Hello I am not sure of the gear issue but I would also like to bye some new shocks for my 1100 ace if you find a dealer at a reasonable price please post it so that I could try to soften the ride on this bike, I am a big guy and have the rear shocks set for max load and the ride is way hard plus the city streets are a joke for motorcycles, chuck hole heaven so that makes it even worse and very dangerous any tips on what I should do???