Honda Mechanic may be able to confirm or set this straight but when I bought my Rubi CTE it came with a 4 page booklet bragging the CTE suspension. It said the engineers worked hard, tried many combinations and finally settled on what we now see. They did say that the shocks were mounted either more vertical, or less vertical, sorry it's been a while since I read it so by just changing the shocks may not give the same effect. Also my dealers parts manager also said back then that everyone was trying to buy just the shocks to add to either non-Trail edition Rubi's or other bikes and Honda would not sell the shocks. He told me that even if I had a problem with my shocks, that I would first have to ship my shock back before they send a new one. This may have changed by now but in the beginning this is what I was told. I do know of a U.S. customer trying to buy a set from Canada and was told the same. Just passing on what I heard. Like I said, this may be 100% crap. The CTE Rubicon is a nice ride though for a solid axle bike. I love it. Have 3000 km's on mine and it's just one year old last month.