Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech RICOR install (shorten or not)

I know...plenty of other posts on this but I figured for teh search feature Id start a new one.

So...the question comes up:
Do I shorten my spacer by .590 inches (15mm) or not?
The answer is yes!

BUT Z, the instructions don't say to do that. Where do you get your info from?

Thanks for asking. I just found this thread on Rat.net and found the answer as posted by RicorSHX (post #7).
Link: RicorSHX answer

Zdenko, thankyou my friend. Your an absolute champion.

I read through the link you inserted and found the source of your "accurate" info ie. A rep from the intim's team who did say the spacers needed to be shortened .590" or 15mm.

Mate, I was going to put mine in today but decided to give my Xmas toy add ons a break a bit earlier and will pick up where I left off tmw. So whilst cutting down some PVC spacers wouldnt be a hard and arduous task after an initial installation without your info, now at least I know what I need to do and will do it properly the first time thanks to you.

I like a bloke who decides he's going to find out something that's not unimportant by any stretch considering we are talking about a bikes suspension.

Nope, you've just gone up a notch in my estimations and you were up there anyway. Blo*dy excellent matie.

Well...I have a tad more info from Brian at Ricor.

I emailed this via the website yesterday...

Question:
Hello, I installed a set on Intiminators on my 07 Triumph America. The only question I have before I button it all up is this: Should I cut down my spacer to compensate for the Intiminator or leave my spacer stock length?

Answer:
If you are under 220#'s I would cut the spacer 5/8"

Follow up question:
Im 300...what do you suggest?

Final answer:
I would leave the additional preload and not cut the spacer.

Ive got the shortened spacer installed and so far so good.

Well Zdenko, I am a tad over 200lbs which according to their reply means I will need to cut down the pvc spacers I have.

I was thinking though, what about when you travel and have luggage, and thought well, most of the weight of my luggage is over the back wheel meaning screwing down my Hagon Nitros about 2 or 3 turns and leaving the front as is.

That way all is good when I'm just carrying myself.

cheers and thanks again.

staffo

I'm surprised that you can even get the caps screwed back on your forks without cutting the spacers down. The intiminators are actually adding to the length of the springs, because the springs sit on top of them. I spent over an hour trying to screw the caps back on before I did some additional research and found that I needed to cut my spacers by 5/8". As it was, I ended up cross threading the one cap and had a devil of a time getting it back on even with the spacer cut down.

Stan, you're da man. You are exactly spot on here and I don't know why I didn't think about it myself. I guess having all those xmas presents to sort out before my ride on Monday, I never got a chance to think about it until it was mentioned.

So yes, obviously if you didn't know you had to cut down your spacers before you put them in, seeing them stick out an extra 15mm might have raised a few alarm bells. Then again, if nothing was mentioned, maybe someone would have thought this was part of the improved performance. After all, I have dabbled with increasing the pre-load by having longer spacers and whilst it was only and extra 10mm at the time it seemed pretty good.

I did have a hard time getting the caps screwed down though so I'm thinking an extra 5mm would have made it almost impossible as Stan rightly points out given the springs resistance.

Just a tip here for those who are considering this one, even with the spacers the correct size it is still not an overly easy task to wind the caps on.

My method involved using the correct size socket head attached to a small ratchet driver and whilst holding the cap down onto the threaded area with force from my right hand on the top of the ratchet, screw the cap using the handle of the ratchet. Obviously there should be no resistance when screwing (stop it you bad bad people LOL).

Anyway, It worked for me even when I dabbled with 10mm longer pvc spacers.

So now I can cut to the chase.

It just so happens that yesterday when I finished putting my spacers in but before screwing the caps down I took a pic of where the spacer should be in relation to the top of the forks and here's the end result which pretty close to the money or maybe a mm or 2 longer for some reason. It won't make any difference. Obviously they should be around the same height as your original spacers.

Btw, I still haven't gone for a ride with them in yet but plan on it just a little bit later, and, with no post New Years Eve hangover



So there you go. Officially I nominate Stan as da MAN

Well done Stan your my number one Fan

I just wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the instructions. Maybe they thought it was too obvious to rate, I don't know but regardless it should have been mentioned.

Hey mate, I certainly am not going to fight ya on that one. Don't know the bloke myself but if he's a yanky icon, then I'm sure Stan (former but not really former Stan the man) won't mind.

Thanks for the tip, I understand perfectly what your on about. Happy new year to you mate.

staffo

Stan the Man

Baseball's perfect warrior

Sorry for the threadjack, BTW

No mate, no need to be sorry in these instances. I understand perfectly your sentiment.