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Pro Action Fork Kit

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  • 408
    408
    1 year ago

    Close to coolest time of the year so you want a bit up your sleeve.
    If you set up the zip tie/stubbie holder on each leg , you will have confirmation.
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Fair point......got to 27 here today, what's it like down there in Iceland 😁
  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    About 10  😊
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 year ago
    That 26mm of static sag with you on it? If not, what is it with you on it with feet up on the boards?
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Me on
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    1 year ago
    And the 107 mm of available travel is because of the 1" shorter damper rods, right?
    Any easy way of reducing the preload slightly?
  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    Will be interesting to gauge the difference with modified brew in it.
    Then you want to get your daughter on the back and do the same run again.
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Quoting obisteve on 12 Aug 2023 11:58 AM

    And the 107 mm of available travel is because of the 1" shorter damper rods, right?

    Any easy way of reducing the preload slightly?

    The Pro Action rods are(roughly) 1/2" shorter than the stock FLSS rods which are 1/2" shorter than stock FXST rods which according to the box they came in the Progressive Cartridges that I took out fit. So all up from what I had that's an inch in total from what I had to what I now have assuming the cartridge stroke was as much as a stock set up. Because I'm running FXST tubes I'm still higher in the front than a stock Slim.
    First ride I could tell it was different, yesterday I didn't notice. As I'm not yet using all available stroke and it's already pretty decent I'm not worried about the reduction.
    Only way to change the preload is pull the tubes to get to the caps.

    I did a couple of laps around Hammon Way yesterday, first lap looking for potholes, second one hitting them all, soaked them up no worries, it's good, just want to see if it can be better. Will get out in an hour or two once the grandkids are gone.

    The stroke use might well be being held back by the air gap/oil height, Race Tech call for 150mm in their set up for this bike, Pro Action want 115mm, that's a good amount of compressible space, one thing at a time.
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Took it out for more testing with the "15w" oil, I could not tell any difference, zip, so went home and turned it into "10w" and took it out again, can feel it now, is softer, not sure that's actually better though, will leave the viscosity alone until I do a bigger ride.
    But! Travel was not increased at all, I could not get it to hit hard enough on the road, potholes just didn't test it at all, soaked them up, turns out hitting my driveway at 30kph with the gate open is nasty, go figure, it went bang, like solid, travel measured at 86mm with the new improved cable tie stubbie holder.
     I'm thinking no way could it be the oil going through orifices causing it to stall in the stroke like that, got me thinking, maybe the spring is coil binding, but discounted that as I've put these single rate shorter than stock springs in other bikes with longer strokes without an issue.
    The Race Tech specs came back to mind, it occurred to me that's the issue, short spring, LONG thick walled spacer, spacer takes up way more volume than a spring, cross referenced the hd manual spec, 112mm collapsed (long spring no spacer), Pro Action 115mm(short spring short spacer for touring bike), Race Tech 150mm, short spring long thick walled spacer.
    I had worked out the volume in ml to mm in level when I first filled them, .9ml = 1mm, 150mm minus 115mm equals 35mm needed, times that by .9 thats 31.5ml, I'm thinking that's a dumb number, looked at my syringe and fuck me it's marked for 31.5!
    So took that out of each fork and attacked the driveway again, no bang, used 98mm of stroke, did it a few times, near run up the arse of the wife's car on the last one, abs was going nuts lol.
    So it's still got another 9mm of travel left and I'm happy with that, not sure on the lighter oil, will give it a bit and see.
    PXL_20230813_070857347.jpg
    It's worse than it looks!
    PXL_20230813_050556618.jpg
    Toe of me boot for comparison, hardly knew it was there!
    PXL_20230813_071308746.jpg
    Providence
    PXL_20230813_071203435.jpg
    Math
  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    Not sure about your maths, my head is spinning, but it sounds like its working.
    Your fork tubes are FXST, longer than the original FLSS tubes ?
    The specs are for touring bike, 41 mm as well ?
    Do you know what the total extended length of the touring fork tube and slider is compared to your setup ?
  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    I found a chart a guy compiled showing wet and dry quantities for 09 FLHR as 10.1 and 11.1oz
    He had 09 FXST at 11.5 and 12.5 oz
    So that is about 14% more for the FXST
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Tubes longer yes, 41mm yep, don't know on the touring extended length, I will contact Pro Action on my findings though, can do with it what they will, I did talk to a fellow in the states that had fitted this kit to his wife's Slim, said it all went fine but I doubt he looked as hard at it.
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Those volumes are for stock everything mate, mine is far from stock, Race Tech take all that into consideration it seems.
  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    Quoting Grease Monkey on 13 Aug 2023 08:57 AM

    Tubes longer yes, 41mm yep, don't know on the touring extended length, I will contact Pro Action on my findings though, can do with it what they will, I did talk to a fellow in the states that had fitted this kit to his wife's Slim, said it all went fine but I doubt he looked as hard at it.


    I doubt his wife is hitting the driveway at 30kph !
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Quoting Grease Monkey on 13 Aug 2023 08:57 AM

    Tubes longer yes, 41mm yep, don't know on the touring extended length, I will contact Pro Action on my findings though, can do with it what they will, I did talk to a fellow in the states that had fitted this kit to his wife's Slim, said it all went fine but I doubt he looked as hard at it.

    Quoting 408 on 13 Aug 2023 09:10 AM


    I doubt his wife is hitting the driveway at 30kph !

    Probably not 🤣
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Quoting 408 on 13 Aug 2023 08:12 AM

    Not sure about your maths, my head is spinning, but it sounds like its working.
    Your fork tubes are FXST, longer than the original FLSS tubes ?
    The specs are for touring bike, 41 mm as well ?
    Do you know what the total extended length of the touring fork tube and slider is compared to your setup ?

    Was out the shed so rustled up my notes from install so I can get this straight, oil was at 25mm from top of collapsed tube, had to remove enough oil to drop the level to 115mm, total of 90mm, I removed 80ml of oil to do that according to my syringe, so 80÷90=.9
    So 1mm in height for every .9mls.
    Also it dawned on me that you might be assuming a measurement so I measured the inside diameter of the fork tube where the spring goes, the bit the oil getting measured is in, it's 33mm, so by math that would be .855ml for every mm, given the gear I was using that's close enough I reckon, hope that clears it up for ya 😁

  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    Quoting 408 on 13 Aug 2023 08:12 AM

    Not sure about your maths, my head is spinning, but it sounds like its working.
    Your fork tubes are FXST, longer than the original FLSS tubes ?
    The specs are for touring bike, 41 mm as well ?
    Do you know what the total extended length of the touring fork tube and slider is compared to your setup ?

    Quoting Grease Monkey on 14 Aug 2023 08:55 AM

    Was out the shed so rustled up my notes from install so I can get this straight, oil was at 25mm from top of collapsed tube, had to remove enough oil to drop the level to 115mm, total of 90mm, I removed 80ml of oil to do that according to my syringe, so 80÷90=.9

    So 1mm in height for every .9mls.
    Also it dawned on me that you might be assuming a measurement so I measured the inside diameter of the fork tube where the spring goes, the bit the oil getting measured is in, it's 33mm, so by math that would be .855ml for every mm, given the gear I was using that's close enough I reckon, hope that clears it up for ya 😁


    I wouldn’t have guessed wall thickness at 4 mm but the calcs mean your syringe is pretty close.

  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    Found this in the local bookshop, bit of light reading to enlighten myself on some the intricacies of suspension tuning before I start chasing my tail.
    PXL_20230820_023505689.jpg
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    1 year ago
    I'm calling this done an dusted and a good thing, I have gone back to the 20W and the following is why.
    When I had it at 15W I could feel no difference to the 20W, stroke used was near identical, couldn't pick em.
    The 10W however was a completely different cat, that's when I started to get into the stroke and discovered the air gap/oil height too small/too high. 
    After removing enough oil to what I believe is the right level for my set up I was able to get the bike to use nearly all the available stroke but the damping was way too soft.
    My observations have shown the fork oil operating temp is around 4° above ambient. It varies a little so the following numbers may not be exact but the theory is consistent with the trend.
    My 10W at 30° was 49CST, not enough viscosity for these damper rods to work as they should.
    The 15W at 30° was 71CST, it was doing the job at that, however ambient temp was 26°, if the ambient temp was 34° as is pretty common here in summer and assuming the oil would be 4° higher than that the 15W CST at 38° would be 49......back at the 10W viscosity at 30°, no good.
    The 20W at 38° would be 78CST, so that's what I will stay with. I double checked it all with the Race Tech Bible teachings in mind and while my sticktion range is on the high end of acceptable it all checks out.
    Took the daughter for a ride to see if it felt ok two up and it is good, no issue, feels planted, stable, compliant, it was blowing pretty hard cross wind wise on Black River Road and the bike tracked straight, previously it would move around a bit in those conditions, not unsettlingly so but noticeable, not sure how that works....
    Sorry for the novel.

  • 408
    408
    1 year ago
    The novel is a good read.
    You put a bit of work into setting up the race tech in the wideglide and was happy where you ended up with it.
    It sounds like the pro action kit is a better system ?
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