Riders Un The Storm

How a pair of Ikon shocks took some of the hurt out of an NRL Grand Final defeat.

- Chris Beattie

Despite mixed experiences over the years fitting aftermarket motorcycle shock absorbers, I still try to invoke a few calming thoughts and channel a little Dalai Lama to ensure I’m at peace with the world, before I start.

And so I was prepared for the occasional hiccup as I removed the new Ikon 7610SP22 shocks from the box and carefully read the fitting instructions, which mostly just warned against putting them on upside-down. And I have to say the fitting process was very simple and pleasingly straightforward. Almost.

As I reached for a socket to loosen the lower shock mount on my Dyna Low Rider S, I was – appropriately enough in this case – shocked. Instead of a simple hex-head bolt some new age H-D engineer had decided that a star-head (otherwise known as Torx) bolt was needed, obviously for no other reason than to frustrate my attempts to undo it.

But I’m proud to say that I took a deep breath, jumped on the bike and returned from Bunnings $47 poorer with a Torx kit (that I’m prepared to bet will never again see the light of day.)

Short minutes later, the stock H-D units were in the bin and I was ready to give the new Ikons a test run. But where to, I pondered? Then it came to me. Being a Melbourne Storm die-hard, I determined that a run to Olympic Park in Sydney from sunny Frankston in Melbourne for the NRL Grand Final would do the trick.