2012 Harley-Davidson FXDWG Wide Glide | Doin' Time

Wrist: Grant Peterson
MSRP (2012): $14,949
Miles: 3249
MPG: 36
Mods: Progressive Suspension shocks

As I prepare our 2012 Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide for return to the mother ship, I finally got around to a modification that probably should have come first: updated suspension. Early on I swapped the seat, bars, controls, and pipes, all of which improved the bike to various degrees. But one of the most important functional updates came from Progressive Suspension.

To get a low seat height and slammed look, the Dyna comes with short-travel shocks. The resulting ride can be harsh, and the low chassis really limits cornering clearance. Progressive Suspension's new, 12-inch 444 rear shocks ($624.95 a pair;_www.progressivesuspension.com_) went on and we also dropped the company's spring kit ($92.95) into the wide-set Showa fork. Because longer fork tubes are not available for the FXDWG front end, we only increased the shock length an inch. But that inch feels like a mile in a turn! The standard fork-spring kit helped balance the bike. More travel up front would have been a further improvement—and allowed use of the available 12.6-in. shocks—but would have taken us further away from the long-and-low look. As is, the PS updates were fantastic improvements that raise the profile of the bike so little that only FXDWG owners are likely to notice. They make for a smart addition to what has been a fun, good looking, and utterly reliable motorcycle.