So I'm going to swap out the narrow glide on my 85 Low Rider for Wide Glide triple trees and I'm going to run Road King fork tubes to lower the front of the bike. I'll be buying new tubes and internals for the upgrade.

I'm going to be installing a RaceTech kit (springs and emulator valves) into the forks

Am I correct in assuming that I should run the stock Road King dampner tubes with the stock Road King fork tubes? My assumption is based on the premise that the dampner tubes are designed to work with the fork tube length, based on the different part numbers for the Wide Glides and the Road Kings.

The dampner tubes are drilled out to install the RaceTech emulators.

TIA Gents!

 

Two answers:

1. I'm not happy with the Emulators I installed in my Sporty, so I can't recommend them, although the Race Tech single rate springs are fine,
2. Road Kings came along several years after your bike, so it would make sense to simply build a set of RK forks, internals and all.

What I have found when mixing forks parts across several years is that there are subtle changes that are not compatible. For example the Lower Stop changed in 1997 and the forks may not work properly if they are not matched with the correct parts. I used later fork parts with an early tube set and had to machine mine.

 

Re #2 That's exactly what I was thinking, but wanted more input.

Re #1 Could delve a little deeper into the reasons for your dislike of the Emulators?

Are the Intimidators more efficient?

Thank You for your reply

 

#1. It's not a matter of disliking the Emulators, but of being disappointed with them. They simply haven't given me any noticeable improvement IMHO.

Are Intiminators more efficient? I'm not sure I can answer that, I've only used them briefly in a Glide and they were worthwhile in my experience, giving a noticable improvement, compared with the Emulators in my Sportster. However I have seen discussion on HDF comparing Intiminators and Emulators which suggested the Emulators are a better design. If that is really so they haven't given me any worthwhile improvement!

In all the years I have been a member of HDF I haven't seen any useful info on getting the best out of Emulators, if indeed they can be improved. By contrast there is some good guidance for the Intiminators when used in a Glide. I would further comment that the quality of stock Harley suspension is so poor, that many aftermarket add-ons or replacements are also suspect, by association. Few products currently available to us IMHO are truly significantly better than stock.

 

Have used the RaceTech emulators on a couple of bikes. They did well for me.

DO drill out the damper tubes

WP