New Shocks for the Bobber

[MotoG5]

I ordered a pair of Icon 7610-1684 shocks for my V9 Bobber about two months ago. They finally showed up yesterday. I got them on the bike last night and took it out this morning for a test ride. I did about 90 miles on some of the more bumpy back roads I know with a few  hi-way sprints in between. I was doing some adjusting along the way as well.
 Conclusion: I am very satisfied with the set up for the amount of money I paid ($370). Much improved over the stock units. No more jarring hits to the tail bone. The bike feels better planted on sweepers, especially those with a few bumps or holes thrown in. I am sure that there are better units out there but for my style of riding these days the Icons made for a good and more affordable option to upgrade.

[bad Chad]

Completely agree,  I put the same set on my Roamer and felt a big improvement. 

Looking at your pic I noticed it appears you are missing the bolt that helps hold the brake caliper to the swing arm.  I noticed as I just discovered the same bolt on mine has gone missing sometime within the last few hundred miles!

[MotoG5]

Completely agree,  I put the same set on my Roamer and felt a big improvement. 

Looking at your pic I noticed it appears you are missing the bolt that helps hold the brake caliper to the swing arm.  I noticed as I just discovered the same bolt on mine has gone missing sometime within the last few hundred miles!

This one had me digging. OK that is not missing screw but rather the top of an M8x30 flanged screw that fixes the caliper bracket to the swing arm. Sure looks like a missing screw though. When I got to looking at the hole I noticed that it was in fact an 8mm hex socket. So I went to the service manual and found the schematic that shows what it actually is.

[80CX100]

     I put a set of 7610s on my CalVin and it tightened up the handling quite a bit, my adjustments ended up at the firmest 5 of 5 for preload on the spring and around 80-85% ? for the damping.

     I noticed the other day on a stretch of road with a bunch of small expansion joints, every now and then I would like my initial shock response to be a little softer/plusher but I would still like to keep a nice firmer feel for wallowy high speed sweepers. 

     After reading a few suspension posts this winter, I meant to play with the damping, but I never got around to it.

     I'm curious what settings you guys are running on your Ikons.   

     Tia

     Kelly

[bad Chad]

Well, by George your right!  Nothing missing after all!

How happy are you with the forks?  I find them fine at slower speed and any speed on smooth road, but when the pavement starts to go to shit in the curves, mine is not happy.  Thinking of perhaps pulling them in the fall and having them worked over?

[MotoG5]

     I put a set of 7610s on my CalVin and it tightened up the handling quite a bit, my adjustments ended up at the firmest 5 of 5 for preload on the spring and around 80-85% ? for the damping.

     I noticed the other day on a stretch of road with a bunch of small expansion joints, every now and then I would like my initial shock response to be a little softer/plusher but I would still like to keep a nice firmer feel for wallowy high speed sweepers. 

     After reading a few suspension posts this winter, I meant to play with the damping, but I never got around to it.

     I'm curious what settings you guys are running on your Ikons.   

     Tia

     Kelly

In my case with the Bobber being a light mid size bike, riding solo and no luggage I found that the softest settings gave me the ride I was Looking for. 1 of 5 on the preload and 1 of 3 on damping. What I was looking to cure was the very over sprung factory units. At the softest setting you would still have very harsh ride. It just turned out that the ride I wanted was at the lightest setting on the Icons. I did try them out at the upper range settings and even at those the ride was still better than the stock units but as I worked though it I liked the lowest adjustments best.

[MotoG5]

Well, by George your right!  Nothing missing after all!

How happy are you with the forks?  I find them fine at slower speed and any speed on smooth road, but when the pavement starts to go to shit in the curves, mine is not happy.  Thinking of perhaps pulling them in the fall and having them worked over?

They could stand an upgrade for sure. But at this point they are good enough to get by for now. Like you down the road maybe will do what is the obvious next step. As I get more miles on the bike and start to get the itch for something new the day may well come.

[kingoffleece]

They are damper rod forks.  Only optimized for a very narrow range and speed of bumps.  GoldValve is the next step up.

[Tom H]

80CX100, I'm not a suspension expert, but.... It sounds like your springs are lighter than you need. Check the number on your springs and then call Ikon and see what they think. Maybe heavier springs would help.

Tom

[kingoffleece]

Damper rod front ends suffer from hydraulic lock.  Impossible to remedy.