I'm in the middle of trying to resolve an annoying safety issue regarding my 08 GL 1800 suspension. On twisty road rides, I noticed immediately the bike's tendency to "bottom out", making footpeg contact while traveling at normal speeds. At first, I ignored it, but I wasn't happy with the bike touching down in this manner while not even trying to go faster.
The event that turned this issue into a safety hazard was a twisty road that I had previously traveled multiple times over the years, mainly on sports bikes. I was going at a reduced speed because the bike touched down on just about every tight curve on the route. On one particular left-to-right curve, the left peg made contact and caused the rear tire to kick right, so much so it changed my direction of travel to straight across the center line into the opposing lane of traffic. It was a blind curve and fortunately, there wasn't another vehicle going in the opposite direction at the time. However, I was now headed for the guardrail that bordered the opposing lane and on the other side of it was a sheer cliff. Since I've had a lot of experience on that particular road and to be honest I've pushed the riding envelope there and on the race track on multiple occasions. However, this was not a case of going too fast, as said, I was just going on a weekend cruise and deliberately kept my speed conservative because of the peg issue earlier. To get back on track, I shifted my body to the right and countersteered accordingly without touching the brakes. The right peg touched down and caused the rear of the bike to kick left and that saved me from hitting the guardrail and back to the correct line.
After that incident, I started looking into any solution to solve the footpegs touching down. After hearing a number of comments on another website, it seems most people don't have the same problem as I have with my bike. I figured it was either the suspension setup or I'm due for a suspension upgrade of some sort. On the latter, I looked at Traxxion Dynamics and Progressive. I ruled out Traxxion early on due to high costs and at this point, I'm getting more serious about going with Progressive. I had used their products before on my previous Harley Road King, I had the front fork internals and springs installed while I installed a frame stabilizer and new shocks. These upgrades really improved the handling of the bike, but it wasn't a true comparison because I never had an issue with the Harley touching down on twisty roads.
Because of the weather lately, I haven't messed with rear preload settings. I figured setting preload high would raise the rear a bit, but likely also cause a stiffer ride. I ride solo 100% of the time. I did a rough measurement height measurement of the foot pegs to the ground and came up with approximately 8"-8.5".
I called around to several Honda repair and service centers and focused on one, however, it was located a 3.5-hour ride from my house. Another that was local said their earliest appointment would be sometime in April. With the distant shop, I would have to layover in a hotel and probably hang out for 3 to 4 hours after check out because the job was estimated to take 8 hours to install the Progressive fork internals, fork springs, and rear spring. At this point, there is no guarantee the work will resolve the problem, but I'm more confident than not that it will.
Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but any feedback you might have would be appreciated.
The event that turned this issue into a safety hazard was a twisty road that I had previously traveled multiple times over the years, mainly on sports bikes. I was going at a reduced speed because the bike touched down on just about every tight curve on the route. On one particular left-to-right curve, the left peg made contact and caused the rear tire to kick right, so much so it changed my direction of travel to straight across the center line into the opposing lane of traffic. It was a blind curve and fortunately, there wasn't another vehicle going in the opposite direction at the time. However, I was now headed for the guardrail that bordered the opposing lane and on the other side of it was a sheer cliff. Since I've had a lot of experience on that particular road and to be honest I've pushed the riding envelope there and on the race track on multiple occasions. However, this was not a case of going too fast, as said, I was just going on a weekend cruise and deliberately kept my speed conservative because of the peg issue earlier. To get back on track, I shifted my body to the right and countersteered accordingly without touching the brakes. The right peg touched down and caused the rear of the bike to kick left and that saved me from hitting the guardrail and back to the correct line.
After that incident, I started looking into any solution to solve the footpegs touching down. After hearing a number of comments on another website, it seems most people don't have the same problem as I have with my bike. I figured it was either the suspension setup or I'm due for a suspension upgrade of some sort. On the latter, I looked at Traxxion Dynamics and Progressive. I ruled out Traxxion early on due to high costs and at this point, I'm getting more serious about going with Progressive. I had used their products before on my previous Harley Road King, I had the front fork internals and springs installed while I installed a frame stabilizer and new shocks. These upgrades really improved the handling of the bike, but it wasn't a true comparison because I never had an issue with the Harley touching down on twisty roads.
Because of the weather lately, I haven't messed with rear preload settings. I figured setting preload high would raise the rear a bit, but likely also cause a stiffer ride. I ride solo 100% of the time. I did a rough measurement height measurement of the foot pegs to the ground and came up with approximately 8"-8.5".
I called around to several Honda repair and service centers and focused on one, however, it was located a 3.5-hour ride from my house. Another that was local said their earliest appointment would be sometime in April. With the distant shop, I would have to layover in a hotel and probably hang out for 3 to 4 hours after check out because the job was estimated to take 8 hours to install the Progressive fork internals, fork springs, and rear spring. At this point, there is no guarantee the work will resolve the problem, but I'm more confident than not that it will.
Anyway, sorry for the long explanation, but any feedback you might have would be appreciated.