Hi Mike, no I haven't started! The reason is that I have been agonising over the swish front brakes you can see below. They are Harrison 6-pot calipers with 13" floating rotors, the second pair of which are close to knackered. They are also darned expensive to replace, so I am now gathering parts (courtesy US Ebay), having resolved to upgrade my sliders and calipers to Brembos. Parts are being shipped as I write, so when they arrive I can rebuild my fork legs to fit the CCE trees. So final build is planned to have Lyndall rotors and Brembos all round, which is also not a cheap solution, but promises greater service. More news in time, honest!

 

I'm curious, Did you do a rear stabilizer wobble brace as well?

 

I can't say enough about how the CCE tree transforms the bike.

 

Yes the CCE top tree was the last piece, I have done in order Bagger brace, glide pro front motor mount, glide pro rears bushings all helped a lot but the later was the icing.

 

I installed the CCE last winter. I used Race Tech springs and Ricor valves (tweaked by fabik8r). I also installed a True-Track stabilizer. I have 16" rear and 18" front and am currently running Dunlop Elite 3s. My bike is totally different. Much more stable, particularly on multi-lane higways or fast bumpy roads. Tracks great. Feels precise at all speeds. The front end is actually compliant now, and I have nearly no brake dive. I absolutley recommed the CCE mod - coupled with an improved damper system. Did it myself. Scary, but doable even for someone like me that has done very little wenching of late. (Much cheaper than buying a 14.)

I do have one issue. I get a mild clunk on extreme extension events, such as when the front wheel drops off a concrete slab onto another section that's 3 or 4" lower, or on the back side of harsh speed bumps hit at (too much) speed. Fabrikr and Race Tech have agreed that what's going on is the valve is not allowing oil to pass fast enough and so the valve is lifing off the damper rod seat then slamming back down when the spring forces it home or the slider changes direction and moves up. This is very rare. I'm not happy with it, but the handling is so improved that I can tolerate it. I'll fool around with oil level, spring, and preload (shim stack length) this winter. Maybe it will go away. Other valves or other systems such as Progressive may not have this issue.

 

Any special tools needed to complete the job? I'm assuming bars and inner fairing must be removed as well?

 

You must have an oil level setting device, torque wrenches, a manual, a device for installing the slider seals (cut PVC), a long hex driver for the bolt attaching the damper rod, and a camera. Some will say you must have an impact wrench to remove the damper rod bolts, but I've been able to loosen the things without.

I removed everything off the front, meaning every wiring connector was disconnected and the interconnect harness removed. I took one or two pics of every connector before disconnecting and took many (but not enough) pics of wire routing -- before removing the wire. Without the pics, putting the thing back together would have been hell. My SG has a number of unused connectors. For these I held a piece of paper behind the connector that read "unused," then snapped a pic.

Putting the bolts on top of the fork tubes requires compressing the springs. I accomplished this with the help of my nephew -- who is built like a gorilla.

 

Are the new fork tubes supplied longer than stock? are they required to use this top tree? I just rebuilt my forks and can maybe avoid that step. Thanks, Joe

 

You need to use the tubes supplied with the kit. They are 2" longer.

 

Yes and yes. The CCE kit comes with an upper bracket and longer tubes. You reuse sliders, damper rods, and top-out springs. I believe all other internals from the OEM tubes (springs and valves) are all reusable, but you have to add spacers to make up for the longer CCE tubes. Call Rick at CCE, he'll get this correct.

For anyone doing this I should mention that the CCE kit also comes with rubber donuts that must be "slid" over the tubes. They serve as stops when the front end swings hard left and right. Those suckers were so hard to get on that I sliced through them then zip tied them on. I knew I would be pulling the whole thing apart to fool around with fine-tuning and check my install, and I did not want to fight with the stops when I do that work.