The owners manual does not indicate what the preload adjustment does, specifically, only that it should be adjusted to suit load conditions, riding style, and personal comfort.

The laden ride height is definitely affected, as everyone seems to agree. I can feel that difference myself. However, there is not agreement on whether it affects stiffness. I read the explanation of springs that respond consistently throughout the range of motion, and therefore preload should not affect stiffness. Yet there are many, many posts that I Googled that refer to changing preload toward stiffer or softer.

I don't think that this is a misconception, because I can feel a drastic increase in stiffness when I increase preload. Beyond 3 the road surface becomes apparent through the seat, and at 5 the road surface roughness is not only very apparent, but cracks in the road become very rough to traverse. This is not a subtle difference. This is a very apparent difference. And it seems many people have observed this and described it this way for many years.

When the manual refers to adjusting for "personal comfort", this perceived stiffness has much more of an effect on comfort than the difference in ride height.

Anyway, on my bike, it is very apparent that preload affects both ride height and stiffness. It is not subtle. I can't argue the engineering, but if you tested my bike at different settings you could not argue that this isn't the case. It's night and day. Maybe they use springs that are not consistent throughout the range of motion. Maybe it does affect shock dampening as well. I don't know. I just know what I observe as I test different settings to find my most preferred.

I'm curious what others have observed when experimenting. I know it's easier to adjust on these new Softails, and the suspension is new, though this perception is not unique to 2018 according to many posts on different forums.

 

More preload = less sag and slightly higher ride height. Also a stiffer/firmer ride. It's not rocket science

 

Funny this topic came up - I was at the dealer today going over preload settings & how you go about adjusting, now I saw a glimpse of the adjustment mechanism at another dealer but today I was enlightened that there is a tool for adjustment along with a settings selector.

I have to say that it might be easier to adjust but it seemed to me its either soft as a sponge or hard as a rock - I bet trying to upgrade that monoshock will be a nightmare.

Any way I'm gonna give the 18 Heritage a fair shake & then Ill decide in the spring if its a new Heritage or another model............Hell maybe another brand who knows?

 

Why would it be a nightmare? Way easier to access than the two on the previous model and there are companies that can upgrade the original ones or build you one to your specifications. All it takes is $. Am sure the after market guys will come out with alternatives over the winter.

Meanwhile enjoy the road test on the Heritage.

 

In other words you adjusted it until it was comfortable for you. That about sum it up?

 

Lots of people get their shocks redone by either getting stiffer or softer spring rates or can get them easily rebuilt. More aftermarket companies will try to get into to harley piece of the pie because of this change. Racetech, ohlins, proaction, etc....

Don't fret you'll start seeing fully adjustable rear suspension with compression and rebound damping soon.

 

Some people get confused. A spring generally has a linear spring rate. Let's say 200 lbs per inch. Which means 200# will compress the spring 1", and 400# will compress it 2".

With 3" of travel, anything more than 600# will bottom the spring.

Now, let's also say the spring is 4" long, but the geometry of the suspension only allows for 3" of travel. If I were to pre-compress (or pre-load) 1", I've already compressed the spring by 200#. Meaning there's already 200# of pressure on the spring, and a 150% guy won't notice the bike sagging when he sits on iI. It will take his 150# + another 50# of pressure to compress the spring any.

So yes, pre-load increases the amount of weight required to compress a spring for a certain distance, but it does not change the "rate" of the spring.

 

have you looked closely at the Monoshock? its easy to access for sure - but I asked the service guy while we had the seat off if you need to "cage" that spring? He didn't know right then but said that was a good question - However the attachment points & the adjustment mechanism all need to be considered & don't even ask about the Battery.....

Not sure what the need for anyone messing with the shock/Battery early on would be - but if you want to attach a power point for a GPS to the battery? that would be a PITA to get the wiring set up - at least it looked like it would be as well any fuel controller would need imagination to mount it. maybe the fake oil tank has a use huh?

 

But if you want to power something on the bars, you have a handy dandy USB power point in the headstock. Problem solved.

And about the shock - I can't see why you'd need to cage the spring to remove the shock as a unit. Maybe if you want to dismantle the shock itself. But it shouldn't be any different replacing a mono or a dual shock system. Just unload it with a jack and it should come right out.

Apparently, the battery (almost) pops right out from the right hand side with the side cover removed. Don't know about a tuner or where the diagnostic port is located. As you say though...hopefully there's space under the left hand side cover. THere's not much space left under the right hand side one with the ABS module in there.

 

I did not know their was a USB in the headstock - that's awesome!

The shock in person when looking at it looks as though you have to remove the tank (or lift it) as the shock mount goes up under the seat attachment behind & under the rear of the tank.

The assembly of the shock up close looks like a multi piece coil over system with a dampener at the fender base (which looks separated from the mono shock system - this was done on the earlier dirt bikes 92-96 Yamaha's, reminded me a lot of the dirt bike style shock ) the rear attachment point of the shock is over the top of the rear wheel - so good luck on getting up under there to get to the upper swing arm pivot - I'm sure someone sooner or later will be able to really give us a break down.

My hope is that the MOCO used a quality shock that wont need after market attention in 1-2yrs down the road? But over all I'm liking it - it`ll just be different than what we are all use too. The twisted cherry color is awesome too BTW.