[immortal13]

Well, I just had the pcs 2 1/4" lowering links and Avon 240 installed last week, and I'm having some issues with bottoming out riding 2 up. The tire is rubbing the plastic guard piece that the taillight mounts to. It only happened a couple of times, but I felt it happen when we got home and started up my driveway, which is a little bit steep. I wasn't sure what had rubbed until I looked under the fender with a flashlight and could see the rub mark on the plastic piece. Seems to be at least 3 inches of clearance between the tire and the fender with no one on the bike, I guess the spring is compressing enough to allow contact. Was wondering if the suspension could be adjusted tighter to fix this?? Doesn't seem to be that bad, but I want to correct the problem.

I am about 175 and my daughter is about 130, so approx 300 lb combine weight. No issue at all riding solo.

 

[toby]

Try tightening the dampener a notch or two.

 

[immortal13]

Try tightening the dampener a notch or two.

How do you do that? What is the factory setting and what would be the downside to tightening it all the way?

 

[toby]

Try tightening the dampener a notch or two.

How do you do that? What is the factory setting and what would be the downside to tightening it all the way?

It's covered in the manual. Section 4-15 and 4-15. The stock setting is in the center at #4 for I think a 180lbs rider. If you set it at #9, the stiffest setting, I'm sure if you ride solo it will try to buck you off and/or jar you teeth loss on any little bump.
It's not real easy to do. I think SmokenJoe said to take the side cover off makes it a little easier. I couldn't get it to budge but the guy at the Yamy shop did it in the parking lot on the kick stand with out taking the side cover off. he still had a hard time getting it to turn. I had him soften it up to #1. Then when I lowered it 2.25 the mechanic down the hill could not get it to adjust back up. not sure why but I will need it stiffened up before I ride 2 up. The tool do do this with should have been handed to you with the owners manual. It is not in the tool kit under the seat

 

[strykenshane]

I think everybody else that got the 240 and dropped the full 2" had to trim the duck bill

 

[toby]

I think everybody else that got the 240 and dropped the full 2" had to trim the duck bill

Ya and I think tightening the dampener does not change the amount of travel in the suspension it just makes it harder and takes more force/weight to get it to move.

 

[straightjacket]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

 

[11Stryker]

StraightJacket said it perfect!!

 

[immortal13]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

Ok, so if by making it a little stiffer so that it takes more force to hit, then that may very well solve the problem. I realize making more clearance would solve the problem, but I don't want more clearance. If I were only able to do the 1" drop, I wouldn't have bothered.

I don't really understand where you said "which will make it stiffer and more bouncy." Seems like making it stiffer would make it LESS bouncy. ??

 

[middleagecrisis]

You could just get your daughter a bike of her own!

 

[immortal13]

You could just get your daughter a bike of her own!

she's 12

 

[toby]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

Well ye that's what I was referring to, the preload adjustment. My bad. You are right our bikes do not have dampening but even if it had dampening capability that still doesn't change the distance that the suspension travels. Neither does preload. Dampening just control the speed in which the shock compresses, expanse and returns. Controlling bounce is the primary function of the shock absorber it self. Correct? Increasing preload increases the amount of force or weight that it takes to compress the shock. This may help from bottoming out because it takes much more force but it sill will travel the total distance the shock is designed to travel. Similar to increasing air presser in a air shock without causing increased height in the shock. Hope all that makes sense. So yes you will have to change shock and/or spring or cut something off to make more room for the tire. Man I can sure get to rambling can't I sorry. ;D

 

[toby]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

Ok, so if by making it a little stiffer so that it takes more force to hit, then that may very well solve the problem. I realize making more clearance would solve the problem, but I don't want more clearance. If I were only able to do the 1" drop, I wouldn't have bothered.

I don't really understand where you said "which will make it stiffer and more bouncy." Seems like making it stiffer would make it LESS bouncy. ??

immortal the more bouncy he is referring to equates to this. With the preload to stiff for my weight every time I hit a bump it wanted to bounce me off like a bucking horse. The shock didn't bounce more the whole bike did until I softened the preload.

 

[immortal13]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

Ok, so if by making it a little stiffer so that it takes more force to hit, then that may very well solve the problem. I realize making more clearance would solve the problem, but I don't want more clearance. If I were only able to do the 1" drop, I wouldn't have bothered.

I don't really understand where you said "which will make it stiffer and more bouncy." Seems like making it stiffer would make it LESS bouncy. ??

immortal the more bouncy he is referring to equates to this. With the preload to stiff for my weight every time I hit a bump it wanted to bounce me off like a bucking horse. The shock didn't bounce more the whole bike did until I softened the preload.

That's why I think stiffening the suspension MAY solve the problem. I realized that I won't gain clearance by doing that, but I don't want more clearance. That's why I wanted the bike lowered in the first place. I want the fender as close to the **** fender as I can get away with. I want a badass look....that's why I bought the Styker in the first place. If I was worried about my poor little rear end I would've bought some big old man looking cruiser, complete with a windshield, fairings, luggage boxes and all the other stuff I detest on a motorcycle. I really just wanted some advice on how to fix this problem.

First thing I will do is try the suspension adjustment. If that doesn't work I'll try trimming off the piece of plastic that is making contact....if that is possible. My ducktail is already trimmed so that it doesn't show at all when looking at the bike. The part that attaches under the fender I tried to keep as much as possible to provide as much support for the tail light as I could.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[toby]

Toby, thats not a damper, it's just preload. A damping adj. actually slows the fluid in the shock making it say less bouncy. A preload adj. is just pushing on the spring harder, which will make it stiffer and more bouncy, unless you can dampen it? Which we can't. Even if you push on the spring harder you can still bottom out it will just take more force.Our shock in my opinion on the softer settings is still lacking damping. Sooo, if your hitting under the fender you don't have enough clearance, you need to make the clearance or deal with it. Even if you stiffen the shock you can still hit, it just wont happen as often or hard. If you don't want to hit you need 3 3/4" above the tire. If it's hitting towards the rear of the tire your gonna be cutting something off for clearance.

Allright I'll shut up now. :-X

Ok, so if by making it a little stiffer so that it takes more force to hit, then that may very well solve the problem. I realize making more clearance would solve the problem, but I don't want more clearance. If I were only able to do the 1" drop, I wouldn't have bothered.

I don't really understand where you said "which will make it stiffer and more bouncy." Seems like making it stiffer would make it LESS bouncy. ??

immortal the more bouncy he is referring to equates to this. With the preload to stiff for my weight every time I hit a bump it wanted to bounce me off like a bucking horse. The shock didn't bounce more the whole bike did until I softened the preload.

That's why I think stiffening the suspension MAY solve the problem. I realized that I won't gain clearance by doing that, but I don't want more clearance. That's why I wanted the bike lowered in the first place. I want the fender as close to the **** fender as I can get away with. I want a badass look....that's why I bought the Styker in the first place. If I was worried about my poor little rear end I would've bought some big old man looking cruiser, complete with a windshield, fairings, luggage boxes and all the other stuff I detest on a motorcycle. I really just wanted some advice on how to fix this problem.

First thing I will do is try the suspension adjustment. If that doesn't work I'll try trimming off the piece of plastic that is making contact....if that is possible. My ducktail is already trimmed so that it doesn't show at all when looking at the bike. The part that attaches under the fender I tried to keep as much as possible to provide as much support for the tail light as I could.

Thanks for the input guys.

Yes immortal let us know how that works out because I'm going the same way. I really love the 2.25" drop and if it works with just stiffening the adjustment a bit with a load 2 up on it I may even leave the 210 on. But I'm still waiting for the weather to clear up so I can test it.

 

[immortal13]

I meant fender as close to the wheel as I can get.....derp lol

 

[safetydanny]

Hey Immortal, I know that when I went with the 240 Avon and the lowest setting on the dogbones my mechanic had to stiffen my shock to the stiffest setting. I had the same issues when I did mine "rubbing". I do not have a duckbill at all. I have the low and mean brakelight with my homemade baby bullet brakelights bracket. When I got my Avon 240 my mechanic told me that I had to "stiffen" the shock because of my weight and riding 2 up with luggage. I am not sure about the proper teminoligies but I do know my shock was stiffened. I have not rubbed once since I got mine set up. I am 190 and she is 105 and we ride with a lugage bag that weighs about 40 lbs. I have not had an issue at all!

 

[immortal13]

Thanks for the input danny. I didnt know the suspension could even be adjusted or I wouldve had my mechanic do that when he put the dogbones on. Im going to see if i can do it before I take it back to the shop just for that.

Does the bike was rougher with the suspension tightened all the way?

 

[strykenshane]

yeah, i don't think you guys need to sweat bottoming out the frame, just that dam beaver tail, that is why most guys with bigger tires have gone the side mount route with the plates

 

[immortal13]

yeah, i don't think you guys need to sweat bottoming out the frame, just that dam beaver tail, that is why most guys with bigger tires have gone the side mount route with the plates

Well im still using the plastic piece to mount the kawi tailight. Its trimmed where its only visible from under the fender. Of course, this is where it is rubbing.

I like my taillight set up and i like my plate in the middle under the fender. Im going to try the stiffening idea first and if that doesnt work Ill have to reconfigure the light/plate ect. Im not changing the drop