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'26 Special Suspension - Fixed

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Moparnut72:
My bike just turned 2k today. I figured by now it would start loosing up a bit. The roads in northern Cali aren't that great but the ride on my bike is really stiff, more than my V100 was. I started doing some checking on different things. First of all I am pretty light, 160 lbs soaking wet. I swear if someone threw some change on the road I could count it. So while going down the road I put my fingers on the joint between the fork tube and the slider. Virtually no movement. When I got home to open the gate I checked for sag when I got off and on and there was none. So were the forks over filled, spring too stiff or did they put 80W/140 in them. Another thought this is the first time I have ever ridden on Michelin tires, due to their history of longevity are they that stiff. I realize that modern tires run more air pressure than tires from the 60's and 70's did. It is making me wish for the suspensions I had on my old Airheads. I am not a canyon carver anymore as I am elderly so I am not looking for major handling but I would like a smoother ride. Any thoughts before I tear into things and I do not as in will not spend big bucks on  high zoot aftermarket parts. I can't justify $1,000 on suspension parts for a $10k bike. I know I am whining but I want to do a bit of moto camping this summer but I don't want to get personal with every imperfection in the road. My V7lll rode better than this. I also wonder if MG is compensating for heavy Americans. I apologize for the rambling.
kk

YellowDuck:
There's quite a bit you can do without spending much.

Do a proper rider weight sag measurement.  If it's less than 30% of total travel then you might want to consider lighter springs.  One problem is that no one seems to know what the stock spring rate is.  I tried to measure the ones on my 2023 V7 stone and got 6 N/mm, but who knows if I measured right.  Race tech on their site list the stock rate at 8 N/mm, which honestly seems more likely to me.

If you have any sag at all (there really should be some, even at your weight!), you can do a stiction test.  While you are on the bike, have someone lift up the front end a bit, then let it settle slowly back down.  Measure sag.  Then have them push down on the front end, and let it rise slowly.  Measure sag again.  If the difference between the two measurements is more than about 10 mm your forks are sticky, which might just be tight seals still needing to break in, but could also be bent fork tubes.

Another thing that can increase fork stiction is the front end being twisted in the triple clamps.  You can see this pretty easily just by sighting the forks from the side.  The two tubes should be perfectly parallel. 

Too-heavy oil won't have any effect on average sag, it will just affect how long it takes to achieve it when you add or remove weight.  It can contribute to apparent stiction, which is why sag is best measured as the average of the stuck-up and stuck-down measurements described above.  (on a bike with externally adjustable damping, you wind the damping adjusters all the way out before doing the stiction test or a sag measurement).

Vagrant:
I don't remember if you got the sport or special. My sport with the supposedly adjustable front upside down forks is too stiff also. I think they pulled it off a Aprilia and just stuck it on the Goose. I looked in the book and the recommended setting is full soft. Or in other words it really isn't adjustable. I'm 180 + 20 pounds for gear and would love to be able to back it off four turns. Also if they had put in some rebound adjustment it would have helped. I'm at 1700 miles and the first 1000 was on horrible Az roads so it should be about as good as it will get.
I've never had any experience with these forks. How hard is it to change out springs?

YellowDuck:

--- Quote from: Vagrant on May 11, 2026, 09:15:06 AM ---I don't remember if you got the sport or special. My sport with the supposedly adjustable front upside down forks is too stiff also. I think they pulled it off a Aprilia and just stuck it on the Goose. I looked in the book and the recommended setting is full soft. Or in other words it really isn't adjustable. I'm 180 + 20 pounds for gear and would love to be able to back it off four turns. Also if they had put in some rebound adjustment it would have helped. I'm at 1700 miles and the first 1000 was on horrible Az roads so it should be about as good as it will get.
I've never had any experience with these forks. How hard is it to change out springs?

--- End quote ---

There's really no such thing as hard or soft when it comes to preload adjustment, which is all the Sport has.  Adding preload helps to keep from bottoming out the forks, but not by making them stiffer, just by raising the starting point where the fork is in its travel when the spring is compressed enough to support the weight of bike + rider.  Think of it as adding positive (compression) travel at the expense of negative (extension) travel.  In any situation where you are neither bottoming out nor topping out the forks, adjusting preload will barely affect suspension feel at all, except for the small difference in front ride height.

Michael_A:
Before you do any mods it would be good to make sure the stock suspension is not binding or otherwise having a problem. You noted little to no movement going down the road. I'd check the axle/pinch-bolt setup and the fork brace over the fender, and make sure those aren't out of alignment and causing binding. The front end of the V7's is fairly supple, and a tad firm but not bad. I'm at 240lbs and am impressed with the ride quality/handling balance. Perhaps there could be an assembly problem binding up the forks? I've seen it on other bikes in the past....

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