.

May I ask would you know the shock body length, outer diameter, thread pitch for the preload adjuster and spring diameter for either the NextGen shocks you supply and the standard Harley shocks? Have you ever considered adapting the Harley remote hydraulic preload adjuster onto your shocks as I would love to adjust the preload this way with your brand of shocks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-NVrRF9554&t=146s

Considering the trike is one of the most difficult motorcycles to adjust the preload on due to the lack of easy access to the rear shocks, surely there is a demand for remote preload adjustment with a set of coil over shocks?

I have done a lot of research in finding shocks with a remote hydraulic preload adjuster, the only thing that caught my attention is the Wilbers Nivomat suspension made in Germany. It is a fully automatic system that adjusts the height back to the pre-determined level if you add a passenger or luggage, check them out at https://www.wilbers.de/produkte/federbeinprodukte/wilbers-ldc-nivomat/wilbers-apart.html Don't forget to translate the webpage to english, only issue is they don't have these shocks for the trike and can't develop them for the trike as the lower mounting point of the shocks on the trike is past the rear axle and they claim for this reason the "Nivomat" feature won't work.

I don't want to go down the road of air suspension from the likes of Legends, Arnott, Platinum etc just to have easier preload adjustment, as I don't want to introduce an air compressor, air lines and additional switches on the handlebars.

I look forward to your response and please have a great day.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your reply and thanks for your offer to come and inspect the Harley shocks you have, the 9700 miles is a little bit of an issue though!

First of all I must congratulate you on your company, all of the research, design and development that you have done and are continually doing and making components in the USA that we can trust. You are making everybody's ride safer and more enjoyable so please keep up the great work.

I watched your youtube video and love that your 13" inch shocks have 4" inch of travel which is identical travel to that of your 14" inch shocks. May I ask is the reason people choose 14" inch shocks over the 13" inch shocks so as to make the steering feel lighter or is there some other reason I am not aware of to increase the rear height by an extra inch without increasing the working travel length?

Your Inertia Active Suspension is a fantastic feature to have, adapting a remote hydraulic preload adjuster to these shocks would be the icing on the cake for me if it were available.

May I ask would you know the shock body length, outer diameter, thread pitch for the preload adjuster and spring diameter for either the NextGen shocks you supply and the standard Harley shocks? Have you ever considered adapting the Harley remote hydraulic preload adjuster onto your shocks as I would love to adjust the preload this way with your brand of shocks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-NVrRF9554&t=146s

Considering the trike is one of the most difficult motorcycles to adjust the preload on due to the lack of easy access to the rear shocks, surely there is a demand for remote preload adjustment with a set of coil over shocks?

I have done a lot of research in finding shocks with a remote hydraulic preload adjuster, the only thing that caught my attention is the Wilbers Nivomat suspension made in Germany. It is a fully automatic system that adjusts the height back to the pre-determined level if you add a passenger or luggage, check them out at https://www.wilbers.de/produkte/federbeinprodukte/wilbers-ldc-nivomat/wilbers-apart.html Don't forget to translate the webpage to english, only issue is they don't have these shocks for the trike and can't develop them for the trike as the lower mounting point of the shocks on the trike is past the rear axle and they claim for this reason the "Nivomat" feature won't work.

I don't want to go down the road of air suspension from the likes of Legends, Arnott, Platinum etc just to have easier preload adjustment, as I don't want to introduce an air compressor, air lines and additional switches on the handlebars.

I look forward to your response and please have a great day.

Richard,

Thanks for your kind words.

About 7 years ago we came up with the concept of a 14" shock for the HD Trikes.

We partnered with PA on them, and for a long time they were the best shocks available for the HD Trikes...not only because of the extra travel afforded by the 14" length, but also the valving.

Since then many other companies have started making 13.5" and 14" shocks.

A couple of years ago we spoke with PA about wanting to make an even better 14" shock for the Trikes. They were not in a position to do that.

So we spent a couple of years developing a better shock on our own (with some help from a long-time shock builder).

In the end we came up with an even better 14" shock. NEXGEN™

We then went to make 12 & 13" NexGen's for Sportys, Dynas and Baggers. While doing that we discovered, because of the unique valving system (IAS) we could actually get 4" of Travel out of a 13" shock.

The 13" NexGen Trike Series Shocks provide just as good a ride quality as the 14" NexGen's. The only difference is that there is not quite as much oil in the reservoir of the 13" as the 14's. Theoretically that means that the oil on the 13's will wear out a little sooner than on the 14's.

If we were doing everything from scratch, knowing what we know now, we would not even make a 14" of the TSS. The 13's with the Convertible Comfort Lift™ with the 13" will hold the Trike just as level as the 14's.

The only measurement I can give you on the OEM coil overs that you asked about is that the diameter of the spring is 2 7/8".

Here are the measurements on the NexGen shocks-

body length= 7" (main body not including top)outer diameter= 1.625" (this is diameter of above.)thread for adjuster= acme 1 5/8"-18spring diameter= 2.5"

Another nice thing about the NexGen Trike Series Shocks™ is that the pre-load really does not need to be adjusted. There is no significant benefit to adjusting the pre-load on them, once we set them up per your info. The only situation where you would want to adjust the pre-load on the NG TSS is if you were having a big difference in weight, well over 100 lbs.

When we get the weights of the rider, passenger, luggage, trailer, % of time riding in each different configuration, we set the shock up to be best for your situation, and unless some weight changes significantly from the info you originally gave us, there is never a need to adjust the pre-load.

I hope the above info is useful to you.

Ride Free,

Kevin

 

[HD120AUS]

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your latest reply, it is very detailed of which I appreciate and thankyou for providing the history and insight into the development of your NEXGEN shocks which can be purchased from https://www.dkcustomproducts.com/dk...eries-shockstm-for-harley-davidson-trikes.htm

If I am unable to install the Harley hydraulic preload adjustment mechanism onto a set of aftermarket shocks I may very well decide to ride on a set of NEXGEN shocks.

I will be ordering a convertible comfort lift off you soon along with a couple of other little accessories for my 2023 Tri Glide which is due late May/early June in Australia.

Also thanks for the data and specs of the NEXGEN shocks and spring diameter of the Harley shocks.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for your latest reply, it is very detailed of which I appreciate and thankyou for providing the history and insight into the development of your NEXGEN shocks which can be purchased from https://www.dkcustomproducts.com/dk...eries-shockstm-for-harley-davidson-trikes.htm

If I am unable to install the Harley hydraulic preload adjustment mechanism onto a set of aftermarket shocks I may very well decide to ride on a set of NEXGEN shocks.

I will be ordering a convertible comfort lift off you soon along with a couple of other little accessories for my 2023 Tri Glide which is due late May/early June in Australia.

Also thanks for the data and specs of the NEXGEN shocks and spring diameter of the Harley shocks.

Glad to help, and Congrats on your soon to be delivered Tri Glide! :clapping:

Appreciate your business, and always feel free to email with any questions. Unfortunately, I am not on the forum as much as I would like to be, but emails are always answered quickly, never more than 1 business day.

Ride Free,

Kevin

 

[HD120AUS]

Hi all,

As an update it is becoming quite a challenge to find a set of aftermarket shocks that can utilise the OEM Harley-Davidson remote hydraulic preloader function allowing the adjustment of preload by just taking off the seat and adjusting a dial in the same fashion as the 2020 onwards OEM shocks.

I have done a fair bit of research on many brands of shocks and the NEXGEN shocks from DK Customs with their Active Inertia feature is a great thing to have for Tri Glide owners. I have also found out that Wilbers from Germany may consider building a set of 540 TS rear shocks using independent remote hydraulic preload adjusters which would be a little more tedious than a single remote hydraulic preload adjuster.

I also liked how Super Shox have the capability to be mounted upside down and adjust the preload without any specific tools making it probably the easiest set of shocks to manually adjust the preload for shocks installed on these Tri Glides.

But the biggest news to date was something I just found out in the past 24 hours is that OHLINS have always supplied the HD159 STX36 shocks to Tri Glide owners and was always a set of shocks developed specifically for the baggers and not for the Tri Glide.

OHLINS are now developing a set of rear shocks specifically for Tri Glide owners and will have something special to announce when they are released, they haven't given a release date yet but it is in the pipe works.

So my head boggles between what is available today which is the NEXGEN vs Super Shox vs JRI vs Wilbers and all are great options and excellent upgrades over the standard rubbish Harley supplied on the Tri Glides or do I wait for the new OHLINS product release specific for Tri Glide owners.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Hi all,

As an update it is becoming quite a challenge to find a set of aftermarket shocks that can utilise the OEM Harley-Davidson remote hydraulic preloader function allowing the adjustment of preload by just taking off the seat and adjusting a dial in the same fashion as the 2020 onwards OEM shocks.

I have done a fair bit of research on many brands of shocks and the NEXGEN shocks from DK Customs with their Active Inertia feature is a great thing to have for Tri Glide owners. I have also found out that Wilbers from Germany may consider building a set of 540 TS rear shocks using independent remote hydraulic preload adjusters which would be a little more tedious than a single remote hydraulic preload adjuster.

I also liked how Super Shox have the capability to be mounted upside down and adjust the preload without any specific tools making it probably the easiest set of shocks to manually adjust the preload for shocks installed on these Tri Glides.

But the biggest news to date was something I just found out in the past 24 hours is that OHLINS have always supplied the HD159 STX36 shocks to Tri Glide owners and was always a set of shocks developed specifically for the baggers and not for the Tri Glide.

OHLINS are now developing a set of rear shocks specifically for Tri Glide owners and will have something special to announce when they are released, they haven't given a release date yet but it is in the pipe works.

So my head boggles between what is available today which is the NEXGEN vs Super Shox vs JRI vs Wilbers and all are great options and excellent upgrades over the standard rubbish Harley supplied on the Tri Glides or do I wait for the new OHLINS product release specific for Tri Glide owners.

Only way your going to know for sure which is best is to test them all. There literally is no other way.

That said, all the ones you listed are MUCH BETTER than the stock shocks.

Here is a Comparison Report LINK of many of them, as graded by 6 different riders.

Kevin