My wife is still smiling even when hold up a 1600 pound spring and a BMW shock.
The owner of the shock only rides the BMW it goes on with his wife and all their gear when they are touring. Normally you only carry a passenger and gear some of the time so I have to spring for the lighter load because the ride would be too harsh when you did not have a friend along. In this case we can spring for the big load because the rest of the time he rides his other BMW.
The 1600 pounds refers to the springs rate. It takes 1600 lbs to compress this spring one inch.