Hi all,
Last week my new Inertia Active Damping gizmos from Ricor arrived for my front forks. Test rode them on Thursday and Friday. At first I wasn't so sure, had to soften up the preload on my rear shocks a little, then went for a run through Numinbah on Sunday and that sealed it for me... WOW! These have made quite a difference to how my bike is handling the rough stuff. Very planted, very solid feeling, especially on those corrugated corners. I am very impressed!
Below are some photos of the install:
The ingredients: Intiminators arrived!!! Already have the Works Dual rate fork springs installed... Getting the fork caps off: Loosening the caps required some extra leverage. Did this before putting Nyx up on her lift. I made a fork cap compressing clamp. I used that above the socket and driver to stop the "flyoff" that occurs when you finally run out of thread and the springs uncompress driving the cap airbourne Getting the drain screw out: I thought all was going smoothly: I had my bars off, got the caps off with no airbourne missiles, and had the springs out. Whew... I was doing well, pat on the back Then the installation started going south. I stripped that "sweet" little fork drain screw. Yes I was using a #2 Phillips head... and I even lightly tapped the driver with a rubber mallet, but that soft little screw still stripped just so delightfully. Though the same softness that had me strip the little bugger worked in my favour when gripping it with locking pliers to get it out. So the forks drained while I went into town and got replacement screws. The springs: This is a pic of a comparison between the stock 08 1200N fork spring (#47299-07) and preload (#48737-07) pictured on the left and the Works dual rate fork spring with the 2" of preload that I had been using on the right. I then trimmed the preload spacers by half an inch back to 1.5" in length to compensate for the added height of the intiminator. Putting it all back together with the new drain screws in place and 364ml (12.3oz) of the 5w fork oil the order was:
The pic below shows the Works Dual Rate springs in the configuration I use them in. From right to left... the 1.5" pvc preload spacer. You can then see the 3.75" metal spacer inside the shorter 80lb/in spring, the metal washer and the top part of the 60lb/in longer spring which continues out of picture. Getting the fork caps back on: I marked on the fork cap, the socket and the triple tree where the threads would start to take. I then compressed the socket and fork cap. It took a few goes to get it to depress squarely into the tube, then just turned the socket till the caps "took". Ta-daaa....
Hey guys, thanks for that. I do enjoy working on my bike... get a real kick out of it. As for this install, I still want to fine-tune the forks a little more by shortening my crossover spacer to keep the springs lighter for longer. Now that the forks are sufficiently dampened there is no need for the springs to be so firm. But already, even before any fine tuning, I'm rapt with the difference. The Intiminator gadget will fit any damper-rod style forks in the Harleys. It sits on top of your stock damper rod forcing the oil through discs. When the front tyre hits a bump the motion sensor in the device opens the inertia valve instantly allowing for a faster response to the bump. They were designed for the damper fork tubes by the same guy who licensed the velocity shock technology to Edelbrock and Donerre. See more info at the website here: http://store.ricorshocks.com/
And installation is pretty easy, as you can see, even a girl can do it . Just drain the fork oil (preferably without stripping the screws), remove the spring, drop in the Intiminator gizmo, add oil (5w for the 39mm and 41mm forks, I think it is 10/15w for the 49mm forks), whack your spring in on top and away you go.
I put mine in with my Works fork springs, but there's a few guys that have just put them in with the stock fork springs and are swearing by the improvement. Apparently there is no real benefit to having an aftermarket fork spring, they work just as well with the stock springs (and the cynic in me is thinking of putting my stock springs back in just to see if that really is true). To my mind the most difference is on corrugated stuff. Works a treat on the repetitive bumps that my suspension just struggled so poorly with previously. Also gives a much more planted feeling if you hit a bump mid-corner. They are certainly not cheap at US$300, but the difference they've made to my short travel forks is worth every cent in my mind. And they are shipping UPS international so the shipping only adds $10 extra.
great post sporty , you'll be as popular as scotty soopn !!!
