Suspension Replacement Opinions, Please

My 2008 R1200RT with 37,000 miles has shown a significant degradation in handling qualities lately. When I ride over a bump in a curve, the rear suspension feels quite underdamped, causing the bike to feel quite unsettled with a rocking motion. On a long ride yesterday, I experimented with different ESA settings. Changing the damping from Comfort to Normal to Sport did little to improve things. Changing the preload from one helmet to helmet+luggage made things noticeably better. The panniers were empty and I weigh 188 pounds.

I had plans to eventually swap the stock shocks out with Wilbers, keeping the ESA function. Today I talked with Ted Porter at Beemershop.com. After a very informative discussion about the options, I'm rather inclined to go with the Tractive brand, a new name to me.

If anyone has had experience with them, I'd appreciate your opinion. I'm off to get the disassembly started before the really good riding weather is here!

Please share what Ted likes about the Tractive's?

Construction is a bit more rugged, although that's likely overkill on an RT. A long-term advantage is the ability to convert to a manual preload on the rear shock. Should the ESA preload motor ever die, new parts are apparently not available. Ted spoke highly of both brands, but offered plenty of information about the differences.

$$$ for each?

With ESA, $795 for front, $895 for the rear.

http://www.beemershop.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=BS&Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=R1200RT05-09-TRAC

I ordered them yesterday, and sent in the rear shock to supply the preload adjuster. I'll post some photos of the process when it goes back together.

I am very pleased with the Tractve set i installed last year on my

2008 RT. Ted Porter was more than helpful when needed! Installation is easy,

i did it all my self. Enjoy your like new ride! I do!!

There's a couple shops that will rebuild the stockers and therefore make them rebuildable. I don't have the info, but someone will.

The problem with rebuilding stock suspension is it's still low cost components. If you want quality suspension, long term wise, you'll be better off buying quality shocks and then maintaining them.

They replace everything internal, no, plus the spring and it's easily rebuildable then.