I have the HD black diamond pegs with feelers and they give you a bit extra clearance as they don't have the little dip down the stock pegs do. I had a machine shop cut down the feelers so I could thread some titanium pucks onto the bottom of them. When I take corners and I scape the feelers now, they spark pretty good.


I came off a Yamaha R1 as my last bike, and several sport bikes before that. I'm used to leaning and I think the BO leans fairly good at slow speeds, however the faster you go the brake arm becomes more of a factor and I wish they was a nice way to raise that up a little. However with the 3" forward brackets I haven't hit that lower part of the arm as much or as bad.

 

Everyone- take off the feelers. now. they unscrew. ;D - i guess you guys are experiencing what I discovered and remedied with the spring / damper upgrade.

Let's look at the factory springs. they are "progressive" and have a few inches of "mush" stage so the initial compress is soft and cushy, then the stiffer portion comes on. but by the time you hit the stiffer section you are already too low in the front, scrape things in the corner and get brake dive, etc.

The stock dampers don't do a whole lot at low speed or anything else, for that matter. try hitting a bump while in a turn, at any speed, and you'll see what I mean about religion.

What's happening in the turn causing premature scraping: Because the stock springs are weak and dampers don't damp, the bike's weight is being forced downward by gravity in the turn. Where is the motor and tank of gas- up front right? a lot of weight there. Add to that any turn-in front braking, pulling the bike front end downwards and lower to the ground as you lean in. That is why, exactly, you are scraping the rear brake lever, pipes etc. There is no good front suspension in place to keep the bike up and at a correct clearance geometry for cornering. You're basically losing a few inches of ground clearance that you rightfully should maintain. By swapping to the race tech fixed rate springs and actual good dampers, the bike will hold its clearnace and you will have a lot more fun safer riding than you do now.

IMHO, I think the stock front setup is not only poor, but downright dangerous. the good news is it is not expensive or hard to fix. there is zero downside and 100% benefit.

PS did you guys see my rear tire outside wear line a page or two back? no scraping - these are just on 25-30 mph turns, regular riding. I can only do this because the front of bike is no longer being compressed downward in turns due to inadequate front suspension. I'm not talking anything about 'sportbike-handling' bs, just getting things to how they should have been to begin with. to me this was more of a safety upgrade than anything else. But it is probably THE best mod I have done to the bike, in terms of improving the fun factor, safety and bang for buck. Swapping the tires for the Night Dragons was a big positive change as well, if you have the extra scratch i highly recommend.

FWIW-

 

Yes, you can raise that bracket up a little by not allowing the bike front end to drop so much under load. Faster you go in corner, more centrifugal force, bike drops more. single rate springs and better damping required.

 

When I had my 48, 3 years ago, I fitted a set of Works Performance springs in the front end, with a set of Intiminator (sic) valves under them.

Unfortunately, when I contacted Ricor recently, they didn't even bother replying.

LA, how much were your Racetech springs please?

 

Dog which pulley are you going with. I'd like a black one but I don't think the black is shiny. Maybe I'll have to paint it if I go with that mod. Curious as to what you kind of rpm drop you get at cruise speed in 6th vs the stock sprocket.

 

Yeh Brian at Ricor does a crappy job of answering emails. I had to call to get him and place order. I can tell you it is 1000% worthwhile to get a hold of him, or just place an order on the website. include your bike, year, rider weight with gear on. Does not matter if you select VROD or whatever, just buy the 41mm Ricors. Brian will set them up and mail out.

If you go with the Race Tech dampers, they are good but require you to disassemble the stock dampers from the fork sliders, and drill them out. the huge pain in the *** is trying to TQ the damper bolt afterwards. The Ricor's are just drop in, use 5w oil, drop in springs, cut your preload spacers, top off with oil, and go.

See the sticky at the top of the softail forum for race tech spring part numbers cost etc- i detailed it all there including a printable 'step by step' set of instructions for a mechanic.

 

I went with the 40444-07 sportster sprocket - it is satin black but yeh you could paint it i guess. see 2 or three pages back I posted pics part numbers etc. it will drop your rpm by 100. not a huge change only 3%.

 

You decided against the Intiminators? Overkill on a Softail?

 

No you misread my post- I bought the Ricor intiminators, 49mm. I decided against the Race Tech dampers due to their requirement of disassembling and drilling out the stock dampers.

I bought Race Tech 1kg springs and Ricor 49mm Intiminator dampers- it's all in my sticky. https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...ools-tips.html

 

Sorry! My bad. Need more coffee - it's early here...