Joined
·
740 Posts
Okay, so after riding about 40 miles last night and another 10 this morning I realize I was wrong about the shocks being almost right. My lower back is telling me that the ride is too harsh! And on bumpy streets (like W. River Parkway) there are some spots where the road is rough enough that with the current setup it's hard for me to apply the brakes for how unsettled it gets. I'm not sure what I need to change but I need to soften the ride a bit. On the stock setup I rode a 700-mile day without a sore back.
I still have the stock rear shocks. The front end has Ikon progressive springs, thruxton adjusters, and 15w oil. I had 6 turns of preload (base on the thrux adjusters is ~15mm so call it 21mm) on the front, which gave me a static sag measurement of about 35mm. On the rear I had to crank the preload up to the highest level to get static sag around 40mm.
This morning I dropped preload in the front to 2 turns (call it ~17mm) and dropped the rear to the third position, but the rear was wallowing at that setting so I turned it back up to the second-highest, which seems to be a balance point between too mushy and too springy - clearly the rear is underdamped for these settings. This seemed to help a bit but it's still pretty harsh. It *handles* very well when the roads are fairly smooth, but my back hurts (after only about 50 miles!) and the issue of braking on uneven pavement is definitely there.
Theories? Is it just a matter of the fact that the rear shocks suck and need to be replaced (I can tell that they do and they do), and everything will magically be better, or do I have an issue up front that won't be resolved by switching the rears? Judging by the fact that I'm primarily feeling it in my back, I'm guessing this problem is at least primarily the ****ty rear end, but anything I can do to make it better would help.
I switched to 15w in the front because with 10w I felt too much bounce after hitting a bump, which indicated underdamping for the spring preload to me. Maybe I need a weight between 10 and 15?
I still have the stock rear shocks. The front end has Ikon progressive springs, thruxton adjusters, and 15w oil. I had 6 turns of preload (base on the thrux adjusters is ~15mm so call it 21mm) on the front, which gave me a static sag measurement of about 35mm. On the rear I had to crank the preload up to the highest level to get static sag around 40mm.
This morning I dropped preload in the front to 2 turns (call it ~17mm) and dropped the rear to the third position, but the rear was wallowing at that setting so I turned it back up to the second-highest, which seems to be a balance point between too mushy and too springy - clearly the rear is underdamped for these settings. This seemed to help a bit but it's still pretty harsh. It *handles* very well when the roads are fairly smooth, but my back hurts (after only about 50 miles!) and the issue of braking on uneven pavement is definitely there.
Theories? Is it just a matter of the fact that the rear shocks suck and need to be replaced (I can tell that they do and they do), and everything will magically be better, or do I have an issue up front that won't be resolved by switching the rears? Judging by the fact that I'm primarily feeling it in my back, I'm guessing this problem is at least primarily the ****ty rear end, but anything I can do to make it better would help.
I switched to 15w in the front because with 10w I felt too much bounce after hitting a bump, which indicated underdamping for the spring preload to me. Maybe I need a weight between 10 and 15?
). The seat is always possible - I need to loan you that Corbing to try.
