Shocks vs Springs - Ride Comfort

[mikemdd]

I'm following the discussions on shock upgrades that would apply to my 2025 1500 Crew Ultimate Northstar. Kind of a basic question, but for normal trail riding, would shocks or springs have a more significant impact on the "quality" of the ride? By quality I mean smoothing out the ruts, washboards, etc.. Probably no one answer but just curious. Thanks.

 

[JTBarlow]

I'm following the discussions on shock upgrades that would apply to my 2025 1500 Crew Ultimate Northstar. Kind of a basic question, but for normal trail riding, would shocks or springs have a more significant impact on the "quality" of the ride? By quality I mean smoothing out the ruts, washboards, etc.. Probably no one answer but just curious. Thanks.

Springs alone will help some, but minimally. The OEM shocks on the XDs are really low quality.
If you’re looking for an overall improvement in ride quality, pretty much any aftermarket shocks for the XD1500 will make a massive improvement. And now there’s many options to choose from.
Like:
SDI (E-Clik or Terrain Masters)
Walker Evans
Shock Therapy
Z Bros

Any of those will improve the overall ride quality.