As you move the rod down into the dampener tube and relocking the nut you will get just that much more travel but there is not enough there to make any difference as to bottoming out. To fix this you have to get into it and understand how it works. There are no pat "do this" type answers sorry. Only hard fought knowledge found by working with the system you have and reaching your own conclusions. I have written some of what we have found here. You have to get the oil working without the springs and than get the springs working how you like them.
There were three guys working on this kit. We talked and looked,
and looked some more.
First stage, strip down forks to one
fork stanchion, one slider, one steel bushing with clip to retain,
one high hat bush, one seal and one seal retainer assemble dry
at this point. Check travel, got six inches plus with no dampener tube,
valve, rod or springs.
Ok second stage, add stock dampener tube
with valve supporting rod, tube cap, spring, stock spacer, jam nut.
No fork cap nuts or fluid so when you slide this back and
forth the spring assemblies are coming in and out of the top of
the fork stanchions tops. The travel was four and one half inches.
Note that in this state the springs are loaded against the top of
the dampener tube cap and are trapped by the jam nuts and the
spacer on the other end so the dampener valve is tight up to the cap.
Until the bike is full assembled with the dampener rod jam nut
tight to the fork caps and the weight of the rider is felt the
valve is always going to stay there up against the cap.
The stock length of the rod is limiting the distance the
sliders can move. Do the same test with two inch longer rods and
an extra set of springs for preload and you get back the
six inches of movement. The true limit, the max to be had,
is when the top of the steel bushing hits the bottom of the
high hat.
Now you don't want to ride the bike in this state with
the two bushes tight to one another there's just not enough
support and the front tire will bounce back and forth at
stop lights. So we came up with the two inch longer modification
for the one and one half inches of travel gain so that under
no circumstances could the dampener valve be used
to limit the travel for this we wanted a fluid stop and not a one and
one half long loose fitting bushing between the two
bushings already in the front end like the covenant kit has.
The springs that come with the kit are from ford tractors and are
the same O.D. and I.D. as Norton and progressive springs.
They start with a two and nine sixteenths free length and have
a bound length of one and nine sixteenths for one inch of travel
. From what we know the stocks springs have one half of an inch to go with
the slider bottomed out, that is the bottom of the stanchion hits
the bottom of the slider. We add one and one half of travel
with longer rods and the extra spring adds one inch and
the old springs had one half inch to go so the springs should
bottom out just as the fork stanchions do.
Now for the fluid control
if things were ideal one would have full movement with hydraulic
stops at each end that is nice and slow acting right at the
ends of travel. The best we have come up with so far
is using ATF for fluid and leak proof brand seals it works
on fifty bikes so far with no adjustments needed not
that there are no adjustments. I have one bike with stock springs
and one with progressive springs and i have to say
that I find the progressive better but the stock springs work
well too.
On the center stands these modified bikes don't
lift the wheels of the ground any more but still work for me.
The idea is to get the bike to go down from your weight
at least one and one half inches. Than ride around with four
and one half potential inches for bumps and the
one and one half for pot holes. Norbsa48503
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Some things that make sense learned over time as of 2008.
The dampener caps will be worn on your old bike, and need replacing. They are a big
part of how the system works. If you’re using the aluminum dampener rods you should
be running bronze caps, they can be had from Clubman racing. Leak Proof seals and
full rubber gators with a little filing of the top hat bushing will provide long lasting non
sticking seals it needs to be part of the package with the kit.
And this is just what I found others have gone on from here.
)? Every time I hit a bump while cornering or go up a driveway curb I cringe and wait for the whack!
