My local dealer installed the Ikon fork springs recommended by Geoff (Ikon) but the bike feels like having broomsticks in the fork. Very little travel and rock hard. Issue is that the dealer can't tell me how much spacer he put in. I'll give it another go using a different workshop as I don't want to do it myself.

My question: Too much spacer or too little spacer installed?

With too much spacer (high spring pretension) I guess the bike would have more extended gaiters than stock? But that is not the case. It actually "sits" 20mm lower than stock when on site stand. If straight up (no rider) is sags only about 7mm instead of 21mm with stock springs.

My fear is that with more pretension the suspension will be even stiffer. I read a post where the guy took out all spacer (reduced pretension) and got a decent ride. Wouldn't the bike in this case "sit" actually even lower and bottom out easier as the max travel is shorter?

 

  

put the bike on a stand and pull them out yourself, its not a hard job. Oh and the cost has gone upto 20cents pieces for more preload... pull out the spacers you have and start with six 20cent pieces in each side. while you are there check your shock oil level as well. If you need more details (specs) let me know....i've been down this road and im about to move onto something better..

T1

 Hi Red,

Thanks for you reply. Of cause I have too much money to burn

otherwise I wouldn't ride a Harley!

I'm quite stubborn and while still not planning to do the job myself 

want to find out what is wrong. At this stage it doesn't make sense

and that is the reason why I would like to hear from fellow

Iron riders with Ikon springs what they did. Spacer is one issue

but could be oilgrade or level. 

Bernd

 

 

 

 Hi T1,

Thanks for your reply! I understand that you removed the spacer.

Did this work for you or did you change anything else.

Bernd

The kits comes with 2 spacers (one for each side) to me they looked like they will fit the older sportster as well as they were very long (around 100mm in length) the Ikon springs on their own will come all the way upto the top of the shock, when i first fitted mine i had a feeling that there would be too much preload with these spacers so i cut them in half (50mm) with these fitted the ride was stiff as and i could feel every bump, the bike had no sag what so ever after coming off the jack and with me on it it only dropped 3mm. (no where enough rider sag) i ended up taking out the spacers alltogeather and it was much better, but i found that i needed to keep adding 20cent pieces as the springs were sagging over time, im currently at $1.20 each side and im going to add in some more soon. I had tried screaming eagle heavy oil and found with these springs it just makes them worse. With the stock oil and level what im finding now is its better than stock springs but im by no means happy with the setup. It will be ok over smaller bumps but anything else it will still bottom out, for me its hard to get a good compromise between comfort and function being only 55 kilos. I'm sure for a heavier rider these springs must work otherwise they wouldnt sell them....i guess. Setting rider sag is very important, we have a full length travel of 111mm, rider sag should be around the 1/4-1/3 of total travel, when i used $1.20 it ended up being 28mm from memory which is fairly close.

T1

 Hi Steamer,

I gave him 2 x 100mm spacers and got one back. Not sure if the dealer put 50mm in each tube. He couldn't tell me afterwards. Certainly it feels like this: rock hard. I'll go with T1's advise and will reduce the spacer to 6-9 x 20 cent coins (14-21mm - probably a little more because of I weigh 15 kg more than T1).

The one thing which puzzles me is: Why doesn't the bike - when on the jiffy stand - "come out of the springs" more with higher preload (more spacer) on the springs than the stock bike as I measured 102mm (gaiter length) compaired to 123mm (gaiter length stock bike on jiffy stand)? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Any suggestions?

Bernd

 Hi T1,

Thanks for your detalled response. I'll try it. As mentioned in my previous reply to Steamer I still don't understand why the bike "sits" lower with higher pretension on the fork springs. I would assume that the gaiters would expand more...but I miss 21mm.

Any idea?

Bernd

 Finally fixed the fork spring problem: Added total of 49mm spacer. Ride with or without pillion is firm but comfortable.