Thats a great read, thank you. Agree, the RaceTech Gold valves are the best you are going to get short of cartridges, but these are pretty damn good. If I can find factory dimension springs with a slightly higher rate (to offset the effects of age and my love of carb laden carbonated alcohol and the goodies that go along with them) I think I'd be all set. Definitely the BEST factory suspension out of the box I've seen on a HD.

 

I had the bounce until I backed off the suspension adjustment completely. I weigh 155 so I'm pretty light. The ride on my 115th Anniversary Fatty is great now that I've followed the instructions in the Owner's Manual.

 

I weigh 235 and have the setting on 1. I stopped at the dealers the other day and took out the same bike with the same setting on the suspension. Got the same "Cadillac" up and down. I will try turning down the suspension one quarter turn at a time and check the tire pressures.

 

Has happened since new. Only have 215 miles on it. It is a "Cadillac" bounce as referred to in other responses. Up and down even on smooth roads. No vibration or wobble.

 

Yeah, exactly what I had.. Check the fork oil.. Once I dialed the rear back to 1, had factory recommended air in the tires and added the oil (actually drained and refilled) the bike rides great.

 

Check your sag first.

I'm sure you know more about this than I do, but I'll lay it out there, maybe it'll help somebody. Here's how I did it. Put a zip tie around the fork, snug it up against the fork seal. Lift up the front end best you can by pulling back against the side stand, get the forks to extend as far as they will, then snug the zip tie down again. Then slowly set the bike upright, slowly sit down on it. Get off, decompress the forks again, and then holler for your wife to come measure. Keep hollering.

I'm still hollering, but meanwhile, near as I can tell, I'm getting somewhere in the mid to upper 20's in mm. God only knows what it's supposed to be -- the dealer doesn't know -- but the rule of thumb is, one or two thumbs: 30-50mm. Your setup might a little heavier than my LR but I'll bet you're in range.

Don't want to go too stiff. I'm no expert, but I was tasked with setting up the suspension on our vintage racers, and got bitched at a lot, if that counts. You gotta up your fork oil weight when you up your spring rate -- in other words, up your rebound damping -- otherwise you get launched into orbit over bumps. Makes high speed turns more "interesting" than they need to be. That part's easy; if you have constant rate springs, they will rebound at a constant rate too.

Problem is, that's also gonna up your compression damping, and that's much less predictable. Compression damping has to take what the road deals out. You want compression damping to firm up the suspension under gradual pressure, like when you're braking, or leaning into a turn. Problem is, the sharper the hit, the more compression resistance you get. And that resistance increases exponentially. So a bike that feels plush on smooth pavement, and firm in the turns, will bounce you right out of the seat if you hit a pothole. Riding on a rough country road becomes more "interesting" than it should be; it might be hard keeping the tires on the pavement unless you can take the edge off. That's basically what the bending-valve technology does, it converts an exponential increase in damping, in response to a sharp hit, to a linear increase. Not a perfect solution but it does allow you some wiggle room to tighten up the low-speed damping.

That said, I'm not eager to have the high-velocity damping one iota firmer than it already is. So, I guess I'm not eager to firm up my springs either.

Out on the country roads where many Harleys live, I think the best solution might be -- springs a little on the soft side, compression damping just firm enough to where the bike doesn't squirm through turns, but not so firm it skitters around over rough pavement. Between the two, we gotta remember, we aren't on a nice smooth racetrack. Well, the track I used to ride wasn't smooth by any means, but at least it wasn't one big pothole patch and it didn't have suicide bunnies, unlike say CA-58, which is a fabulous ride if you can stay on the road. I imagine it's really hard to get that right, certainly beyond my expertise.

YMMV of course. If I was *really* a cafe racer, bombing down the turnpike at high velocity from one Burger King to the next, I might well want to tighten it up some. Where I ride, and the way I ride, this would be a better investment.

All kinda harks back to a peculiarity of these new softails. Which is, it's kinda hard to believe they are as good as they are, right off the showroom floor. But they are.