My bike has 22K miles w/stock fork oil. Under normal braking the nose dives pretty bad. Will just changing the for oil stop this or do I have to use a different valving, like Ricor Intiminators? Thanks,

 

It wouldn't hurt to change the oil, you would be surprised how dirty it is. Heavier weight is nice too.

A Harley rep once explained the rear shock pressure to me by stating that if the nose is diving too much, you may need more rear pressure. This is based on the idea that if you are biased too much over the rear wheel, the nose will dive more than "normal" on braking.

 

I'm 280lbs and I'm considering going to heavier weight oil to reduce front dive.

 

I only have 5lbs. in rear(I'm 180lbs) so I'll add some in rear & try a little heavier oil. If these 2 don't help I guess I'll have to get something like the Ricor's because it's so bad I believe it's unsafe.

 

Don't know/haven't heard about the rear shocks affecting the front fork "dive."

Do know... Changed the front fork oil in mine to SE heavy = MUCH improved.

Beav

 

rear shock--- ?

jeez I don;t know about that.

the job of the suspension is to keep the tires in contact with the road, traction = control.
( think of the toy car with 4 solid mounted wheels, skittering along the driveway...sliding out of control)

the suspension should be set "preloaded" so that the suspension neither tops out or bottoms out.

assuming the seals are in good condition, the OP should look into a heavier oil to tune the suspension for his needs- and TexFF you should post year/model as the suspension has changed some over the 30 years we've been using the showa forks.

in terms of fork oil weights- the viscosity is measured same as motor oils- as long as of the same type you can mix- and a 50/50 mix of 5w and 15w will render 10w...easy to determine which weight works best for you. precise volume is important


naturally the weight shifts from the rear to the front when slowing ( just as the weight shifts to the rear when accelerating)-- but if the suspension is unevenly compressing and rebounding in the front it needs to be tuned.

Mike

 

Use SE Extra heavy if you can find it... if not you can use Amsoil shock therapy 15wt. I use SE Extra heavy, i used a 50/50 mix of regular and SE Heavy in the wife's Dyna and it helped but i should've use all SE HEavy, no mix...I use between 25-30 psi in the rear shocks depending on load and type of riding...

 

Instead of treating the symptoms, treat the cause and that is to replace your spring with one designed for your weight. Would be nice to put some Ricors in there while you're at it.

 

Proper braking always utilizing the rear and front brakes simultaneously will help reduce front end diving.

 

SE extran heavy is not recommended for street use . Heavier oil = ruogh ride, id. Go with intiminators. Go to www.thunderpress.net. Search the column"Motörhead memo" an search for the fork oil article .