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Dans continuing fork thread

Submitted by dan_field on Tue, 03/05/2016
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Ok, you may recall my earlier thread about improving the damping of long roadholders. I opted to try commando stanchions and dampers. Having got the bike running I've put the forks together, there's no doubt that they feel better with commando internals but there is a problem

the longest unit is a long road holder stanchion topped out, the next is with a commando stanchion the shortest one is fitted with the commando damper and rod, as you can see it's nearly 2inches too short. Either I need longer damping rods or a longer damper body. I'll ring RGM who advised me and sold me the bits.

dan

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Submitted by dan_field on Wed, 04/05/2016

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Merci Guy , Le probl�me est que les fourches sont 50mm plus court en utilisant l'amortisseur et les tiges de commando standard. Je ne l'ai pas mesur� la tige de la comparer à votre diagramme , mais pense que je soit besoin d'une tige plus longue ou l'amortisseur est plus large de la P11 .

Basically the forks are 2ins shorter using the standard commando damper and rods.

Dan

Submitted by dan_field on Fri, 06/05/2016

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Ok the advice I have is either make longer damper rods or buy the longer off road dampers from RGM, it's better to have the forks topping out bush to bush rather than the damper hitting the cap.

will talk to RGM

Guy with set up you describe I think you will have the same issue.

dan

Submitted by barry_carson on Fri, 06/05/2016

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Hi .i tried what you are doing. the conclution was to go down the route of the external springs.mine has commando stauntions 10 and a half inch damper units and longer top bushes. standard damper rods. external 11 3/4 inch springs. to try and get maximum length/height. thats what i thought better to be limited by the hydraulic stop of the bushes not the damper unit which is alloy on mine . still need some oil seal holders to enable me to fit some gaitors. Baz

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Submitted by dan_field on Sat, 07/05/2016

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Nice bike Baz!

I'll see if RGM will swap the dampers for the longer ones, otherwise I'll make some longer damper rods that way I can use the internal springs even if with a spacer. My forks had external springs and had what I think are rear shock shrouds on top of the springs which enabled a gater to be attached at the top and to the slider at the bottom.

But my next question/quest is to see if I can get later yokes to fit in the pre featherbed frame, my bike is a bit of a special, my new tank has arrived from Terry Weedy, and to stop the bars hitting it, I need the mountings to be further forward as on the later yokes. I know it's not a straight swap, the hole for the spindle nut is much smaller on the later yokes. But don't know if the spindle is the same diameter and whether the later nut etc will fit?

Dan

Submitted by barry_carson on Sat, 07/05/2016

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thanks Dan it was just to show the springs fitted, when i did it i just wanted to get the travel on the forks so when compressed there was still some left on the damper travel same expanded thats why i tried one or two things to get that bush to bush travel without having the damper unit foul up, not saying its correct just does for me. i wouldnt know if the later yokes could be fitted i suppose anything is possible . Baz

Submitted by dan_field on Mon, 04/07/2016

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I though Id update where I am with my forks, I bought commando dampers rods springs and stanchions for my long roadholders but found that with the standard rods the fork height was reduced by about 1 1/2 inches, what I should have bought is the longer damper (from the P11?) having used them i couldn't return them but I was able to regain the fork height by tapping a piece of tube and extending the damper rod. Careful measurement means that the rod stays in the damper and doesn't top or bottom out. It does mean that the Commando internal springs are a little short, but they can be lengthened with a bit of spring or space depewnding on how hard you want the ride. But the result - currently with 10 wght oil is pretty good with reasonable damping both in compression and rebound. infact rebound was so good I had to reduce the oil wght. I'll post a pic later

 


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