After breakfast, I called Lindemann Engineering to see if he would see me and my bike for a suspension tune-up. What a day for a ride! A cool 52 degrees, sun out, clear day, and DRY ROADS! I ended up riding over 200 miles to San Jose & back. It was a treat to cruise on the freeway (near San Jo') at a steady 80-85 mph in keeping with the flow of traffic. And the bike was running sweeEET!
The results of my having spent a couple hours (and $60.00) with 'Lindemann Engineering', known for it's expertise in motorcycle suspension, listed below:
My Hagon Nitros set at their softest rate of damping, are too stiff for my 250 pounds!?!?! "Could use a softer setting in the adjustment curve."
- and -
My Hagon progressive springs up front, are much too short & way too stiff,
- and -
the 20 wt. called for in the instructions with the Hagons is serious over-kill. "Seriously phucked up geometry and waaaaay too much damping."
I went to him complaining that my bike had head shake under certain conditions (if I took my hands off the handlebars), but my biggest concern was the bike wallowing at high speeds while leaning her through the turns.
I already replaced my first set of Hagon entry-level shocks because of wallowing, bought some Hagon springs, a fork brace, and paid the big bucks to replace the first set of after-market shocks with expensive "Thruxton racer" Hagon Nitros.
But my bike's handling characteristics still SUCKED!
So Jim @ Lindemann's tells me that if I take my tubes off and bring them back to him, he can set me up properly for around (another) $300.00!!!!! (Mo money, mo money, mo money.)
-- So what did I learn from this? --
If I had to do it all over again, I woulda brought my bike to somebody who does motorcycle suspension for a living...... I would buy my rear shocks from him (doesn't matter if they're a designer brand name or not), and I would have him tailor a single rate spring specifically for my applications. I should have never bought suspension parts, component at a time, over the internet. If you ride like an***** from time to time, you simply don't wanna take the chance of being sold parts is parts, and then pretend that you know what you're doing by installing of your own shiny new parts. I've spent a pretty penny over the last few months, and for another sixty bucks today, only to discover that I can't even make my parts work..... save for the over-damped Nitros.
Jim at Lindemann Engineering drained some of the 20 wt. out of my forks, and added a 20mm spacer. (He suggested (figuritively) that we were trying to go from east to west across a canyon, but all we did with his modifications was just go further south.) "We can't get there from here" he added. He said with the spacers, the bike might be better on the freeway, but it's still not right and I will likely have the same wallowing as before.
He was right. When I got off the freeway and took the Altamount Canyon back road high speed sweepers, my wallowing may have been arrested to a small degree, but the straight line sprints seemed a little more rock-steady; my suspension was still wrong. At this point the engine is running danm GOOD, she's winding out, pulling strong, and really bringing a smile to my once bummed out demeanor.
Life is good! my suspension might suck, but the bike is running ****!
So what did I learn today?
An afternoon aboard a bike is better than mowing the lawn and doing laundry.
Remember to flip that blasted petcock from reserve upon filling your tank!
Leave your suspension purchases and installation to the pro's if you like to push your bike's performance envelope!
[ This message was edited by: FattRat on 2006-01-18 06:57 ]
