Lowering the front?

[WP50]

I have a 99 Venture that the rear is lowered with a Barons kit. I`m lowering the front with a Barons kit that come with springs ( progressive I believe) and Race tech gold emulators. Kit # BA-7503rs From what I understood in a conversatoin with Barons tech line the kit was sold for a Road Star least to begin with. My question is Might the gold emulators be adjusted a little tighter to account for the Ventures heavier front end. ( Fairing is the main thought) The other question is Would more spring pre load be a good idea in this. Thanks for your time WP50

Edited April 19, 2010 by WP50

[wes0778]

just my

 

Instead of going to all that trouble and expense to lower the front, why not just push the forks up in the triple tree one inch, unless you are needing to lower it more than that.

Something else you may need to consider is shortening the kickstand if both ends of your bike are lowered.

[WP50]

With the bars where they are at slipping the forks I`m told won`t give me much drop. I like the bars where they are. I have a couple of people on another forum that have these kits in theirs, they really like them. The thing is they had them installed, limited knowledge on my questions. So here I am BG Was hoping someone had played around with this kit, maybe someone in a shop that has done a few of these kits. Have gotten a shorter kickstand in prep for doing this I appreciate the reply WP50

[Freebird]

You might send a PM to Rick Butler. He has those valves in his RSV. I'm pretty sure that he actually ordered them FOR the RSV but he can probably answer any questions that you might have. Actually, I'll send him a PM and direct him to this thread.

[WP50]

Thank you very much Sir WP

[Rick Butler]

David,

 

I have looked at the Barons lowering kit that you spoke of. And yes they have packaged Progressive Springs for this kit. However this kit as well as the Race Tech's cartridge emulators was designed for the original Royal Star and not the RSV, even though they state that it will work for the new RSTD (which does not have a heavy front end). I think the reason for this is that Race Tech has no experience with the RSV, where they only supply springs for the orignal Royal Star.

 

I know this because I first installed their springs with my emulators on my 02 RSV and was confused as to why I kept bottoming out on harsh bumps. Then I found out about Spring Rate from my friend Rich Desmond who owns Sonic Springs and is also a endurance road racer. Then I realized that these Race Tech springs were not heavy enough for the RSV which has more weight on the front forks because of the fairing, etc. The springs that come on the RSV from the factory is a progressive wound spring with a rate of .90kg/mm. The heaviest constant rate spring that Race Tech offered for the Royal Star was a .95kg/mm spring. After going through a spring rate calculator for the RSV, it turned out that I needed a spring rate of 1.2kg/mm.

 

So in answer to your direct question on this kit, I suspect that the spring rate (not knowing what rate these springs are) will not be enough to keep the front forks from bottoming out on sharp bumps. Secondly these spacers they use to lower the front end will reduce the travel of the forks which is 5.5" from the factory. But if you do not ride aggressive and don't carry a passenger much. both of these Barrons lowering kits will work just fine. In fact in the fine print on the rear lowering kit, I think they make a statement not to carry a passenger? And boy the instructions on the front lowering kit really suck and are really lacking for proper details on re-assembly. They don't even talk about oil weight, oil height or much on the preload spacer. The instructions on their lowering kit for the Road Star (without the emulators and only $150) is much better:

 

http://www.baronscustom.com/catalog/display/564/index.html

 

On this kit they only supply springs and lowering spacers. But not knowing what spring rate they offer, I feel the springs will not be heavy enough for your RSV. And you may not even need the emulators if your objective is to lower the front to match the rear. They only make the front end handle better in the curves and respond quicker to road conditions.

 

If I were you, I'd try to just order their lowering spacers (which I think they offer seperately), buy constant rate springs with a rate of 1.2kg/mm and if you really wanted them, buy the Race Tech emulators seperately from Race Tech or your dealer (Tucker Rocky or Parts Unlimited sell them). The Race Tech part number is FEGV-S4301 which is for the old Royal Star and they will work on the RSV because the forks are the same diameter. In fact I see that Race Tech also offers lowering kits where it appears they address the issue with using longer dampener top-out springs rather than spacers for the top-out spring?

 

Hope this helped rather than confuse you more,

 

Rick

 

Now if I were

[Rick Butler]

Oh,

 

Just a little info on the Race Tech Cartridge Emulators. All they provide is a quicker action on a dampening fork, which is really not the best fork design available. It's been around since the inception and is inexpensive to build. But all the performance bikes use a fork cartridge design to get faster fork action. And these emulators (aka Gold Valves), are really pop off valves that sit on top of the dampening valves and can be adusted for the compression dampening rate desired. However the rebound rate is still controlled by the oil weight.

 

I first installed these emulators on my 91 Venture and have had them on my RSV since I bought it, because I like to ride aggressive and need better fork action. I've attached an article out of Motor Cruiser that describes these emulators and the process they went through when they installed them on a Vulkin back in 97, which should help your understanding better.

 

Rick

[WP50]

Thank you so much for your time and the article on the emulators. Yes it did clear up some things for me. The springs in the kit are 95 kg I verified this with Race tech this afternoon. Barons suggests that I use the 2 turns on the emulators for the bike. I to have my concerns as to the additional weight the Venture poses. LOL in my 3 conversations with Barons their tech has mentioned that he is a HD tech. The HD tech thing was mentioned 3 times in each conversation. Not building my confidence much with them BG I have the forks torn down and have a good idea of what to do EXCEPT bg for the weight of fork oil to use. I`m not the kind of person to come back and say you told me wrong. I`m am asking for your thoughts on the weight of fork oil to be used. Oh the instructions on the Barons sight for the Ba 7503rs are all wrong that has been pointed out for them. I was going to use 7 w oil but am now concidering a heavier weight. The longer top out springs will lower the front an inch according to the instructions, Oh pardon installation guide not instructions (bseg) Again thank you Very much for your time. Sir WP

Edited April 20, 2010 by WP50

[Rick Butler]

Well David,

 

Even though fork oil weight is probably as controversial as any topic, I would probably shy away from 7.5 weight which is generally reserved for inverted cartridge forks. I've been using a synthetic 10wt but after talking with a suspension tuner at the track recently about cartridge emulator rebound dampining, I'm thinking about the possiblity of blending 10wt and 15wt fork oil for a mid grade weight. But that's just me. And 2 turns in on the emulator spring is what I'm using.

 

Now on the spring rate, I tried the .95kg/mm Race Tech springs and they bottomed out on me with sharp bumps. I really feel that a spring rate of 1.20kg/mm is the right spring for the RSV.

 

If you need any other help, just PM me,

 

Rick

[WP50]

My intentions were to use a 7 w oil. With your input I`ll try blending a 10 and 15 weight fork oil. Returning this kit and going to the heavier spring you mention will be discussed with my dealer I ordered the kit from. I do have the forks off and torn down so we`ll see what happens. BG I`m very blessed I have a Road Star if the weather clears up. Thank you again Sir WP

[WP50]

Mr Butler I sent you a PM least I tried BG WP

[Rickster]

Does anyone know if you can remove your rear barons kit (BA-7530-00) and keep the front barons kit (BA-7503RS) in? I didn't realize my venture has both kits in it now and I would like to raise the rear back to stock. Would it be like doing the leveling links? Thanks

[Freebird]

Yes you can. A lot of people here have lowered the front and not lowered the rear. You will probably find that it actually handles a lot better when you raise the rear back up and leave the front lowered.

[Rickster]

Thanks for the info I was concerned because I didn't realize the front was lowered with the barons kit as well. I will get working on that soon, looking forward to seeing you at MD. Thanks