[Hoges]

I'll bet Outlaws MC won't appreciate those shirts. Just saying...

Looking for trouble to close to their coulors

 

[V-STRUM]

Can you describe what that "extra play" feels like?

Greg

It just felt like extra slack in the lever.

 

[olmatey]

Any tips on locking the pinion gear when torquing the nut?
will cost me 140 bucks for the georges garage locking tool, which ill use once.

 

[Turboprop]

Any tips on locking the pinion gear when torquing the nut?
will cost me 140 bucks for the georges garage locking tool, which ill use once.

Small plastic screwdriver handle.

 

[Thermodyne]

Working on forks today. Adding emulators and custom springs.

Just as an FYI for them that wonder just what the hell emulators are, it's a little adjustable spring-loaded valve that takes of the function of the fixed holes in the damper rod.

The gold part in the photo

As oem the fork just uses 2 - 3/16 holes in the damper rod to meter oil and control ride quality. It's a very minimalistic (cheap) way of doing it, and you end up with the well known Harley mush front suspension. The emulator turns the fork into a valved shock absorber.

This is a damper rod after modifying it for emulators.

The two holes marked in yellow get drilled from 3/16th to 1/4 inch. Then 4 more 1/4 inch holes get added, marked in blue. Then you chamfer them for good fluid flow and put it all back together. This basically removes the damper rod fulit control function and allows the emulator valve to take over.

 

[Alan S]

I saw a gif of an emulator function. Very educational.

 

[hillcat]

I'm glad to see that you drilled out the damper rods.
You can also tune it with the tension on the blue spring.
I had a real noticeable improvement in mine, before & after.

 

[2 hottie]

Can't wait to do this myself. Are you guys putting in new springs for any reason (progressive).. ?

 

[Thermodyne]

Can't wait to do this myself. Are you guys putting in new springs for any reason (progressive).. ?

I'm using a set of Race Tech springs. The springs that were in it were just oem long fork variable rate springs that had been cut down three inches to increase the spring rate.

Big differance in the amount of pre load compression. The oem springs had an 8mm spacer in them to set the ride height. The RT springs have a 35mm spacer.

 

[Thermodyne]

I'm glad to see that you drilled out the damper rods.
You can also tune it with the tension on the blue spring.
I had a real noticeable improvement in mine, before & after.

Why glad? Emulators won't work on these forks unless you drill the tubes

 

[V-STRUM]

A long over due rotor change as my old ones were down to 4mm, the minimum is 4.5mm. Splurged a little bit with these EBC floating wave rotors along with their semi-sintered V pads. I had a bit of trouble getting the rotor bolts out, soaked them over night with liquid wrench. Also had to cut a notch in a rotor to accept the speedo drive as I have a sealed bearing, 2000+ wheel. I like the contrast of the modern rotors and the old school wire spokes.

 

[hillcat]

Why glad? Emulators won't work on these forks unless you drill the tubes

IIRC years ago (when I put mine in) there was a discussion wherein you said, that you were told by someone, that drilling out the damper rods was not necessary and didn't make a noticeable difference.

A long over due rotor change as my old ones were down to 4mm, the minimum is 4.5mm. Splurged a little bit with these EBC floating wave rotors along with their semi-sintered V pads. I had a bit of trouble getting the rotor bolts out, soaked them over night with liquid wrench. Also had to cut a notch in a rotor to accept the speedo drive as I have a sealed bearing, 2000+ wheel. I like the contrast of the modern rotors and the old school wire spokes.

I like it too!

 

[Thermodyne]

IIRC years ago (when I put mine in) there was a discussion wherein you said, that you were told by someone, that drilling out the damper rods was not necessary and didn't make a noticeable difference.



I like it too!

I don't recall saying that about emulators. If you don't open up the rods, then the rod will limit the function of the emulator once it reaches maximum flow. The rod has to flow more than 100% of what the emulator valve will flow.

Now, way back in the days of single bushing Showa forks and old FL forks, people would braze the holes shut, then drill new smaller holes. After that, they cut the springs 5 inches and replace some of that with water pipe. To stiffen them up and make them dive less. Probably kept them from bottoming out so easy. But with the tires and brakes they had back then, I doubt it made any difference in how they handled.

 

[olmatey]

Working on forks today. Adding emulators and custom springs.

Just as an FYI for them that wonder just what the hell emulators are, it's a little adjustable spring-loaded valve that takes of the function of the fixed holes in the damper rod.

The gold part in the photo

View attachment 273210

As oem the fork just uses 2 - 3/16 holes in the damper rod to meter oil and control ride quality. It's a very minimalistic (cheap) way of doing it, and you end up with the well known Harley mush front suspension. The emulator turns the fork into a valved shock absorber.

This is a damper rod after modifying it for emulators.

View attachment 273211

The two holes marked in yellow get drilled from 3/16th to 1/4 inch. Then 4 more 1/4 inch holes get added, marked in blue. Then you chamfer them for good fluid flow and put it all back together. This basically removes the damper rod fulit control function and allows the emulator valve to take over.

View attachment 273212

What weight oil did you use? Im installing them in my forks tomorrow, racetech recommended 20wt, i alreadyhave 2 new bottles

Working on forks today. Adding emulators and custom springs.

Just as an FYI for them that wonder just what the hell emulators are, it's a little adjustable spring-loaded valve that takes of the function of the fixed holes in the damper rod.

The gold part in the photo

View attachment 273210

As oem the fork just uses 2 - 3/16 holes in the damper rod to meter oil and control ride quality. It's a very minimalistic (cheap) way of doing it, and you end up with the well known Harley mush front suspension. The emulator turns the fork into a valved shock absorber.

This is a damper rod after modifying it for emulators.

View attachment 273211

The two holes marked in yellow get drilled from 3/16th to 1/4 inch. Then 4 more 1/4 inch holes get added, marked in blue. Then you chamfer them for good fluid flow and put it all back together. This basically removes the damper rod fulit control function and allows the emulator valve to take over.

View attachment 273212

What weight Oil you use? Im installing them in my forks tomorrow, ractech recommended 20wt, i already have 2 bottles of 15wt so will give a try with that 1st.

 

[Thermodyne]

What weight oil did you use? Im installing them in my forks tomorrow, racetech recommended 20wt, i alreadyhave 2 new bottles

What weight Oil you use? Im installing them in my forks tomorrow, ractech recommended 20wt, i already have 2 bottles of 15wt so will give a try with that 1st.

I mixed some that I had on the shelf. 1/2 and 1/2 with 15w and 20w, so 17.5w would be the result. I still have the 20w that came from RT, but thought I would try using up what was already on the shelf first.