How hard?

[fredintoon]

Hi List,
The forks are a touch soggy with the sidecar attached. Progressive's springs claim to be stiffer than stock but will cost me ~$80 that I ain't got. OTOH, air is free.
Clymer's recommended setting for the pump up forks at "maximum bike load" is 21psi. With the sidecar alone it's gotta be about that and adding my body mass on top of that undoubtedly puts it over.
What Clymer's won't tell me is how hard can I pump the forks before they blow out when I hit a pothole in the cratered ruins that Saskatoon has for streets?
Suggestions anyone?

[Crazcnuk]

I don't think the sidecar counts as 'load'. The sidecar is on it's own wheel. It will add some weight to the bike, at an angle, but I don' t think it's all that much.

When you put the sidecar on the bike, how heavy was the side you lifted to mount up?

As for fork pressure, 'normal' is like 0-6psi or so. I usually ran at 0psi with the Shadow, and I have 0 in the XS right now, fully decked.

In my experience, if you put more than 15psi or so, you will basically have rigid suspension. I don't think the forks (seals) will ever 'blow out' from a pothole, but you may bend the forks.

The Progressive spring advantage is that they can give a stiffer, than stock, spring, but still give the smoother ride, under normal conditions. Also, I think the Progressive's are designed to run w.o air, but someone may correct me.

In my experience most riders tend to have their tires too soft, and the suspension too stiff.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Fred,

What weight fork oil are you running? You might go up a bit on the weight to get it a bit stiffer!? Also, wonder if a little more oil than stock would help either?

Also, IF your springs are a bit worn, you might get a little more tension out of them by putting in some PVC pipe sections as shims? I had to add some 4" sections when I put my 4" over upper tubes on, but haven't put any longer in!
T.C.

[olebiker]

I read in the manual that they suggested more air for fast riding. I played around a bit with the air but the damn bike just won't go faster but hey its does handle better with a bit more air.

[fredintoon]

Crazknuk: the sidecar & associated ad-ons
weigh ~ 300lbs without any load in it. Yes, the s/c wheel supports one side of all that but the bike supports the other. Gotta be ~ 150 lbs extra being carried by the bike. Currently I have the fork at 15psi and by NO means is it "basically rigid".
T.C.: Fork oil? I've never changed it. I'd better do something about that, eh? Right now I'm in the middle of installing an aftermarket steering damper and a fork tube drain & refill would fit right in with that work. As would some spacer slugs.
Thanks for those suggestions.

[Crazcnuk]

I guess it all depends on how 'stiff' you think it's supposed to be. Too many people think that if it moves at all, the front is diving.

Fact of the matter is, you should be bottoming your front suspension on unusually hard bumps, and/or on full lock braking (usaually your doing both at the same time when that big pothole comes up that you can't avoid).

If you aren't, then your not using all the suspension travel you have. This is why there are the rubber stops in the rear shocks, for those occassional bottoms when you hit an unusually hard pothole.

Too many people have thier suspension set up for off road xcountry racing, yet never leave the pavement.

[egsols]

Got mine (stock) set to 15 with the rears damped at 4 and the preload at the stiffest setting. I'm not a light guy and this seems to work good for me. I might want to stiffen it a little if I put the Jammer back on.

Ernie

79XS1100SF

[webbcraft2150]

Watch out when filling forks!!!! It takes very little volume and if you use a compressor, your can crater the seals real quick with over inflation. I will set my discharge pressure way down (15-20lbs) and just give a real quick shot of air to each leg. Then, with an accurate, low pressure tire gauge, I will drop the pressure down to what I want. You will easily drop a pound just checking the pressure so it can be pain to get em equal. I usually run 'bout 12-15 psi when running 2 up and full travel gear on my full dresser. BTW, I am running 15w oil here in balmy central Texas. I max the tire pressure out (44psi, Elite II's) when runnin fully loaded. (The bike, not me )

[Crazcnuk]

Dunlop recommends 40psi rear 36psi front for thier tires, and our bikes, fully loaded.

I used to run my bikes at max psi in the forks, and top spring setting in the rear, but after 100,000kms, or so, I started playing and realized, I like it comfortable, not bone jarring.

I also found out that even on the soft side, on our highways, bikes rarely ever actually bottom out, so why set it up like I am racing at Lemans?

If you are often zipping through the twisties you need to set up a lot different than if your just cruising. I mostly just cruise.

Right now I have the forks at zero, fully decked, and the rear (progressive springs) are set to thier softest. If I load the bike up, I may go to 5psi front and step the shocks up 1 maybe 2 steps. I also have the dampening set to 1 on the rear.

I am fairly new to XS's, so still learning about them, but have driven many many miles on various bikes over the years. Mostly on the VT1100 Shadow. The Shadow had very weak rear springs. Ihad them set up to the stiffest they would go, and with myslef and my ex girlfreind on it, it would bottom out on even some moderate bumps. I still had the forks at 0psi, most of the time, up to 5psi max.

[pggg]

Stiffening old OEM fork springs with spacers will make them harsh at the end of the compression stroke, the front wheel loses feel with the road, too much preload for the spring, also the coils will be distorted and rubbing hard on the inner fork tube surface. Sure the front will feel stiffer but it's not such a fantastic fix..

[Crazcnuk]

One other thing, front and rear suspension are not independant of each other.

The stiffer you set the front, the softer the rear will feel and vice versa. If you make the front really stiff, the rear starts to take up some of the fronts shock absorbing job, same the other way around.

Progressive springs are stiffer than stock, for performanc, but there are a few 'soft' coils at the top to make them comfy for normal driving. They are the best for dual purpase bikes, so you can get comfort on normal roads, but the suspension stiffens up fast when you start to work the bike hard.

I have Eibach Sport springs on the Monte Carlo, as well as Koni 7 way adjustable touring shocks, and a set of Competition engineering Drag shocks for the front for drag racing. We've done extensive suspension modifications to make it good for racing, but it is a bit bumpy on rough roads.

[mbowld44]

front forks

I tried more air and different fork oil when my sidecar was fitted five years ago but found that my front forks still bottomed out.I
pull a single seat sports sidecar that is not to heavy the only solution I found was to fit double strength spriings At a cost of £60