Ive asked this same question before and it seems very few people actually want to talk about the ride quality,they just say it handles like its on rails.It just seems to me that if you increase the firmness or the spring rate you will have a harsher ride.The Spyder suffers from a bump steer problem in turns so the only way to lessen the darty effect is to decrease the lean angle,thats why you put a stiffer sway bar on and possibly stiffer shocks and springs.The tradeoff is harsher ride but just how harsh is the real question.Im not spending 700$ when so few are willing to talk about the harshness and wether they fixed the leaky seal issue.
I agree with spyder01 - I have the BajaRon sway bar, but would like one that was one size heavier. As for the shocks, lots of discussion regarding application and what the generic result of the install was. Most people will install better shocks, with or without different adjustments, have the shocks setup or setup the shock themselves, notice a difference for the better and leave as is for the rest of ownership. Most people who own motorcycles with suspension adjustments of preload/rebound/compression never use these adjustments to their benefit, fact of life and it's their peace of mind.
The ride quality of your RT will benefit from better aftermarket shocks. The OEM shocks are lacking in providing the ride quality a lot of people want. The benefit of aftermarket shocks is that you are requested to provide your riding profile and the company will use its data to provide you with a set of shocks that meet this profile. The new shocks will probably have a larger piston size, better internal valving, and a spring rate that fits your riding profile.
The issue with spring rate is that you want a spring rate that allows you to use the minimum preload to set the ride height. Once the ride height is set, set the shock rebound. This is where you use the "jump" test to compress the shock, jump on/off in one smooth motion, allow the shock to return to its resting ride height. You want the shock to return to the ride height you have set in one smooth motion with no/very little overshoot. You do not want the shock to do more than one overshoot then come back to rest. Sort of like watching a vehicle go down the road, hit a bump and then watch it bounce up and down for the next quarter mile.
Compression adjustments are different in that this is a test and trial issue. Most of the standards shock upgrades generally only have preload/rebound settings, not compression. Some shock manufactures are doing a combined rebound/compression setting with the shock internals - technology is progressing.
Long winded answer and agreement, a good aftermarket shock will enhance the ride quality, and assist in the performance of the RT - your choice as to what shock(s) you want to use. There aren't that many so a phone call to the manufacturer to get a sense over the phone of whether you are comfortable with that manufacturer is probably a good thing. I talked to a representative from Elka shocks, and Marcus at M2. Had a better feeling with Marcus than Elka, so I'm going to install M2 shocks on my Spyder - both good products but personal preference.
You will have to educate yourself in the suspension setup and what each aspect does, this is of course unless you have a suspension specialty shop close by and want to have the suspension shop do it for you. I would submit that a lot of the dealerships do not have this expertise readily at hand.
Good luck.
