What are these 3-3 and 2-2 from Howards you guys are referring to?

 

Ohlins shocks from a forum sponser on here.

I have the Intiminators with a 23" front wheel. Any recommendations with this setup that you can think of?

 

Just got off the phone with Brian at Ricor. Very pleasant and listened when I explained what I was doing. Answered questions without the usual CYA answers, and tossed the .015" shims and a few others in for free (to play with later).

They have a tool to disassemble the valve, and I believe he said it came in @ $20-$30.

One note: once he understood that I was going to be doing the mod's mentioned by Fabricator, he offered to send the unit partially disassembled for easier acess. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

The 23" wheel by itself isn't a significant factor so long as your unsprung weight hasn't changed too much. You will still gain better compliance across the board with the port mod. Tell me about your set up, springs, rider weight, lowered, current shim pack configuration, what are the handling characteristics now and what you would like to change.

 

The First Number is the Family and the second Number is the Length.
Check out this page on Howard's site:
http://www.motorcyclemetal.com/gpage32.html

 

fabrik8r, I have ordered the Intiminators and have checked the Racetech website for the single-rate fork spring recommendation.

They suggest that the OEM spring is a 0.58 kg/mm rate and they suggest that at 200 lb I need nearly double (0.95) the OEM rate.

Does this make sense to you?

 

The spring rate they quoted you sounds right, they recommended 1.0 for me at 220 lbs. They probably have a good idea about the OEMs being that springs are there business, I would trust what thay say, but I can't confirm or deny OEM rate. I had plans to build a spring testing rig, even got most of the componets and material , just kinda fell off my radar once I got the "right" springs. The OEMs are a dual rate so maybe the .58 is the "soft" section, also the 09 up springs are 33% stiffer than pre 09s, so its hard to tell which ones they are talking about. One thing for sure you're gettin the right springs for you. Hit me up before you start tearing into it, I can give you some help with sizing the preload spacers.

 

I have had the Intiminators in for about 15k now ...........(09 road king). At first there was too much preload. I had them change the stock springs for some progressive..... (brand name)....... progressively wound and have been really happy with them.............except for small sharp.....(mostly the asphalt and cement joints)......where I get a quick jolt/jar.

Will the single rate springs fix..........or partially fix this. Its way above my pay scale to alter the cartridges.

 

I dont have any experience witht the Progressive brand spings, but I have uses both versions of OEM progressively wound springs. What you described is something I noticed, and I believe it is a result of the softer section of the spring compressing quickly and transitioning abruptly to the firmer section, or the soft section is just too soft to provide the proper resistance. Progressively wound springs are more accurately described as dual or multi rate spings; there are distinct sections with different rates, they don't actually gradually transition from one rate to another. I'm not sure how the Progressives are configured compared to the OEMs, but I do know that once installed the OEMs only have about 1" of travel before they transition to the stiffer section. I can't gurantee it but I believe that single rate springs will improve your undesireable condition, and you may see benefits in other areas, even if you don't do the port mods. Tuning theses old damper rod forks is slow and labor inensive to find the sweet spot, but if you do the work yourself, it's pretty cheap and you can achieve really great results. If you are interested in modifying the valves PM me.

 

I just finished up with jvvjvv's Intiminators. They were brand new, and they have some additional differences from the 2 previous versions that I have worked with, I just wanted to share the observations. I noticed with this set there are several components now made of steel, that were previously made of aluminum; the top half of the lower housing, the piston body shroud, and the top shroud washer. The RIV piston that used to be made of brass is now also made of steel. Out of curiosity I put the pistons on the Ohaus to check weight. The old brass piston weighed in at 14.4g while the new steel piston weighed 13.4g. I don't think this necessarily a problem but it is a notable consideration from a tuning standpoint. Thats about 7% difference in weight for the key inertia activated component in the system. The piston springs may be different, my old one is black and the new ones are silver, I have no way of validating the piston spring rates, so I'll have to call Brian and ask him. I'll save the assumptions 'till I find out about the springs. Included some pics to show the differences of the latest version Intiminators, the last pic has the top shroud washer mounted upsidedown to show the before and after of the port mod, besides enlarging the ports you can see that ports are also raised compared to the original configuration.