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It’s Been Four Months And Four Thousand Kilobugers since NICKO junked his standard Softail shockies and replaced them with Fournales units. So how have they shaped up?Half way round the corner and goin’ way too fast the pothole loomed ahead. Too late to change line, I just gritted me teeth and thought, “Ferk . . .” Ride a softail? Yes? Then you know the feeling. This story has a twist though, cos half a second later me an’ the bike are though the corner, fillings still in tact, still on line and not a twitch outer the rear end. Not only that, the young lady riding pillion hasn’t bruised her soft-bits and is still smiling! Dreaming? Nope. Bullshitting? Not this time. On drugs perhaps? Nope . . . “Pan-Cruise” shockies courtesy of Jean Pierre Fournales. HOW DO THEY WORKSoftail shocks extend under load unlike your more conventional shockies that compress when ya sit an 18 stone mate on the back. As the rear wheel moves up to the guard the shockie is pulled out and also slightly upwards as you can see in diagram 1.The “Pan-Cruise” shockies from Jean Pierre Fournales work by using this extended motion to pump oil from one chamber through a compression damping valve and into an elastic membrane. As this membrane expands it raises the air pressure in the chamber aroundit. Air will only compress so much and gets harder to compress the more pressure rises. This means that the further the extension (or bigger the bump) the progressively harder the springing . . . So what you end up with is a system that soaks up little bumps with ease but gets progressively stiffer as it gets closer to its travel limits on the bigger potholes.A second air reservoir at the shaft end of the shock acts as a pneumatic anti-topping spring and also a preload adjuster. This means by adjusting the pressure in the rear chamber you can raise (less pressure) or lower (increased pressure) the ride position. If that sounds back to front to ya, just remember that the more extended the shock is the lower the bike sits and it all makes sense again.So the “Pan-Cruise” shockies offer ride height adjustment and progressive springing but it does not end there, By increasing the air pressure in the front chamber you can up the spring rate too. Not only that but a unique multistack valve assembly (which is like a stack of flexible washers that allow more oil through as the force increases) gives the system progressive damping.If yer like me you’re probably thinking that this whole system is relying on an elacticised bladder that just ain’t gonna handle it - at least in the long term. Well that’s what I figured anyway, but all Fournales shockies have used a variation of this system and there’s plenty of people around that’ ll tell ya they’ ve never had a problem after years of service.The shockie mounting bolts are tight. Time to use a special tool.Check out that bloody oil! Bertrand now recommends degreasing the bike BEFORE ya start.On the left we’ve got "Pan-Cruise", on the right H.D. No wonder Bertrand is smiling.An’ zen you inzert an’ rotate ze shock . . .Just follow the instructions and ya can’t go wrong. . .