I know hagon have a very good name and their shocks are generally considered high quality but I want some advise.

Mine and mrs fox's ccms run Hagon shocks at the back and I have noticed the they can be a little stiff on dirt tracks (unloaded), having spoken to hagon on the phone these shocks are their road shocks with around 80mm travel. We are considering replacing Mrs Fox's shock anyway to give her a lower seat height any way.

I am now considering upgrading these to their Dirt shocks around £200 per pair as I feel that over the course of A rtw trip (Euope, Turkey, the Stans Mongolia, Russia - inc the Bam Rd, Canada) these will carry the weight of our luggage better. Generally the common advice I get is that upgrading your rear shocks for long distance travel will save trouble on the road (thinking of poor Fern who has had to change her shock twice already between UK and Iran).

So my question for the worldly wise is:

Is a stiffer (Road) of a softer (off Road) shock better for long distance travel??
Is the investment likely to pay off on the trip??
Are there any other shock manufactures that will make twin shocks (I like Hagon as they will make shocks to our specification)??
What are peoples perception of hagon as a shock manufdacturer??

Thanks

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