• Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Sweden - About 1988 and older

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

What aftermarket shocks do you like?

I disagree. My bike is not a show bike. I'm using the same set of Progressives since 2009. Granted I do not race or ride the bike as much as I did. But 3 seasons on one set?? and they still work without leaking. That being said, finding good rebuildable shocks for a short travel bike will hard without $$$.
 
eBay offers used shocks you guys will know if there rebuildable or not I think some are currents.
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Been looking for a while for other bikes. I have missed a few deals but not a lot out there. The Triumph I'm setting up is for dual sport and maybe vintyage enduro. the old pig needs some good, not OK shocks.
The options seem to be spend $500+ for good shocks so far. I was hoping to find some decent shocks for less-oh well it's 2017. As Drew said, it's a hobby. You won't get your money out of your stuff when it's over. He may build me a set.
 
So the question is what new shock is available?? Also would consider Race tech new rear shocks as another option.
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I checked out other Ohlins- did see a variety of street options. I do recall one site offering vintage travel Ohlins, no pricing without an email. Gas/piston Race Tech are $700/pr-nope!
 
Vintage Fox is very expensive as well. It blows my mind old Konis are $300/pr for '70s technology. They are better than other shocks of the same era and rebuildable but aren't very good. I'm afraid I got spoiled on good off road suspension and thought older "needs freshening" technology (not necessarily Ohlins) would be cheaper
 
Eurofreak said:
I checked out other Ohlins- did see a variety of street options. I do recall one site offering vintage travel Ohlins, no pricing without an email. Gas/piston Race Tech are $700/pr-nope!
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shocks that work well and are rebuildable arent cheap. comes down to how nice you want it to be. cant get ohlins damping at progressive pricing. i cant imagine any company having good shocks like you are looking for less than 600 new.
 
a triumph??? off road??? lots of weight going where you didn't want it to go??? buy good shocks!
 
I was hoping for good shocks used that would cost me less than $600. I rebuilt the Triumph as a scrambler. Electronic ignition, new valves and guides, new pistons and bore, clutch, the whole bit. It is my dual sport bike as my Buell Ulysses is too big and heavy. I naively thought I could get reasonable shocks used and rebuild them. Vintage travel (4") shocks aren't really available unless new except Progressive. I got this crazy idea I wanted to do a vintage enduro or two on it along with some dual sports hence the quest for better shocks that are adjustable.
a triumph??? off road??? lots of weight going where you didn't want it to go??? buy good shocks
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Yeah...an ongoing project.:thinking:
 
Looking at a used set now for a little less, thanks. Drew Smith sells them and will work on them.
Here's a good example- I understand a gas emulsion shock does not work as well as a gas shock with a piston. The emulsion shock mixes the nitrogen and oil together and they will fade quicker than a piston/bladder shock. However in the real world, when does that happen? The Triumph will stress out shocks more due to it's weight so that's a consideration for me.
Please keep the ideas coming especially actual usage.
 
Thanks Gary, I'd like that. I hope to go- it's only 2 hours away. I got the old Triumph and the 82 CR250 I could ride.
Haven't been on a moto track in a long time.
 
Eurofreak said:
Looking at a used set now for a little less, thanks. Drew Smith sells them and will work on them.
Here's a good example- I understand a gas emulsion shock does not work as well as a gas shock with a piston. The emulsion shock mixes the nitrogen and oil together and they will fade quicker than a piston/bladder shock. However in the real world, when does that happen? The Triumph will stress out shocks more due to it's weight so that's a consideration for me.
Please keep the ideas coming especially actual usage.
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Hagon has some shocks that I am thinking of for my 70 500 Scrambler,but its much more of a road machine so I don't need anything exotic for it.But it does see some dirt once in awhile.Drew is a good guy and does awsome suspension work.
 
Eurofreak,
You've identified one of two major hurdles in restoring these old scooters. One is rear shocks that don't cost a fortune. The other is ignition. When I'm looking at purchasing a bombed out parts roach, if the bike has either good shocks or good ignition, then it has value. If it doesn't...

I took the plunge several years back and started doing my own shocks. It brought the price of Ohlins into the affordable category. Most of the dual shock parts are still available right from Ohlins USA, and I've found they're very reasonably priced. As mentioned above, they can be rebuilt indefinitely, and you can juggle bodies, shafts, and shock mounts around to fit whatever you want.
 
I enjoy Drew :thumbsup: Picklito-I have most of the equipment to rebuild shocks but need to take the time to do some learning. Part of my problem is finding used shocks to play with and of course more time. If i could find old ohlins that needed rebuilding I'd give it a shot.
When I'm looking at purchasing a bombed out parts roach, if the bike has either good shocks or good ignition, then it has value. If it doesn't...
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Yup! I think you guys out west have more possibilities with roaches than we do. I just visited a bike scrap yard to get a carb and the rusted garbage he has that sat outside :thumbsdown:
 
Progressives is a continuation of the S & W operation that made shocks and fork kits in the 70's. I would have to say you will get excellent service out of the shocks for your application. You are not likely to motocross it or even to ride aggressively as you would on the Husqvarnas. I rode aggressively on the S&Ws that I had first on my 70 Yamaha 175 CT1 then put on my 69 Husqvarna 360 Sportsman. So I got 4 years of hard riding on what is now Progressive for vintage non long travel applications. And they were good after I sold whatever bike they were on.
 
Since you're looking for rebuildable shocks here's another option for you . Get a longer set of shocks and have them shortened to your desired length . How about Corte Cossa shocks from a Maico ? The piggyback shocks from an 81 are rebuild able and can be fitted with ohlins internals , not sure on other year Corte cossa's . Just another option .
 
Kartwheel68 said:
Yes, the spring rate was correct. If you never bottomed them then you had springs that were too stiff.
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I disagree. My progressive shocks on the rear had there strongest spring rates they offered. It was a smooth ride for me me even over rough terrain. They never bottomed. A shock can wear from too much action too. If the spring rates aren't strong enough the shock can hammer itself.

I had a 4x4 truck with a 4" lift. I went through two sets(4) gas shocks. Not knowing why. I found out when I did some measuring. My shocks were topping out. I installed 6" lift shocks and it was ok. To me the constant hammering from topping out wore the shocks out. Can we have too much wear happening when the wrong spring rate is used?
 
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