Air ride suspension technology has been around for quite some time. Air shocks on a vehicle—be it a car, truck or motorcycle—adjust up or down with a button using compressed air. That’s the simple explanation.
Legend Air Suspensions knows women, as the shorter/smaller gender, have the toughest time getting their feet down on the ground on motorcycles, so the company wants to make sure women riders know about their product. For several years now, company representatives have been trying to get me to ride one of their motorcycles outfitted with air shocks. Last year, during the Sturgis Rally, my schedule finally allowed me the time to test ride a motorcycle outfitted with Legend Air Suspensions shocks—and the bike happened to belong to the owner of the company, Jesse Jurrens.
In the two photos below, I’m sitting on Jesse’s Harley-Davidson FLH Standard. One photo has the suspension slammed as low as it will go; the other photo has it filled with air so the bike is higher, with more ground clearance. Can you tell which one is which? It’s hard to tell by looking at my legs because, at 5-foot-7, I’m on the tall side for a woman, and so my legs are bent in both shots. But a good gauge of the difference in seat height is to see where the top of my head lands in relation to the display board behind me.
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I met up with one of Legend Air Suspensions’ most satisfied customers, Tami Walker, who owns Diva Customs, a motorcycle accessories shop in Virginia Beach, Va.
The entire Legend Air Suspensions system sells for $1,600, so this is a bit of a commitment. But as Tami says, you could end up spending that much or more trying out different aftermarket seats or other suspension systems that don’t quite get you down low enough.
Homegrown mechanics can install the kit themselves. Legend has a five-step plug and play wiring system that makes it easy for those who know what they’re doing to install the system. Others will want to bring the kit to their dealer. I’m told installation averages two hours. For more information, visit LegendSuspensions.com.
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I also am vertically challenge at 5 feet 2 inches and my husband had purchased a Street Glide for me as a surprise. I could not touch the ground at all. Not very comforting. We started out with different shocks to lower the bike and that helped a little but never felt comfortable with them.They were just not low enough. I did some research and found out about the Legend shocks and had them put on my bike along with a FBI (Fat Baggers) 3 inch lowering seat kit. My bike is perfect now. My feet are flat on the ground and my confidence in my bike is 100 percent. I have been very pleased with how the shocks work over all.
Thank you for sharing that with us. Here is the link for the FBI 3 inch lowering seat kit for those who are interested. Fatbaggers.com
Perfect! Lowering a bike’s suspension would normally be a last choice option, due to the resultant significant decrease in cornering clearance. H-D’s are already pretty limited in this area to begin with. With these shocks, you can still corner your motorcycle with the suspension in the stock position, then lower it for parking, which is where we shorties need the help. Too bad they’re not making it for metrics!
Seems very nice. I currently have a metric so it’s of no help to me. I am glad, however, to see this kind of thoughtfulness in a product for motorcycles. I see a lot of male riders out there who could use this as well.
The article is fine, and I’m happy for the 5-foot-2 woman who can now manage her bike better. I understand. I’m not short, but I have a short inseam, 29 inches. I have used these products on three of my bikes, but my story is different. These shocks are great for parking lots, like the woman said, but they do have drawbacks. The hard tail effect is one, which was mentioned. The other is that, in my opinion, you sacrifice performance of the motorcycle at high speeds, especially in curves on a highway at highway speed, and of course, you lose the advantage of stock shocks and get a harder ride. It did not matter how much adjusting I tried, I never seemed to get the ride the way it should have felt. I just finally pulled the system off, lowered my bikes as much as possible, pulled stuffing out of reach seats and replaced it with gel pads, got layers of rubber added to my boots, and now I feel safer on the bike having removed the air shocks. They were great for me for a while, until I started realizing that they were interfering with performance. I guess we just do what we have to do for our own comfort.
Thank you for sharing. It’s no secret that aftermarket shocks will affect the ride. But aftermarket companies, like Legend Suspensions, go to great lengths to ensure that ride is optimal for that lowered position. But of course each person’s gauge of comfort is different.I lowered my Street Glide and yes, the ride is noticeably different, but not so much that I couldn’t handle it. I just brace myself when I go over bumps knowing the suspension is very low. I wouldn’t trade that for the security of knowing I can put both feet flat on the ground and maneuver my motorcycle now in all situations.