Thanks for the encouragement guys it means a lot, that's why I love this forum. I'm not sure about the shocks, but I'll ask the previous owner if he remembers the brand. The front fork tubes are up through the triple tree a couple inches as well. I just had it up on the freeway and it did pretty well, much smoother and sturdier (I guess that's how I want to phrase it) than my 550. And yeah, I'm definitely keeping my 550 ... I friggen love these bikes so much I couldn't dare to part with either of them.