So the new Tiger has pretty severe front dive on heavy braking. This is a common on these bikes but I am thinking about firming it up as I will mostly ride on road. There are progressive springs and emulators available. Which would be better for my application or should I think about doing both. I doubt this will happen soon but I can't find anything else this bike needs so I am trying to figure out a plan.
Try a preload spacer first
Zomby Woof wrote: Try a preload spacer first
And some fresh oil, maybe a bit heavier too.
Oil is cheap(ish) and very effective at tuning/controlling brake dive.
Ok, the bike didn't come with preload adjustment but I know that you can get some from another triumph.
Oil should be easy with the lower retention bolt pulled, right?
singleslammer wrote: Ok, the bike didn't come with preload adjustment but I know that you can get some from another triumph. Oil should be easy with the lower retention bolt pulled, right?
Pre load happens with a piece of tubing above your spring in the shock assembly. It compresses your spring at rest and effectively lessens total overall travel. You will need to take it apart and play with length of tube to fine tune.
For oil, you can just use a big syringe or fluid pump from the top. I haven't had a fork with a drain personally yet.
Different bike, but same scenario. My 00 SV650 had a similar issue. I went with race tech emulators and heavier springs at first. The first shop botched the job and it was discovered when I brought it to another for suspension tuning. They fixed the drilled holes in the fork to let the emulators work properly and shimmed the pre load a little more.
I wish I could say I was a good enough rider to truley notice all of the differences, but what I did notice was. A. With the springs only, it would dive less, but would still sometime wander a bit at full lean. 2. with the emulators, it wandered a bit less at full lean.
This bike was ridden hard in the canyons, but even harder on track days. Mot of the difference could be felt on the track, but the stability with the emulators was nice when you cooked a corner a little bit or needed to correct line at aggressive angles.
singleslammer wrote: Oil should be easy with the lower retention bolt pulled, right?
Most forks have a drain with a small bolt or screw at the bottom. Pull it and the oil drains out. That's the easy part.
Somewhat harder is getting oil in. That is normally done via the cap on the top of the fork tube. Measured amount with a specific column height in the fork tube.
Theoretically, oil can be added via the drain plug with a vacuum setup. Not worth the hassle, imo, and the inaccuracy.
singleslammer wrote: Ok, the bike didn't come with preload adjustment but I know that you can get some from another triumph.
Not sure what you're saying here. You can't just take preload from one bike and somehow apply it to another.
I check preload by measuring the amount of sag, from fully extended to ride height with a rider mounted.
I cut a piece of PVC pipe to length to shim the springs.
I've been very happy with emulators.
I try to use straight wound springs as I was taught that progressive springs waste suspension travel.
In reply to foxtrapper:
It is just the adjustment caps. This is a common upgrade. It is from another triumph model that has similar forks.
Oil will help BUT there's a trade off it will slow fork travel in both directions. This may or may not be helpful. Emulators are adjustable in each direction. As for preload check it but its likely close so your left with spring changes I like progressive rates with Emulators on my track bike but some don't.
I'd start with oil as its cheap but no more the 8 viscosity points over what the manual calls for try it then if still unhappy go with emulators.
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