Front fork preload

[cowboybob998]

Found out today that there is a preload on the fork caps, what my question is what most people run there preload at w progressive springs and 15 W oil.

[Iron Duke]

Fork preload

Hey Bob, I just have ome standard shocks & run 15 # oil run my preload at first notch down from top, at the top its a little to soft, down one its almost stiff, hope this helps Duke

[James England]

I have the preload on the minimum. I find the other settings too hard. Also, I use SAE10 oil not the 15. That's with progressive springs, same as you.

According to the Haynes manual, the correct oil for the US bikes is SAE10 or even ATF. They also say to use 10/30 for the UK bikes but I use straight 10.

With the above setup, a fork brace and the rear shocks on mid position, I find my bike handles really well.

[cywelchjr]

Not having a pre-load setting on my 80, I run 15w silkolene with my heavy vetter fairing and run 13 psi in the air forks and 44 psi in the XJ air shocks on the rear which gives pretty good handling. At least until I add a fork brace to the front to get even better handling, until I add cartridge emulators to make it even better .

[cowboybob998]

test ride

Rode a little around the roads today, like the way it handels, if i blow the forke seals then i will know that 15W oil is to much and will change it then, it is at the lowest seting on the preload, i am thinking that the 10W may have been better, it would have gave me a little more range for adjustment with the preload as now there is no ajustment, just hard to harder, it hits perty hard the way it is but i rather have to hard than to soft.

[bikerphil]

Couple good tech articles in here...

http://www.sonicsprings.com/catalog/...ch_article.php

[cowboybob998]

Good info

Couple good tech articles in here...

http://www.sonicsprings.com/catalog/...ch_article.php

Good information, i will check my sag, Thanks

[jetmechmarty]

At least until I add a fork brace to the front to get even better handling, until I add cartridge emulators to make it even better .
__________________
Cy

Do yourself a favor. Get the emulators first, then the fork brace.

[petejw]

sag

if u check out you tube and search
motorcycle suspension sag, theres a cpl
of good videos that explain it well along with other
suspension set ups. (rebound/compression)

[Eveready1100]

You won't blow your seal by having thicker oil in them, Bob. You'd only do that by pressurising the forks. I ran 15wt oil in my Standard forks and had them set to the middle preload. It was a bit stiff (preload) but had to be to cope with the rutted, ridged, potholed infested excuse for highways we have here.
Overall, I was happy with the way they performed at that setting.

[cywelchjr]

I went to the 15w because of the extra weight they have to carry with me and the fairing on there. It seems to work well in my case, as the bike handles pretty well as far as I can tell.

[crazy steve]

Bob, one other thing to look at if you haven't already is the amount of fork oil; too much or too little can change the way the forks work pretty drastically, but careful 'adjustment' of the level can offer tuning aid. It's also critical for best handling to make sure you have the same amount in each fork. You can get large syringes at pet stores or farm supply outlets that work great for measuring/putting in fork oil.

Generally, you want to stick pretty close to the recommended amount, whether you get that from the factory manual or specific instuctions that come with aftermarket parts. Adding a little 'extra' will stiffen the forks up, less will soften them. This won't effect spring rate, but changes damping. The factory amount is 212 cc's...

[cywelchjr]

Bob, one other thing to look at if you haven't already is the amount of fork oil; too much or too little can change the way the forks work pretty drastically, but careful 'adjustment' of the level can offer tuning aid. It's also critical for best handling to make sure you have the same amount in each fork. You can get large syringes at pet stores or farm supply outlets that work great for measuring/putting in fork oil.

Generally, you want to stick pretty close to the recommended amount, whether you get that from the factory manual or specific instuctions that come with aftermarket parts. Adding a little 'extra' will stiffen the forks up, less will soften them. This won't effect spring rate, but changes damping. The factory amount is 212 cc's...

I found another source for a syringe for this use. I picked up an inexpensive marinade injector syringe at the supermarket to use for this. Most of them are marked in cc's, so you can carefully measure the stuff in, and then away you go, and they have a BIG needle which is very useful for this job. I filled mine off the bike and then put them back in the trees and set them up. Maybe a bit more work, but I figure when I'm working on the front end, I want to take the time to make sure everything is lined up properly when I get done anyways, so pulling them out works best for me, especially since I still haven't gotten the caps off my originals, and the ones I got off ebay are still nice and sealed so all I did with them was a drain, partial fill and shake, drain and refill and then install them. They stay nice and dry and are holding 16psi just fine.

[cowboybob998]

I found another source for a syringe for this use. I picked up an inexpensive marinade injector syringe at the supermarket to use for this. Most of them are marked in cc's, so you can carefully measure the stuff in, and then away you go, and they have a BIG needle which is very useful for this job. I filled mine off the bike and then put them back in the trees and set them up. Maybe a bit more work, but I figure when I'm working on the front end, I want to take the time to make sure everything is lined up properly when I get done anyways, so pulling them out works best for me, especially since I still haven't gotten the caps off my originals, and the ones I got off ebay are still nice and sealed so all I did with them was a drain, partial fill and shake, drain and refill and then install them. They stay nice and dry and are holding 16psi just fine.

Yea i got them around here, use to give horses shots with them, what i did was measure 7.6 0z in each tube like the book said then measured down to see if the oil was at the same level, think i got them close as right on as ya can get, feals good any way when i ride it, i am going to ride it some more, take some longer trips and make my mind up weither i want to go with 10W oil or not.

[jetmechmarty]

I have a Special with air caps. I just added RaceTech emulators, so I won't be putting air in the forks anymore. Any recomendations for plain caps?

I sourced a large syringe from my local pharmacy. They gave me one 50 cc.