Intiminators update

So I've been riding with these Intiminators installed in my front forks for 2 weeks now. I've ridden approximately 1,000 Km and I'm very pleased to report that they seem to be well worth the $150 (that was special introductory price, 50% off). They're made by a relatively new company, called Ricor Racing Shocks, and I suspect their going steal away many of Race Tech's customers as they compete with the popular Gold Valve cartridge emulators for damper rod forks.

From the factory, the SV's front suspension has fairly soft spings (0.67 Kg/mm) and an uneven amount of crappy 5W fork oil. Being the low budget damper rod forks they are, they don't offer much in the way of adjustability: you can adjust preload to set the sag and that's it. When I first bought the bike, I tried cranking the preload as far as it would go, but still the sag was too much for my ~ 200 lbs. So I changed out the fork oil for some 15W and added about 5 big heavy duty washers in each fork leg to act as additional spacers to give me some more preload adjustment (5 washers were about 1.5 cm). It helped a little, as I was finally able to set the sag properly (~ 30 mm) but with 15W oil in damper rod forks, it's a compromise. Gone was the squishy & plush ride, and also gone was the hard nose dive under hard braking. It handled more like a real sport bike with the heavier oil -- much more firm, but small bumps were quite harsh. In fact, I found myself avoiding most bumps on the road when possible.

So now having gone back to 5W oil (as Ricor recommends), and having removed the extra spacers, I installed the Intiminators just below the soft factory springs - they sit directly on top of the damping rod. And like magic, there is no longer any compromise: the soft plus feel is back when riding around town, yet when I want to get on it hard in a nice turn, the suspension is firm like when I had 15W fork oil. And the front doesn't dive under braking (no more than it should). So this $150 upgrade has been like upgrading to a set of quality cartridge forks. The downside, however, is that there is still no adjustability for compression or rebound damping. Whatever... combined with the ZX-14 shock I installed in the rear last month, it feels like a new bike. Problem is that I feel myself wanting to ride faster. Maybe I should be thinking about a cruiser or a big thumper?! I did go to the Honda dealer this evening to have a good look at a 2008 XR650L...