You can do just the springs. Traxxion costs about $125 which is more than Progressive, but not out of line. Give them a call. They'll give you the right size for your weight. Many have done just the springs and love them.BlueWing said:I would love to try the Traxxion, but I just can't justify spending that much money for the front end.
ddking said:You can do just the springs. Traxxion costs about $125 which is more than Progressive, but not out of line. Give them a call. They'll give you the right size for your weight. Many have done just the springs and love them.BlueWing said:I would love to try the Traxxion, but I just can't justify spending that much money for the front end.
.also suspect I may have hurt the overall ride/performance for solo riding
In hind sight, I was running to much sag while riding solo. I wish I had measured thesag and optimized it more.Max McAllister said:.......
I hope you don't mind if I chime in with some more info for you.
I can't say we have found anything wrong with the quality of the parts of the OEM Honda shock that could be changed to improve it. It is very strong and durable.
We have measured the stock steel bodied shock from many bikes with 100,000 miles or more, and have not found any wear inside of them. Most of the shocks we service still have the factory cross-hatch on the wall of the bore!
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I have never seen an OEM shock with a leaking seal either. Not that it hasn't happened to someone, I am sure. But I think if you can put over 50,000 miles on a shock with no wear or reliability issues, then it will be hard to improve upon that standard.
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You want to have a spring that requires very little preload; this allows the ride to remain plush on top, and yet the spring will have enough rate to support the bike over big bumps and big dips, and with gear and passenger.
The Progressive 460 is modeled after the stock shock as well. (We got one in last week for testing). They do fit their shock with a stiffer spring, although you may be surprised by it's rate and function.
The Progressive spring is marked "1000/1200". This would lead you to believe it was progressive in rate from 1000 pounds per inch to 1200 pounds per inch.
Using two different digital spring rate testers, we found that their spring was quite linear and actually fell in the middle of those numbers, around 1100 pounds per inch. It should work pretty good.
For the techies, we measure GL shock springs by preloading them in the same manner the GL shock would at "0", and then compressed them 1" and take a reading, and then a second inch and take a reading. This is all the GL shock will ever move the spring until the shock bottoms.
The stock shock spring is 900#/in.
The Progressive spring was 1050# at 1", and 1120# at 2". We would call this a straight rate 1100# spring here.
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8)
He was blind, ad I will help him to see! :lol:leaddog11 said:What Blind Yak said..........
(What did Blind Yak say????)
Nerds only for the rest of this babble....
To first order, assuming a constant damping ratio, the change in damping coefficient is only sqrt(1100/900) = 10.5%.
(second order single degree of freedom differential equation approximation). That change is a pretty small change in damping coefficient. In fact for a critically damped second order system (damping ratio = 1.0) the damping coefficient (c) is c=2*sqrt(K*M). A higher mass or a higher spring stiffness require additional damping from the shock to maintain the same damping ratio, but the increase only goes with the sqrt of the increase in spring rate and/or the increase in total load.
End of nerd babble...
Max can answer more technically, but your ride height will be higher because there is less sag with stiffer springs (free sag)Can I assume the progressive rear spring is ok, wondering if the triaxxon rear spring raises the bike. At my max height with stock now. So with added triaxxon front springs, and possible progressive rear spring, would this be close to stock height ? Only see the whole reworked triaxxon rear assembly on site? OPEN to comments too?
Max McAllister said:He was blind, ad I will help him to see! :lol:leaddog11 said:What Blind Yak said..........
(What did Blind Yak say????)
Nerds only for the rest of this babble....
To first order, assuming a constant damping ratio, the change in damping coefficient is only sqrt(1100/900) = 10.5%.
(second order single degree of freedom differential equation approximation). That change is a pretty small change in damping coefficient. In fact for a critically damped second order system (damping ratio = 1.0) the damping coefficient (c) is c=2*sqrt(K*M). A higher mass or a higher spring stiffness requires additional damping from the shock to maintain the same damping ratio, but the increase only goes with the sqrt of the increase in spring rate and/or the increase in total load.
End of nerd babble...
Hi Mr. Yak,
You are looking at "discount" and not "mark up"... :lol:
Going from 900 to 1100 pound spring is a 22% INCREASE in the NOMINAL of the spring rate. JUST the name.... that means nothing. In spring force, a 22% increase IS significant. It could barely be compensated for if you had an externally adjustable shock, which you don't.
If you compare those two springs, give each 1/2 of preload, and then compress them an inch and a half (bottom out on a GL1800), then you will have two inches of pressure; while the percentage change is the same, the resultant change in spring pressure is DOUBLE.
That means the damper is going to be severely underdamped given that much increase in pressure.
Don't know where you got all of those formulae, but the interpretation of this situation isn't correct at all.
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I did...I installed Progressive's front springs and am satisfied. I bought them for $50 from another forum member. That's less than half the cost of new Traxxion front springs ($125) and I wanted to change fork oil anyway. Since I've noticed a major difference in handling, I'll stick with this setup for a season or two.GL03 said:fatfender, im in the same boat. 17,000 mile and thinking of changing the oil out, so why not try new springs.
good question - depends on the spring rate and wether is a progressive spring or linear - I stand corrected that all "Progressive" brand springs are progressive rate - thanks Yak Man, you engineering devil :beer2:I don't believe (COULD be totally wrong here) that I'll see enough difference changing from Progressive front springs to the Traxxion springs,