WORST example of ATGATT EVAH!!!!Oh yea, and this week we are working on moving kiddo from his glide bike to a big boy bike.
An excellent point. If it can be built, it can be broken. If it floats, flies, f***s, or it's fast, it is going to cost you money. So far I don't see any difference in reliability or long term concerns between my Honda ST1300 and Dad's FJR.
Looks like a good fit to me Redfish Hunter, what could be better than a bike painted to match your 'name'.
Considering that these bushings are intended to be removed this way, a person would think the design engineers would have made the difference in diameters and thicknesses overlap more so that **** like this didn't happen. I'm still somewhat anxiously waiting to see what has happened inside Jasen's fork leg.
Something else that you can try between now and then is to go with a thinner fork oil. That will reduce both high and low speed damping and then you can just crank in the adjusters to get your low speed damping back again.
Wow!!!! You have way much more wear than I ever had. I could have gone to 100K after looking at your pic's.
I'm with Fred on trying lighter oil, unless your rebound adjustment is already close to being fully closed you should be able to go to a lighter oil. Its hard to give advise about shim changes without knowing what design Racetech uses to achieve the high speed compression circuit, but the large shims are the ones that actually flex and allow oil to flow past them so you can increase that oil flow by using fewer or thinner large shims. Changing the shim stack will not have any effect on the low speed compression circuit. Eliminating the middle bushing converts the GEN2 forks to GEN1.....which I think is not a good idea....but either way it probably will not result in any improvement to the harsh ride you are describing. The Big 4 from Japan have a long history of suspension that is undersprung with too much compression damping. I don't know if they are clueless about suspension or that is their attempt to have one size fit all.
The low speed compression damping circuit does not use a shim stack (and even if it did, the oil flow is adjustable). If you are going to change a shim stack you need to make sure you are changing the high speed compression circuit stack, it normally is in the upper damping piston but I have seen designs where it is on the lower piston. The large shims will be against the (piston's) valve and bend towards the smaller shims as oil flows through the valve and applies pressure to the large shims. Therefore, the compression stack will have the piston's valve and large shims closest to the compression chamber which is the lower chamber between the two pistons.
