- Would you be interested in buying such a unit?
- What benefits, specifically, do you think a coilover would give?
Rob,
I think the front coil over is an excellent way to go. I would not be in the market as I purchased Works Performance units for any future needs.
For racers, there is an obvious improvement in weight reduction and simplicity. You get rid of a lot of parts.
The front coil overs seem to deliver a better ride. Carlteton Palmer has done a comparison and he far prefers the coil over to the twin springs. I suspect this is due to the different motion ratio of the "A" arm type suspension that the bottom link provides as opposed to the spring box attachments, but I do not have any number comparisons.
I have determined that the FF1 is strong enough for racing. I don't know about street use. I had someone competent do the math and he was OK with it. He asked if it had been done before and I replied it had. John Renwick used this mod on several of his racers successfully. I always buy a new FF1 because the racer bits I start with are always short on parts. I feel it is good insurance. The FF1 could be made out of 7075 or even steel.
The Works Performance damper works well for the front coil over because it is upside down.
Patrick uses them front and rear and I have not talked to him about his set up, but it looks similar to mine. The fork is at full extension and it clears the top link.
Our own Peter Barker was kind enough to thread this for me when he was last visiting. This was 6"to the top of the thread from the lower perch, if I remember correctly. I prefer using a short spring, but I was unable to get exactly what I wanted, so I settled for the 6.8" spring, 120 lbs., inside diameter 1.75", 0.262 wire diameter, 8.3 coils, 4.63" total deflection. I had to compress it to 6" to install the spring. I would consider an additional inch of thread, or threading to the top, which is more convenient.
The photos shows the fork at full droop and there is plenty of clearance. If I were making springs I would make 6" long springs for this use mostly because a longer than 6" spring does not yield any benefit. The top spring perch on this is a short one. The short perches need a lock ring. Works shifted to the long top perch, which does not need a lock. It is also much easier to install a longer spring with the longer perch, because you can start the long perch on the body thread before it hits the spring.
I have not tested the 120 lbs. springs so I can't give any information on them. Carleton runs 150 lbs. on his open D Shadow, but he says it at 150 it is a solo bike and cannot handle 2 up well. Works made a 100 lbs. spring that was 5.8" long.
David