well I decided to ride the bike more and get some miles on the adjustments I made. While my original thoughts after 5 miles were I nailed it, I really did not. The bike still rode a little too firm and the bumps were still transferring through the chassis too much. Basically the spring is just too stiff for me in the progressive lowering kit I have. Rode home and I took it apart again. As a last ditch effort, I decided to try the stock springs that came with the wideglide front end. I cut 2.5" off each spring to account for the drop in ride height with the lowering kit and the intiminator. I measured the fork oil and stock height is 185mm from the top, I have it at 165mm from the top. Put together and did some riding. Now this is more like it. The bike is smooth everywhere, big hits, small hits, washboard bumps, etc... The standard 05 wideglide spring is linear instead of progressive. Also softer. Much better ride. Cutting 2.5" off the spring firms it up, and the extra fluid slows the possibilities of bottoming. The front feels super smooth. I was initially worrid the spring would bottom more easily and I would have too much sag. Not the case at all. I think the springs allow the intiminators to do their job better and control the ride as opposed to fight against a too stiff spring. Anyways I am now satisfied with the front end, combined with the Ricor rear, my bike rides very smooth and handles tremendously well.

 

that would be the spacers you need to cut. I was adding a post while you were as well so read above. If you compress the front spring an extra 5/8" you will preload the spring quite a bit and really firm up the front. Figure it this way, on the rear if you normally ride the bike at say 2nd softest preload, change it to the firmest and see what happens. If your not heavy enough to overcome this additional preload, the spring will overpower the intiminator and not allow it to do it's job(Brian talked about this to me). If I were you, I would cut the spacer the 5/8" and return the preload back to stock. This will soften up the spring and allow the intiminator to control the front end through the fluid flow. Also, be sure to get the right amount of oil in the tubes. Should the front still dive too much and bottom out on you, add a small amount of fluid to the forks and try that out(like 1oz. or so). Also as I originally stated, i put the fluid in the front and cycled out the air before measuring and after riding it a bit, I ended up with too little oil in there as some air must still have been trapped. It could take a few tries to get this all correct. On the amsoil situation, you can order it from the Amsoil website and have it in a couple of days, or you can easily find 10wt Belray oil at almost any indy shop and metric dealers/shops(here in Pinellas county anyways). May just want to call around to the different shops in Bradenton Sarasota area.

 

Rounder,

Found a place that sells Bell Ray, thanks for the tip! What did you use to cut the spacer? I'd imagine there cannot be any room for error.

 

In my case the spacer is a pvc piece(the progressive lowering kit). However I would say dremmel or anything else you got that can cut metal...like a vice and a hack saw. just wanna get the cut as straight as possible. There is a little room for error, a couple mm wont make a significant difference you can tell.

 

Rounder,

What's the impact of using 20W oil?

 

I bought some 20W this afternoon, couldn't find 10 locally. Though I'm reading it seems like 20 is too heavy....?

 

From what I have read 20 would be way to thick for the Intiminators to work correctly. I just installed them in a Fat Boy front with Progressives and they sent me 5 wt. Amsoil.

 

You can use standard PVC (white) drain pipe from the hardware store cut to the length you want. I had some left over from a plumbing project. That way you always have the stock part to fall back on. And if you make a mistake, well its just some PVC pipe.

 

I keep hearing mixed things about Intiminators. Some folks love them but I'm always wary of the "I have spent money and time so it will feel better" factor. Some people just don't like them at all because they seem to give a hard ride and a weird non-linear feel to the forks where most of the movement is in the bottom half of the fork travel.

Personally I found a really noticeable difference with just swapping to 15W fork oil and taking the pre-load up a notch at the rear. It doesn't feel like it needs more messing with, its not a sports bike and I don't particularly expect or want it to feel like one.

 

Do not use 20wt....everywhere around here in pinellas I find 10 wt. oil.... Start making some calls to dealers your willing to drive to(including metric dealers). heck cycle-rama has 5wt to 30 wt on their shelves last time I was there.