Shock pre load on CSC Trike

[Mikethetrike]

I have a Goldwing 1800 CSC Trike. I have been playing around with the preload on the rear shock, tried 0 to 20 in 5 intervals under various conditions and loads but it seems to make little diffrence.

What settings do you fellow CSC trike owners run with, do you find the changes significant or marginal.

Thanks for any info

Mike

[BlueTrinity]

Believe me Mike, I'm a tinkerer and never hesitate to take something apart or to adjust things that aren't designed to be adjustable, but I have resisted the temptation to tinker with the pre-load on mine "just to see what happens."

We have the CSC too, and have been extremely happy with the ride as set by the installer and if I thought it were too hard or too soft, I would not hesitate to adjust it.

My experience at "fixin' things whut ain't broke", tells me that if I adjust it once, my mind (and probably my wife as well) will tell me that that I screwed it up and to keep adjusting it till I get it right. And I know that somehow, I'll never get it back to the same level of satisfaction I have right now.

[Baz]

I have a Goldwing 1800 CSC Trike. I have been playing around with the preload on the rear shock, tried 0 to 20 in 5 intervals under various conditions and loads but it seems to make little diffrence.

What settings do you fellow CSC trike owners run with, do you find the changes significant or marginal.

Thanks for any info

Mike

Hi Mike, remember Preload Front and Rear is used simply to set the ride height of the bike,( is called static sag ) or Trike in this case. The dampening ( compression & rebound ) controls the ability of the wheel to follow the road surface & ride Quality. ie if the spring is too soft the the forks or shock sits too low & uses more of the available travel than is desirable, too hard & they sit too high in the stroke meaning they cant function as too little travel is used. So you can see that the spring has little to do with the ride being hard or soft.

ps. I'm more than happy to explain this in more detail if you so wish. regards Baz.

[ben721364]

Great post. You laid it out far better than I could have.

Hi Mike, remember Preload Front and Rear is used simply to set the ride height of the bike,( is called static sag ) or Trike in this case. The dampening ( compression & rebound ) controls the ability of the wheel to follow the road surface & ride Quality. ie if the spring is too soft the the forks or shock sits too low & uses more of the available travel than is desirable, too hard & they sit too high in the stroke meaning they cant function as too little travel is used. So you can see that the spring has little to do with the ride being hard or soft.

ps. I'm more than happy to explain this in more detail if you so wish. regards Baz.

[Mikethetrike]

Hi Mike, remember Preload Front and Rear is used simply to set the ride height of the bike,( is called static sag ) or Trike in this case. The dampening ( compression & rebound ) controls the ability of the wheel to follow the road surface & ride Quality. ie if the spring is too soft the the forks or shock sits too low & uses more of the available travel than is desirable, too hard & they sit too high in the stroke meaning they cant function as too little travel is used. So you can see that the spring has little to do with the ride being hard or soft.

ps. I'm more than happy to explain this in more detail if you so wish. regards Baz.

Thanks Baz, and all, I was expecting it to improve the handling on the corners on the harder settings but as I understand it now, it is only to compensate for extra weight to maintain ride height.

Must stop pressing all these buttons.....