Harley (egad) shocks?

[Guest]

I have been reading all the threads on here about shock replacement and it seems kind of expensive. I was on eBay looking for shocks and noticed that Sportster shocks are eye-to-eye and stock ones seem to be 13.5" I believe. That sounds like it would come very close to fitting my 81 850G. Does anyone know the eye size on Sportsters? If they are bigger than what's on the 850 I would think some kind of bushing could be fabricated to make it work. Our local HD shop throws out tons of stuff that's new or barely used because people are always "upgrading" their new shiny toys. I'm thinking I could probably get my hands on some next-to-new ones if I thought they would fit (or could be made to fit). I'm not looking for a huge performance increase, just an upgrade from 25 yr old stockers. Is this the dumbest question anyone has ever asked about shocks or am I just trying to be fiscally prudent?

[bwringer]

Doesn't sound crazy at all. The stock HD shocks aren't all that great either, but just about anything is better than the mega-crappy originals.

Let us know how it turns out...

[Ironriot]

Try it out. Free and new is always better than crappy and old. While there try getting new mufflers and take off tires. :-D People have done it before and it doesn't hurt to ask

[paco13]

Few years back I used Harley take offs on a 78 GS550e. I had to swap the eye bushings cause the they were diff diameter. And they were way over sprung, say "hard-tail". They were from a FatBoy. Never swapped out springs cause I found a better pair of Suzuki shocks any way, but you might be able too swap your old springs if you need too.

Paul