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Pro Action Fork Kit

Pro Action Fork Kit

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Put the tube in the Nates clamp(work of art), put the seal installer in place, slid the the slider on and used its own weight as a slide hammer to bottom the seal, popped the retainer in, new bolt an washer, Loctite, torqued it down.

softfat likes this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

All together in temp form, will oil em up in the morning an put em back on the bike.

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Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Late start.....

Oiled them up, pumped them up an down till they purged all the air.

Collapsed they called for a 115mm air gap.

softfat likes this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Slid them into the bottom mount to torque the cap, handy little adaptor.

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Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Was tempted to leave the cow bells off, show a bit of leg but ended up putting them back on, wheel and tins back on.

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Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Took it for a ride up towards the dam, couple of ripply corners that used to upset the progressive struts so hit them.....a few times lol, much more forgiving, dive under a panic brake seems acceptable, will have to get it up in the hills for a good go tomorrow, sag came in at about 26mm from a 107mm stroke, will let it settle in and recheck, once I work out how it's going to go I can add oil to firm up the bottom if need be, add or subtract preload for sag, even go down an oil weight or two if it's not compliant enough in the stroke, but it seems pretty good on first impression.

Scoot, Benno, softfat and WideglidingNZ like this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

As in the other thread ride wise, it's difficult to not be subjective and therefore deceiving yourself trying to analyse one set up to another going by feel and memory without printed data, however, this set up soaks up the chatter better than the struts, of that I'm sure, low speed bumps and edges are softer as well.
The Pro Action Damper Rods will be staying, just need to fine tune it for the softail as it's designed for the touring bikes and they have more sprung and unsprung weight, additionally the damper rod is a half inch shorter than the standard softail one, translates to 1/2" lower in the front and 1/2" less available stroke, I don't think that presents an operational problem as its way better than it was in stock form, that I do remember!
Big hits are big hits no matter what you have but the forks did not bottom out that I could tell so I think the oil level is about right, sag is ballpark so the preload is close for this spring rate of 1.2kg/mm.
Will give it a bit but I will try a thinner oil to see if that will allow more of the stroke to be used at speed.
I know how much is in there so if I remove half of the 20w and replace it with 10w after it mix's I will have 15w, if that makes a good thing even better I will halve it again and replace it with 5w to give me 10w, can always go back if it rebounds too fast.
There is always the option to change the spring rate, see how it pans out, I should of left the cowbells off, would make this testing process more visible.
Can't make a Roll's out of a wheelbarrow but you can optimise what you have, I was watching the lowers in action, they were very busy without noticeable feedback, that's a good thing in my book.

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Baloffski
1 year ago

Aye GM. Excellent review of installation and testing process, pearler. I for one thankyou, and tools , ya got the goods there brother, I use wat I have and or modify to suit. Played with fork oils as self, down to 7.5 to 20 weight for comparisons but with standard setup wasting time, that’s for sure. My tourer is heavy on front , like hidden anchor there, love to chuck out the stereo, ( only used for cricket and the footy, plus other superfluous shit, oh, and the cigarette lighter to lighten front end. But is wat it is. Keep up the trail mate, is good info. Cheers B

Grease Monkey and WideglidingNZ like this post

obisteve
1 year ago

Quoting Grease Monkey on 07 Aug 2023 03:13 AM
As in the other thread ride wise, it's difficult to not be subjective and therefore deceiving yourself trying to analyse one set up to another going by feel and memory without printed data, however, this set up soaks up the chatter better than the struts, of that I'm sure, low speed bumps and edges are softer as well.
The Pro Action Damper Rods will be staying, just need to fine tune it for the softail as it's designed for the touring bikes and they have more sprung and unsprung weight, additionally the damper rod is a half inch shorter than the standard softail one, translates to 1/2" lower in the front and 1/2" less available stroke, I don't think that presents an operational problem as its way better than it was in stock form, that I do remember!
Big hits are big hits no matter what you have but the forks did not bottom out that I could tell so I think the oil level is about right, sag is ballpark so the preload is close for this spring rate of 1.2kg/mm.
Will give it a bit but I will try a thinner oil to see if that will allow more of the stroke to be used at speed.
I know how much is in there so if I remove half of the 20w and replace it with 10w after it mix's I will have 15w, if that makes a good thing even better I will halve it again and replace it with 5w to give me 10w, can always go back if it rebounds too fast.
There is always the option to change the spring rate, see how it pans out, I should of left the cowbells off, would make this testing process more visible.
Can't make a Roll's out of a wheelbarrow but you can optimise what you have, I was watching the lowers in action, they were very busy without noticeable feedback, that's a good thing in my book.

Suggest pulling out one leg, removing that cowbell, then reinstalling fork leg. Will look weird, but will let you put a cable tie round the tube for an accurate record of travel.
Great methodical approach both with the forks and the shock.

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Quoting Grease Monkey on 07 Aug 2023 03:13 AM
As in the other thread ride wise, it's difficult to not be subjective and therefore deceiving yourself trying to analyse one set up to another going by feel and memory without printed data, however, this set up soaks up the chatter better than the struts, of that I'm sure, low speed bumps and edges are softer as well.
The Pro Action Damper Rods will be staying, just need to fine tune it for the softail as it's designed for the touring bikes and they have more sprung and unsprung weight, additionally the damper rod is a half inch shorter than the standard softail one, translates to 1/2" lower in the front and 1/2" less available stroke, I don't think that presents an operational problem as its way better than it was in stock form, that I do remember!
Big hits are big hits no matter what you have but the forks did not bottom out that I could tell so I think the oil level is about right, sag is ballpark so the preload is close for this spring rate of 1.2kg/mm.
Will give it a bit but I will try a thinner oil to see if that will allow more of the stroke to be used at speed.
I know how much is in there so if I remove half of the 20w and replace it with 10w after it mix's I will have 15w, if that makes a good thing even better I will halve it again and replace it with 5w to give me 10w, can always go back if it rebounds too fast.
There is always the option to change the spring rate, see how it pans out, I should of left the cowbells off, would make this testing process more visible.
Can't make a Roll's out of a wheelbarrow but you can optimise what you have, I was watching the lowers in action, they were very busy without noticeable feedback, that's a good thing in my book.

Quoting obisteve on 07 Aug 2023 11:58 AM
Suggest pulling out one leg, removing that cowbell, then reinstalling fork leg. Will look weird, but will let you put a cable tie round the tube for an accurate record of travel.
Great methodical approach both with the forks and the shock.

I nearly did leave it off but yep that's a good idea mate.

obisteve
1 year ago

Although reconsidering, you're nor preparing a twins racer or something like that, precision measurement of travel not really essential, you're gonna be happy with the subjective feel for comfort and control. I've ridden a few Sportsters set up with full cartridge conversions up front and big money shocks at the back, professional set up, and none of them felt comfortable. Handling might have been perfect on bumpy mountain roads, but they didn't suit my preference.

Grease Monkey and evo94 like this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Comfortable controlled compliance is my aim and I will stick with it until I find my best compromise as that's all it can be, I'm running a few ideas around in my head on a modified version of the cable tie method leaving cowbells in place, still be nice to have that data, even if it's just for the sake of it.

obisteve
1 year ago

Fair enough. Check out my right fork leg. These are still a work in progress. Most Vic owners think I'm crazy using them on dirt roads.

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Using a bit of stroke 😁

obisteve
1 year ago

That was the real big hit for the day. Learned during my Norton days, running similar rough bitumen and dirt roads as I do now, that once you accept suspension bottoming out once during a ride, you can tune it for more comfort on all the other bumps. Picked this up from an American bloke with a lot of experience setting up Norton P11 and N15 desert sleds in Eastern Oregon. Suspension travel is there to be used. The more you use on a bump, the more comfortable it is for the rider.
And I'm sure you're running rough roads GM, last time I rode the Harvey Range road it was pretty rough. Mind you that was 1998

Grease Monkey likes this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

This one had it's moments, stroke is there to be used for sure.

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Back on topic, made this out of a stubbie holder and couple of cable ties, cowbell will start pushing it down 65mm into the stroke, lift the front after a ride an measure from bottom of cowbell to top of stubbie cooler and that will be how much travel it used. If it don't hit it that still tells me stuff I need to know.

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obisteve
1 year ago

Good out of the box thinking on that one GM.

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Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Took it out for a flogging, went dirt for a corrugated, potholed experience, used 84mm of the available 107mm of travel but I did not hit a monster, measured temp of fork sliders was only 30°c! That's 4°c above ambient! I was was expecting a higher number than that to be honest. That puts the CST at 112 with the current oil at that temp, well according to the online calculator I found.
Will do the oil mix thing and see if it feels better or worse. CST will be about 70 for that so it should be noticeable one way or the other.

408 likes this post

Grease Monkey
1 year ago

Took 200ml of the 20w oil out of each fork and replaced it with 200 of 5w fork oil, given the CST ratings that pretty much now mirror's 400ml of 15w in each leg, will test it asap and see what that does in terms of compression and rebound.
Made version two of the stroke indicator as version one was a bit thin on the outside and it was going under the cowbell making it skewiff, not a big deal but nevertheless it will behave now.

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