Yes on both my Rapide and the Comet yesterday we used longer eye bolts, so the front end hangs lower on full extension without the spring box's in place. Using the original Koni shock unit on the Comet, it has around 60 to 65 mm of travel, and once the spring box's were in place and the bike on level ground with the rider seated it was showing about 1/3 rd of it's travel used, which I feel is about correct. Before attaching the spring box's we lifted the front end up to full compression and we concluded that it would take one hell of a bump for the suspension to move that far, but whether the spring boxes or the damper bottom out in travel first I don't know. But with Neal sitting on the bike the lower link was pointed upward at the front by about 5 degrees at the most. I will also try and show some pictures of the rear set up on my Rapide showing the Thornton coilover, and the re fitting of my original spring boxes in place using telescopic tubes inside to replace the springs. This is purely a visual thing, but it does improve the look of the rear I feel, even though some might think it not necessary.
From memory the Thornton damper I tested had 2.85" of movement to the rubber snubber. The snubber could only yeild about .25" once it was contacted, so that would be the total travel. The damper was the intended limiter of the movement of the Girdraulic as far as I could devine.
Thornton originally instructed owners to have 30% sag, but later changed that to 50%. I was always puzzled by this because there is no physical way to adjust sag on a Vincent, which was why I opted to make shorter springs that could be adjusted up to set the sag. It has become easier to think of sag in terms of the angle of the bottom link when loaded. Of course, the new steering stem positions the back of the lower link, that is the end with the large eyes, lower, making the back of the lower link resist rotating over the front spindle during braking. I would think that the new soft springs should err on the side of being shorter rather than longer for the same reason. Spacers can always be added. I chose 14" for the distance between spring platforms in the spring boxes, but I found it varied on different bikes. I think I measured 15 inches on a D once.
Thornton also recommended that the short eyes be used on the lower link to hold the damper due to the damper's longer reach than the Armstrong. Greg was aware of this, but it does not seem to be an issue with the new stem. It will be interesting to see if the longer eyes prove to be more useful with the new stem or if they both might be used for some fine tuning of the ride height or damper throws.
Thanks to Greg, Norman and Chris for doing all the juggling!
David