Hagon progressive springs

Originally Posted by thedonal

It's good to read this Blue- I was dithering on whether to go for Hagon progressive or Ohlins linears

Hold on, I haven't said that YET!! Its a hypothesis until I have tried linears (without emulators). If it wasn't a culmination of springs AND emulators making it seem a bit stiff at slow speed and just the springs, then I might dislike the stiffness linear gives and vote for the progressive (for road use that includes a lot of town/commuting/minor roads) ...

I also need to get some thicker oil in there ... thinking of sucking 50% of my 13w out and putting some 20w in to give me ~17w oil in there (i.e. I am slightly under and thinking of going slightly over recommended).

So you're just taking AAAAges to get to the point, then?!

Originally Posted by thedonal

So you're just taking AAAAges to get to the point, then?!

Yeah, I have everything I need to try all the combos, but I very much CBA to swap the stuff about!!

Been out on the bike again today ... Guess what . . . . .

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Been out on the bike again today ... Guess what . . . . .

What?

Originally Posted by simesb

What?

I now like the springs!!

.. let me just put a few words together ...

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

I now like the springs!!

You're as bad as a woman...

Ok, so I had ~250ml of 15w oil knocking about (have a full one too, but didn’t want to crack that open as I think I need to be looking at a 17w mix and it would just be a waste to try a new pot of 15w beforehand). So syringed out some of the oil from one of the forks and put the 250ml of 15w in there (then resetting the air gap with the old oil).

I let the front tyre down from 34.5psi to 31.5psi. I also significantly backed off the damping on the rear so that when I pushed on the tank the front and rear went down at the same sort of time. The rear rebound looked too slow too, so backed that off almost completely.

Off for a ride I went … the bike was instantly better than what I remembered from the other day … a combination of the rear being a bit more compliant and the front being a little more damped. The rear being more compliant and the front a little slower too took the emphasis/load off the front a bit when suspension was required. i.e. front and rear was sharing the load more equally.

I could tell even at town speed the rear was now under damped, so I had gone OTT in backing that off ... no problem, I had a screwdriver in my rucksack

Long story short, after re-setting the rear so it was better damped, but keeping a bit of unity between the front and rear action/reaction the bike felt so much more predictable.

The bike still dives a fair bit under heavy braking, but now I have the suspension more evenly distributed I am back to something I can predict …

I am certainly going to put some 17w mix in there now and try again, but I think it is a quantum leap from how I had it …

Or perhaps I am just getting used to it!!

[Biker Biggles]

Hmmm.interesting.I have some progressive springs (not Hagons) in mine and might try some thicker oil as I find them a bit boingy over bumps.

I always use Hyperpro progressive springs, I use a little more oil than required and as yet I have had no complaints.