Progressive or Hagon

[Wuts11]

I have a 80 GS1100E looking for a new pair of shocks. Any comments or recomendations on progressives versus hagons would be appreciated. Would loved to have obtained apair of the Ohlin SU143's at the special deal offered recently but that door seems to be closed. Anyone buy a pair and change there mind?

[skreemer]

I have been on a few bikes that went the progressive route, though have not dealt with Hagons at all so unfortunately I can't make a comparison. all I can say is that all of the progressive suspended bikes I've been on were pretty good and handled very well.

[KGB]

I use Progressive front and rear on my GS.
My Triumph has a Hagon mono shock.

Tough to compare apples and oranges in this case.
Neither have ever leaked or broken down.
The Triumph has about 5000 miles on it, the shock, the bike total of 20K.

The GS has never had a suspension problem.
I may actually change the GS rears to Hagon.
Prices are close and the warranty is close.
Hagon has 2 year, Progressive has 1 or 2 years?

Either will work well. Cost is close ?

[Joe Nardy]

I believe the Hagons are quite a bit more expensive. if money is no object the Hagons are a much better shock and offer more adjustments(damping and preload). Most of the progressives are preload adjustable only. If you always or almost always ride one-up or two-up the Progressives are a very good value. I put Ikons on my '83 1100E and they are wonderful. I ride under a lot of different load ranges, from one-up with no luggage to two-up with soft saddlebags and tank bag, probably a 175 pound load difference. Because of this I wanted damping adjustment as well as preload. The Ikons work as well as the $700 Wilbers shock on my FJR. You can adjust them from soft for highway riding to stiff yet compliant for the twisties.

Thanks,
Joe

[kingofvenus]

Hagon mono on mine, I cannot compare it to anything but worn-out stock but, it seems to be a very nice piece. Works well with the Gsx600f fork assembly that is on the front. It had never handled this well in the previous 23.5 yrs. (one year since conversion)

[twr1776]

I have the type P Hagons on my 1100 and the 412-4211C standard duty Progressives on my 1000. The Hagons were a little firm for the first 500 miles or so but have broken in very well. The Progressives were just right straight out of the box. If you ride two up much I would go with the heavy duty in the Progressive instead of the standard duty(412-4212C). One nice thing about the Hagons is speaking with Dave Quinn. He will ask a bunch of questions about your weight, riding style, one up, two up, etc and match your shocks to what you want. I believe that they install the outer spring on the body at his facility according to what you tell them. I think both are quality shocks in the lower and medium price range and will buy my last set probably depending on price between the two brands. I am not familiar with the top of the line in either brand if you go that route.

[bwringer]

Hagon's "basic" shocks are just under $200 a set, and a set of 12 series Progressives with springs end up at just over $200, depending on where you order. So they're pretty evenly matched that way.

You order Hagons by calling Dave:

http://www.davequinnmotorcycles.com/

You can get Progressives through Dennis Kirk, BikeBandit, and many others.

The slight advantage of the Hagons is that the shock bodies come in different levels of damping. The distributor (Dave) then adds the correct spring for your bike, your weight, and your riding style after chatting with you a bit.

On my Progressives, the recommended "heavy-duty" springs were too light, so I ended up ordering their heaviest springs, and they have worked beautifully for 9 years and 70,000 miles.

On a GS, both the Progressives and the Hagons work very well and are durable.

My VX800 is quite a bit lighter than my GS, and the new 12 series Progressive shocks it came with are far too harsh in damping. In that case (much lighter bike) it would have been better to use the Hagons because although they're not adjustable for damping, the shock bodies are available in three different damping levels. If you're not happy with your Hagons, you can send them back to Dave and he'll juggle spring rates and damping to suit you.

In both brands, you can spend more (a lot more) money and get full adjustability. You could also just buy the Ikons, which are also a definite big step up from the basic shocks.

It's still 6 of 1, half dozen of the other... :-D

[Jethro]

Jhawkins put Ikons on his 750 and he loves them. They look like nice shocks.

Whatever happened to the guy making piggyback res. shocks for our bikes?

[Mysuzyq]

Whatever happened to the guy making piggyback res. shocks for our bikes?

They want to get it just right...working feverishly in the lab as we speak*.:
About the only guy who mentions him anymore , is longaviator of the Ohlins fame.8-[

Tony.

[long_av8r]

They want to get it just right...working feverishly in the lab as we speak*.:
About the only guy who mentions him anymore , is longaviator of the Ohlins fame.8-[

Tony.

And even I don't talk about him anymore - not directly anyway. I was actually advising those who were waiting to get the Hagon, Ikon, or Works Performance. Sorry, no more ohlins.

[SqDancerLynn1]

My old Works shocks were not rebuildable wanted $420 for a replacement set :shock: well not really