Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech question; myBA/rides a bit stffer/than my shadow ?

I have a 2004 BA, It is more fun to ride thanmy 2003 honda ace shadow / you might say the ACEs a liitle mushy.which to me is great............. thats the ride i like.Something has to be done, to make this BA ride more like the shadow.Has any one any suggestions that might help me decide what i need to do? thanks for any help. bob s

To many hot rods and bikes.equal to much up keep.

Tell us which shocks you have. To date, the smoothet shocks I've ridden have been Progressive 440s, buttery smooth and the price reflects that. I suspect Hagon Nitro shocks fit in that same category but I have no experience with them. For me, Hagon's 2810 shock was the best compromise between comfort and money...although I have to admit a cost benefit analysis over the length of ownership reduces the high price tag of top line shocks to sensible proportions. Now if I could just convince myself to fork over the big moolah...

Maybe you're too light for the springs.
6 meals a day for a couple months will fix you right up.

Quite the funny guy this morning brian!!


Old roadie how you been man I haven't been here in awhile.I was speaking of just the front being stiffer than i think it ought to be???----different springs maybe???? bob s

Lighter oil or less preload via the spacer are the first things I would try.

What Z said. Our bikes run 10 wt. fork oil; you could make some 7.5 by mixing a container of 5wt. with 10wt. Or you could just try 5 wt.

The bigger question might be how much sag do you have up front. Seems like 25mm of load is the desired amount, when you sit on the bike do you get that? If not, you likely have too much preload and you need a shorter spacer. Don't cut the stock ones, by some PVC and cut that to suit.

Hey thats exactlty what i needed to hear. .I know where to start now .that spacer is about 3/4" conduit isn't it. jus checkin before i pik up the pvc. thank you ole roadie, are you gonna chase these singers ,and such around a lot longer??I am redoing a 55 chev bel-air at present. back to my roots see ya buddie bob s thanks again

I remember putting about a 5% mix in for fork oil


btw "no sag" I have to really hit the bars with the hand brake on,to get bounce out of it as it is right now . My shadow i can bounce with one hand standing next to it. not so with the BA

funny i put those progressives on the front the other day and cut the spacer so they were the same length as the OEM and the ride is much much better, no jolting on harsh bumps etc, rides so much nicer.

I'm thinking Bob rebuilt a wrecked bike that had big front end damage. He might not have access to the original spacers, original springs or both.

As you found, matching the stock length with Progressives works nice. That's how mine is set up too,

Yes, PVC Schedule 40.

Okay, so you got it on the lift and the fork nut is undone; how much spacer is protruding? It'll be easier to reverse engineer this...

OK the .........top nut is out ...the spacer stands just above "level" a 1/4" .............above the threads of the tube.I have to force the spring down .turning the top nuts at the same time till the threads catch