Well then...just pick your feet up in the air in the turns

 

I've got to try this. Do you think it's gonna look cool ???

But honestly I rather scrape my heels than my pegs. New heels on my boots are much cheaper than new pegs .

 

Heels are also much less likely than pegs to catch in a road pothole or ridge and take you down.

Jim G

 

If you are going to race tech springs get the Race Tech gold emulators. I would also check with Works Performance to see if they have their front cartridge kit for 49mm forks. Progressive is the one size fits all kind of solution whereas a lot of these smaller companies can custom tailor everything to you, your weight and exactly what you need.

http://www.worksperformance.com/
http://store.ricorshocks.com/harley_davidson_s/27.htm

http://www.racetech.com/

 

Nice to see this thread still going. I have discovered a lot about my trusty Breakout over the past year in regards to handling. The bike from the factory is very "rear biased" - meaning, it has a strong tendency to lock up the back wheel first due to not enough contact pressure between the face of tire and road surface. The problem is created in a hard braking situation since the forks can't handle the weight and collapse / dive immediately, throwing the bike forward and shifting weight off the rear wheel. ABS guys won't notice it as bad but non-ABS guys will get some religion.

The front is always sagging a bit too much and reduces your ground clearance, in corners the bike is being pulled downward and contributes to premature peg scraping. Upgrading the front springs / damping will be the only solution. The factory springs are progressive, and a linear spring in the correct range for the bike / rider will be more ideal.

In short- No one makes anything specifically for the Breakout in regards to front fork upgrades. Closest you're going to get are upgrade parts for 06+ Dyna and VROD. I called Works, Progressive, Race Tech, Ricor, below are my experiences.

• Works was the worst of the bunch. They have nothing for the Breakout front, and do not plan to ever make anything for the Breakout front. The guy I spoke with actually told me, and I quote, "We don't make parts for the Breakout, it is an unpopular motorcycle" . Really??? Great customer sevrice there.

• Progressive was unhelpful, they told me they make nothing for the Breakout and might have something "later this year" (but I heard that last year too, so whatever). So, no springs or monotubes for FXSB. Period.

• Race Tech was helpful, nice folks. They still have a "one type fits all" type of application- Essentially, they told me to buy the Gold Valves and linear springs for the 2013 FXDB, and go with 1.1kg rates on the spring selector.
• They could not tell me however, the correct preload spacer or a good method of measuring the oil fill. Plus I'd have to drill out the factory dampers, and my feeling is things would be a bit hit-n-miss and I'd have to play with preload spacers etc to get things right. But, they did take the time to help and I appreciate that.

My last call was to Ricor- Now that guy, Brian, knows his HD stuff!

• I ended up talking with Ricor (Brian) for some time and on his suggestions based on my weight, riding style and bike, I ordered the Ricor Intiminators for 49mm Dyna / Vrod, and Race Tech linear 1.0kg springs for 2013 FXDB.
  
• Brian is incredibly knowledgeable and very helpful. Even though Ricor did not list specific parts for the Breakout, he knows enough about all of the HD bikes to pick the right parts - Including springs from a competing mfr (Race Tech), so I'd have the best setup. He also gave me exact instructions on oil fill, oil weight, preload spacer, etc, to the "T".
  
• Lastly, he also suggested the Works rear Softail shock as a good mating component to the front setup. So I guess I'll have to suck it up and order a Works rear, even though they totally insulted my bike.
  
• Now that is service. He just made a customer for life and will get high mention when I complete the DIY post here in the Breakout thread.

I'd probably give the advantage here to Ricor for an "Easy upgrade" as far as mechanics go- and five stars for customer service. This upgrade does not require taking the forks out of bike, or drilling out the stock damper, and the cost is reasonable coming in at around $300 for all parts, shipped including oil.

I'll post up once I have parts and get them on the bike.

 

Great info. Thanks! Let us know how it works out.

 

Skipper - will do, I'm looking forward to seeing how much difference this makes. given parts shipping and my lack of free time, probably have it done within the next 2 weeks.

 

Completed the Breakout upgrade and just got back from an aggressive test ride-

Race Tech 1.0kg springs, Ricor Intiminators, Pirelli Night Dragon Tires, EBC HH+ front pads. Seriously, no exaggerating, night and day difference. Rear tire sticks, no more nose dive, no more floppy turns. Now it rides how it ought to, IMO probably one of the most significant beneficial changes that can be done to this bike. Details on the DIY here, three of my posts on that page.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...hread-238.html

Cornering is greatly improved since the front end no longer collapses under weight, and it handles rough patches in the turn like a gazelle. The Ricor / Race Tech combo work very well. Unfortunately it just highlights how poor the stock front suspension is.

 

sell it and buy one of these.....

 

LOL- I think you're in the wrong forum bud, but hey whatever you like to ride is all good. HD's only here though.