i was thinking of putting a shim in the rear to raise the ride height and wondered how it will affect the damping (if any) of the stock rotary damper unit. thanks in advance josh bredeson
IMO the rotary damper is such a bad idea that you would be wasting your time. Bite the bullet. Call Traxxion and get their Penske kit. It bolts right in with the supplied linkage arm. The first time I saw a rotary damper was on my dad's 31 Model A Ford. What struck me was that the arms had ben cut off with a torch. The idea didn't work then either. The folks at Traxxion said that the problem is that the rotary unit moves very little oil so that if by some miracle you get it adjusted right, it won't stay. Since I am a very slow novice, I'm probably not one to get advice from, but I can tell you this. I race a Kawasaki H1 in vintage (reputedly one of the worst handling bikes ever built) and it handles better than the TL did with the rotary damper. The Penske made the TL handle like a dream. Now it's just my fault I'm slow.
thanks but im not in a situation to buy a penske right now and am going to race at roebling in a couple weeks and need to figure a way to make my yellow school bus turn a little better. so if anyone has done this please give me some input thanks again josh bredeson
BTW going to Savannah won't make a TL turn any better either. You could stay closer to home and still learn that beast a-thang-er-two.
Hey vertigo boy!!! SHADUP!!! Quit spoilin my post , i was all excited when i saw new replies and thought some one actually had some useful information to add and then.... bang u come up with this useless crap!!! see you on the track SLACKER!!!!! jb
Josh, If I remember right, Tray Batey put a 3mm washer in his Arclight TL-R a couple years ago and made it thru with the stock damper because Fox didn't have a shock that fit the TL-R. Knowing that Tray did it doesn't mean it'll handle any better for you, but it's worth a try. If it sucks, take it out and ride the way it came. It's not too bad to take the big nut off the shock. Have fun at RRR. Turn 1 is fun on a TL. If you don't slide, you're braking too hard.
Where would you put a shim in the stock set-up that would be beneficial? On a standard linear shock, as per GSXR, you can shim the top of the shock increasing the ride height, but I don't see how it applies to a TL. Unless I'm missing something....
based upon visual inspection the shock length determines the ride height just as a conventional bike without an external damper. so by installing a shim between the upper shock perch and the shock mounting stud base i should effectively raise rear ride height, correct? jb
Correct, if you can't afford the upgrade this will help the bike turn. you can also experiment with dropping the front. I've been told no more than 12mm showing above the top triple. I'm running 10mm with the Ohlins setup.
