by Reine & Jan Knobbe

Just coming back from the Hot Bike Tour, I was reminded once again about the wide variety of motorcycles on the road.  From simple streamlined Bobbers to the cureent popular 30 to 32 inch front wheel baggers.  One thing  that we all experience on our rides are the many bumps, potholes, and other objects on the road that can’t always be avoided.  Many riders start out on the totally awesome hardtails that look cool but are often termed “bar hoppers” because they are not comfortable to drive across the country like the cruisers.

Not all rides are created equal and some rides can be bone jarring!  Factory shocks have come a long way and most rides now have air ride shocks.  Jan, always on the lookout for new porducts, recently came across Super Shox shocks.  So he called the company and told them about the Hot Bike Tour and that he wanted to try out their shocks to determine for himself if what they were advertising was true.  They agreed to send him a set to try out.

Unffortunately Jan’s bike is down (that’s another story), so we were unable to take it on the tour.  Lucky for us we have a terrific employee, Chad Hemmelgard, who loaned us his bike.  We transferred our Mustang seat (I must have my comfy seat!) and Jan put on the new set of shocks.  I must admit I was a little nervous about the cross country trip having had very little ride time this summer with all the rain and then a downed bike.  I road over, 2,000 miles from Troy, Missouri to Billings, Montana and enjoyed every minute!  We took the scenic route off the major highways as often as possible and the ride was smooth everywhere!  Even the highway abutments that were big were not bad at all.  No bone jarring bumps on this trip!

There are lots of shocks on the market.  Big DIFFERENCE in shocks is that factory shocks are air over hydraulic, SUPER SHOX shocks are coil over Nitrogen, similar to the shocks they put on most of the Screaming Eagle models but much better.  Check out these shocks on YouTube and call me if you like what you see.  They are worth every penny or dollar, remember what HD stands for.

Your Tech and Owner,

Jan Knobbe and Reine Knobbe