For all the tightwads, cheapskates and poorboys...

[movenon]

George,
I appreciate your thoughts. I will most likely drop back to the stock Goldwing spring if I want to get maximum sag and work up from there. I will start testing with as much sag as I can get in the rear, as I still have the stock springs in front with slightly longer spacers than stock. I don't remember how much longer they are, but I am not getting coil bind, I still have full fork travel according to a zip tie. I need to start writing this stuff down...........don't expect any testing for a while, work has me out of town quite a bit this month and the weather is going to be, well, variable.

  Joe

Yes, start writing your setting's.  Keep all the records of what you do.  Even after all the mathematically perfect settings are set you might want to adjust it 6 months down the road after some seat time.  I would start with the front forks as a reference.  And then measure the rear to evaluate where you really are for a base line. Record you static sag and rider sags. Static sag is important also.

The sag adjustments are for you and your style of riding. All I know is that the front and rear need to be somewhat in balance. The less sag the stiffer, more sag softer within a given spring rate. Preload will not change the spring rate. There are published ranges and I would stick close to them. I am in the same boat as you. In a few weeks I will measure all my settings and evaluate where I am.  After that then there is setting the dampening... And that's a ride and adjust or modify as required.

There is ton's of info on the WEB about setting suspensions. Here is thread leading to a PDF file that is a good read and there is a form included for recording.
http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=1488.0

Here is where I bought my spring. http://www.eshocks.com/hyp_make.asp  To convert lbs to kg/mm divide by 56.
Example: 800 lb spring = 14.285 kg/mm

Just as a curiosity question what is the spring rate of your Goldwing shock to start with ?
George

[racerrad8]

Joe,

You need to take the spring off and track the swing arm travel from the shock bottoming to top out. Then set the shock travel at about 2/3 compression and 1/3 rebound. (about 2/3 of the shaft sticking out)

You need more compression stroke of the shock than rebound due to gravity and that should be a good starting point. Then you need to install the spring and start testing to work out the correct spring rate based on the shock travel.

Does the shock have the large rubber bump stop at the yoke to prevent full compression?

Randy - RPM

[Country Joe]

Randy,
I will indeed remove the spring and determine the full range of swing arm travel. The shock does have a urethane bump stop at the bottom of the shock rod.

   Joe

[Bozo]

A couple of questions: Would you mind taking a stab at more specifically, how many miles, and how long?  Also, regarding your extended tire wear, I forget, do you also have the RPM Valves up front, or something else?  I did not go back through the thread so that second answer may well be there.

Well, Mike received the second shock ever made when the testing process started. He has put over 25K on the rear shock in a multitude of different valving settings as well as spring rates.

Yes, he does have the RPM fork valves too which were also tested and variety of ways as well. He probably has close to 35-40K on the front fork valves.

I do believe the rear shock has only just now changed over to the third tire and was changed more due to tread design that were as he lives in a snowy region and he wanted to make sure he had plenty of grip.

I am sure he will come along later with more details.

Randy - RPM

FYI, my RPM shock has now covered over 10,000km mostly very rough high speed roads (I also have front RPM emulators). For a single rider the standard 750lb?? spring was perfect but since the other half is joining me for the FJ rally in March, I had to fit the 850lb spring which I am using currently. I am using the 850lb spring for general riding for now(till after the rally) and even though it rides well it is a bit "choppy" over very rough sections of the road (over 120KPH through bends).
Originally my 1989 FJ was/is (Randy was going to change it but I'll be damned if I'll send it back now) fitted with the 1992 Shock which has a slightly different linkage setup
The beaut part of the RPM shock is that it doesn't change its character after hard riding whereas other shocks I had, change after a period of time. Combined with the front emulators the ride is nothing short of fantastic. The other thing I have to add, is that the RPM shock looks /feels like it would last forever whereas other shocks (with the way I ride) tend to feel worn after around >30,000kms.
As for tyre wear, unfortunately I changed to a new profile (softer) tyre when I got the RPM shock, so I can't comment on that issue.
Happy New Year to you all.

[Alf]

Which leads to another (perhaps not previously addressed) aspect of the RPM suspension: the increase in tire life.
I am changing out my tires at 12,000 + miles - the set I had for the above travels I was using the soft compound Michelin Pilot Power 3.  While there was still life left in them I have recently installed Pilot Road 3's for the winter riding.  Prior to using the components offered by the gentleman from RPM, tires were worn out at a considerably faster rate, especially the front which often would wear unevenly.  

To me improve the suspension of my bikes is getting riding more confidence and safer but the consequence is that I ride FASTER with less effort, so the tyre life is SHORTER

Mike: ok, the tyre life expectancy is much better due to suspension in an OE FJ 1200 than in a ZXR750J with hard rock rear shock, i.e., but the improvements in your FJ can´t do too much difference in tyre wear... unless so "feel" more confidence but you ride slower

Let me explain with a clear example from myself: my Honda CBX 750 F2. Like there is no too much tyre choice, I fit BT45 since day 1. I´ve been improving the bike step by step. No radical changes: I´ve kept OE rims, suspension, brakes...in order to maintain the originality (it is the only one BolDor registered ever in Spain) but with subtle mods to do it more capable

1st set: 12.000 kms. This period included the bike rebuilt and the built in period
2nd set: improving the bike bit a bit. 6.000 kms
3rd set: the actual one. Take a look at the front tyre with less than 4.000 kms



I ride now FASTER, safer and more confident... and it is not a personal feeling. The stop watch don´t lie. The difference is awesome. So the consequence is that the tyre life has been DECREASED, not increased

[Country Joe]

I'm back with some raw data.........I took the spring off the shock and lowered the rear until it was on the bump stop to get my measurement of full swing arm travel. Then I put the stock Goldwing spring back on the shock and bolted it back on the mounts and then got the full droop measurement. It works out to 117 mm of swing arm travel. 33% of that gives me a sag figure of 38.6 mm. With no preload on the spring, I got a sag of 70mm with me on board. With full preload cranked up I got a sag measurement of 43 mm. I can't wait until I can get some test miles on it and see how it goes. I still have the stiffer spring if that seems necessary. With the salt and sand the highway dept. has put down this last week, serious testing is going to have to wait. I'm kinda allergic to road rash........

Joe

[movenon]

Sounds like a good start. You might want to up your spring rate if you run with bags or two up. Keep up the good work.
George

[Country Joe]

Ok, here is a little more data.
Today I took the shock off and swapped the Progressive Suspension spring back on to it and checked sag.
With no preload I got 52 mm of sag. With the preload adjuster at "Driver" preload, 49 mm of sag and at full preload I got 24 mm of sag. Now that is without a battery, soft saddle bags, or my gear, so those things need to be added before I can have any definitive numbers but this spring has my target sag of 38 mm in the middle of its range. I hope to get some test rides in this week after work.

[movenon]

Ok, here is a little more data.
Today I took the shock off and swapped the Progressive Suspension spring back on to it and checked sag.
With no preload I got 52 mm of sag. With the preload adjuster at "Driver" preload, 49 mm of sag and at full preload I got 24 mm of sag. Now that is without a battery, soft saddle bags, or my gear, so those things need to be added before I can have any definitive numbers but this spring has my target sag of 38 mm in the middle of its range. I hope to get some test rides in this week after work.

Looks like you are getting zero'd in. Seems in range. Time to ride....
George

[Country Joe]

As George said, it's time to ride. The weather was pretty decent last Saturday afternoon, so I suited up and went out for a ride.  The first impression of the shock was it being much firmer than the stock one, yet not harsh. The back road out of the neighborhood is a poorly done chip seal road that has some winter damage showing. It is probably the worst road surface I will ride on short of a cow trail....the OEM Shock was much harsher feeling due to a lack of damping, topping out on the larger bumps.
Getting out on a good highway surface, the first thing I noticed was a lot less squat when hammering the throttle. The next test is a bridge that has a fairly large bump on both approaches. Previously I would get a noticeable hop going on to the bridge, now the bump is absorbed with no hop sideways as before.
I tried 2 max effort stops from 70 mph, I did not detect any street sweeping from the rear end, but a new set of front springs and fork valves from RPM will likely be my next purchase. The soggy front end has to be cured to bring both ends a little more into balance with each other.
Overall, I am pleased with it so far, but more test rides are forthcoming.

Joe

[Country Joe]

I got a chance to go for a ride with a riding  buddy of mine yesterday. He lives about an hour south of me and has a winter time riding area that doesn't get nearly as much sand put on the roads as we do up here. Many of the roads up in  the Ozarks still have dangerous amounts of sand on them to be taking part in,ummmmm...."spirited riding". I did get out for a ride by myself last Thursday up in the hills and had a crosswind encounter that I will hopefully never experience again. I was on Hwy. 16 headed east for home, leaned over in a right hand sweeper, and came to a gap in the trees at the top of a valley. I have no idea how high the wind speed was through that funnel, but it shoved me from the right wheel track all the way to the center yellow lines. My lean angle didn't change one degree, it just felt like I  was shoved sideways by a  giant hand.  I didn't have any warning of the crosswind  area, but I sure took it as a warning to slow my dumb ass down.
Anyway, to get to the point of doing an update here, Bob and I rode to the top of Petit  Jean Mountain (I will post up some pics later) then made our way down to Hwy. 7  south of Russellville. What a fun stretch of road, I think it's even better than Hwy. 7 north of I-40 to Harrison.

In regard to the Goldwing shock, I dropped the preload to the minimum setting and think for just my 198 lbs and lightly loaded saddlebags, that seems to work the best. I guess the impression I am left with this mod is that I have not found any dangerous behavior, uncomfortable ride or anything else that is noticeable. I can now focus on my lines and the road ahead and not be concerned with wallowing, bottoming out or crow hopping from it topping out.  I'm pretty satisfied with it for what I have in it. YMMV.

[movenon]

Sounds good.  Yes wind sheer can get interesting.  Encountered it in flying and with the RV frequent enough to respect it. 
What spring rate did you end up with ? 
George

[Country Joe]

George,
I am using the Progressive Suspension 1000/1200 lb/in spring.

[movenon]

George,
I am using the Progressive Suspension 1000/1200 lb/in spring.

Thanks. I am running 950 Lb straight rate. I am in good SAG spec at max preload.  That's in gear 225 lb, full fuel, tank bag, and 16 Lb simulated load on the rack.  Thinking about going to a 1050 lb spring hoping it will get me mid range on the preload setting next time I have the shock out. Hope the information adds to the data. 
George

[Country Joe]

George,
I probably could have gotten away with the 900 lb/in OEM  spring if I was going to be the only one on the bike, but when my teenage son got on the back, I knew there was no way that one was going to work. I'm working on a secondary chassis brace to carry some of the twisting forces acting on the upper shock mount, I haven't started on it yet but it should be fairly simple to implement.
Joe