Feather Bed Ride

A big thanks to John at Landsdowne Eng.

The new fork internals were fitted yesterday (Saturday) in mid 30 ambients, and of course today, the test day was predicted showers. Well the ride quality is fantastic, in fact now the Hagon's on the rear feel lacking! I followed the setting up proceedure and filled with 160cc of 10wt fork oil with a dash of friction modifier included in the quantity. I was careful to check the fork action for stiction, and was relieved to find my stanchions are straight and true. I did reuse some original sintered bronze top bushes, with a skim taken out to alloy them to slide without drag over the sliders. I was in such a hurry to check these dampers I re used my fork seals, alas they maybe leaking now. I have the needle valves set out to a soft setting, 2 turns out. It is such a novelty for me to have forks that respond to road irregularities, and occillate up and down through gear changes.
The only thing that is annoying is I am getting some rattling sounds as the forks work, not sure what it is. And yes I screwed the damper rods into the top nuts!
I am wondering if the springs are rattling? I did switch back to my progressive springs and without extra preload they seem fine on the Landsdowne setup?
I was wondering, if it would do any harm to fit a nylon sleeve between the damper rod and spring, there is 10 inches of damper shaft exposed on fully closed up position, so you could float a reasonable length of sleeve in there to reduce spring snaking, has anyone tried this before I bugger around and try?

Great product, for anyone who enjoys riding your bike.

Cheers Richard

Good to read road absorbing riding. Must lift front and handle wiggle jar etc forks in any way ya can to find the action that rattles, or not. Ancient practice to put solid spacer of various lengths t take up slack of add preload. I suggest a small stiffer spring section myself. Suspect top bush slack before spring rattle as springs should be trapped with a rider on. Could be your headlight assembly, also. Ah the joys of ongoing fretting, even after getting a good runner going.

Were you previously using the Covenant Kit, or equivalant?

Re covenant kit, yes I had the long bushes and relocated bottom damper holes. I am not getting any top out or bottom out. Just a rattling sound as the forks are moving. I can't feel any slack in the sliders, although I did skim out the bushes a wisker to make them slide really freely, just some high spots were relieved really.

Cheers Richard

Did you remove the sliding sleeves that came with the Covenant kit off of the tubes?

Okay see what you are getting at, but I had made my own extended top bushes from bronze. And replaced these with the old sintered bronze bushed that I skimed to relieve the high spots and make them slide easy. I am still keen when time allow to have a crack at making up some PTFE bushes, checked out the price of PEEK man that stuff is too rich for me, $800 for a 300m piece of 50mm rod.
So I will machine up the ptfe, close to size and let it normalise for a couple of days and the finish to size. I will need to make up a mandrel to machine it.
I have to put my mates T120 engine bqack together so this project may languish for a while.

Cheers Richard

stockie2 said:

Okay see what you are getting at, but I had made my own extended top bushes from bronze. And replaced these with the old sintered bronze bushed that I skimed to relieve the high spots and make them slide easy. I am still keen when time allow to have a crack at making up some PTFE bushes, checked out the price of PEEK man that stuff is too rich for me, $800 for a 300m piece of 50mm rod.
So I will machine up the ptfe, close to size and let it normalise for a couple of days and the finish to size. I will need to make up a mandrel to machine it.
I have to put my mates T120 engine bqack together so this project may languish for a while.

Cheers Richard

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I would very much like to know if your nylon sleeve idea works on the fork springs. UHMW would be the best material for that application. This would eliminate some friction. $800 is way too much for plastic bushings when you can get them for $155 ready to install for both tops and bottoms made from the best material - Turcite, at the website below.