bonZa
Street Tracker
I've been thinking for sometime to replace the aging stock Kayaba shocks on my Bonneville and finally decided on a set of Hagon Nitros with silver anodised parts. according to the UK web site they are available in four colours, blue, gold, silver and black but US sites say two of the colours have been discontinued. only black and silver are now available
I could have bought them from the UK but when going through the motions of purchasing, Hagon UK do not make any mention of rider weight etc, whereas the US sites have this option. so in the end ordered them through BC and they were delivered here to Australia in a few days. apparently the Hagons have different spring ratings dependant upon the weight of the rider and for me weighing 175LBS a spring rate of 20 Kg is fitted. what does the 20Kg means? stuffed if I know as next to the 20 Kgs is 110 LBS, and the two do not compute as 1 Kg = 2.2 LB.
they come in a nice box and have 'Made in England' printed on the end
and once fitted look good.
initial response was how firm they felt compared to the original, no bounce at all, so went on a 50 mile ride to get a feel of them. they felt hard and there was only about four threads above the castellated nut to ease off some pre-load.
the next day went on a long ride purposely picking twisty roads with a lot of surface irregularities that my bike struggled with in the past. also tested a lot of settings on the shocks. there is a thumb adjuster at the bottom, to increase dampening and firm it up you turn the adjuster to the + indicator and to soften, turn adhuster to the opposite direction to the - indicator. this makes a noticeable difference and I tried all sorts of settings. plus played around with the pre-load. a C spanner is supplied for the castellated nut, but you need a 2.5mm allan key too.
I backed off the nut in order to see if it would soften the ride up but didn't, the bike just didn't feel right so oddly enough found the best setting for me was an extra 2 turns of preload and with the dampers set midway. the extra turns of pre-load didnt seem to make it much firmer, but gave it better traction
previously with the old shocks, turning and leaning fast on a tight bend with a few bumps on the surface, the rear end used to feel vague and bounce around giving an uneasy feeling.
now it feels well planted and secure, so for handling they do the job well.
ended up doing about 200 miles for the day and was quite used to them by the time I arrived home, if anything it showed up the defficiencies of the front forks so not sure what to do there.
in summary, they are well made being machined out of stainless steel and are good looking, a firmer ride than stock and really helps hug the road going over bumps. they give a rather sporty feel to the bike. but, if you like cruising and are looking for something that makes your bike feel like it's floating on air then these are not for you
edit: think I worked out what the 20Kgs is. probably means a spring force of 20 Kg per sq metre, or about 110 Lbs per square foot
I could have bought them from the UK but when going through the motions of purchasing, Hagon UK do not make any mention of rider weight etc, whereas the US sites have this option. so in the end ordered them through BC and they were delivered here to Australia in a few days. apparently the Hagons have different spring ratings dependant upon the weight of the rider and for me weighing 175LBS a spring rate of 20 Kg is fitted. what does the 20Kg means? stuffed if I know as next to the 20 Kgs is 110 LBS, and the two do not compute as 1 Kg = 2.2 LB.
they come in a nice box and have 'Made in England' printed on the end
and once fitted look good.
initial response was how firm they felt compared to the original, no bounce at all, so went on a 50 mile ride to get a feel of them. they felt hard and there was only about four threads above the castellated nut to ease off some pre-load.
the next day went on a long ride purposely picking twisty roads with a lot of surface irregularities that my bike struggled with in the past. also tested a lot of settings on the shocks. there is a thumb adjuster at the bottom, to increase dampening and firm it up you turn the adjuster to the + indicator and to soften, turn adhuster to the opposite direction to the - indicator. this makes a noticeable difference and I tried all sorts of settings. plus played around with the pre-load. a C spanner is supplied for the castellated nut, but you need a 2.5mm allan key too.
I backed off the nut in order to see if it would soften the ride up but didn't, the bike just didn't feel right so oddly enough found the best setting for me was an extra 2 turns of preload and with the dampers set midway. the extra turns of pre-load didnt seem to make it much firmer, but gave it better traction
previously with the old shocks, turning and leaning fast on a tight bend with a few bumps on the surface, the rear end used to feel vague and bounce around giving an uneasy feeling.
now it feels well planted and secure, so for handling they do the job well.
ended up doing about 200 miles for the day and was quite used to them by the time I arrived home, if anything it showed up the defficiencies of the front forks so not sure what to do there.
in summary, they are well made being machined out of stainless steel and are good looking, a firmer ride than stock and really helps hug the road going over bumps. they give a rather sporty feel to the bike. but, if you like cruising and are looking for something that makes your bike feel like it's floating on air then these are not for you
edit: think I worked out what the 20Kgs is. probably means a spring force of 20 Kg per sq metre, or about 110 Lbs per square foot
Attachments
Last edited:
