I actually tried a hammer and brass drift just to see how much ring movement I could get and it wasn’t enough to make me pound harder besides which we shouldn’t have to resort to the hammer method on a brand new, beautiful, not to mention expensive bike. So with nothing else to do this afternoon I pulled the shock off and using two shock spanners went ahead and made my first pre-load adjustment. I did find that the two adjustment ring nuts were pretty tightly locked against each other which made me realize I would have to have been more aggressive with the hammer to loosen the rings one from the other. Really glad I didn’t go that way because those ring nuts are aluminum and it wouldn’t take much to bung one up. Although doing an R and R on the shock was a bit time consuming I’m actually glad I took that route because it gave me a chance to get acquainted with the procedure which was pretty straight forward. A little tight getting fingers and wrench around the forward shock bolt nut but manageable. Also learned where/how to jack the bike up for the procedure and didn’t have to remove the fender or any underside fairings in the process. Used my Pit-Bull swing arm jack to raise the rear wheel, then used a handy scissor type jack I have that has two sliding posts on top with a V-support bracket atop each post. Positioned one each post bracket under the bottom rear-most extension of the aluminum center frame at left and right side, right next to where the swing arm connects to the frame. There’s about an 8mm empty screw hole at that location each side of the frame and just below that screw hole is where I positioned those scissor-jack V-brackets. Not having done it before on this bike, I slowly, carefully cranked the jack up until all the swing arm weight was off the rear jack stand. Really slick and again, didn’t have to remove any plastic body components. After making my pre-load adjustment, reversed the jack up procedure and took the bike out to see what if any difference in ride I’d notice. Wow! – definitely a smoother, less jarring type of feel, as smooth as my Bonneville with Hagon shocks front and back. My sport bike is now a sport cruiser and I’m not embarrassed to say I like the transition. The goal in the exercise was met and I must say that the Sachs shock turns out to be quite a bit more ride adjustable than I had imagined. I weigh 150 lbs and was concerned that there wouldn’t be much latitude adjusting for a softer ride and I’m pleased to report I was dead wrong and in fact it should be able accommodating a versitile range of rider weights. Really glad I got off my rear end and effected a change which I should have done before considering another spring and possibly the expense of another shock. If the Sachs can be adjusted to my hollow bone weight then it definitely has some range adjustment, and considering I cranked down the ring adjustment nut two turns from loose (factory setting is 4 turns), there’s still enough threads left to achieve even less of a preload than my 2-turn setting. I am really impressed. Unlike the more technical types, I don’t have the patience doing all the suspension adjustment measurements to arrive at the ideal ride, rather once I’ve got my shock spring pre-load set to where it feels right, then I start making incremental changes in the compression and rebound settings until by some miracle the ride fits me like a pair of panty hose. I do make somewhat of a measurement however and that is with the rubber bumper at the bottom of the shock rod. After I get the pre-load to where I think it should be, and I got lucky first adjustment today, then I raise/push up the beige colored round rubber bumper until it’s right up under the shock tube. I go for a ride preferably on a rough, bumpy road surface and then park the bike to check where/how far down the bumper has been pushed by the shock body sliding down the rod. The resulting gap between the bumper and the shock body tube gives you an eyeball idea of the encountered shock travel. If the gap is slight, the indication is the pre-load on the spring is pretty stiff. At the other extreme, if the bumper has been pushed all the way to the bottom end of the shock, then the shock is bottoming out indicating definitely more pre-load is required. It’s not very scientific, but it is an easy way to gauge the set spring pre-load. You can push the rubber bumper up to the bottom of the shock tube as often as you like to see how much your shock has travelled in its range of dampening the biggest bump encountered by the rear wheel on any particular ride. Hope that makes some sense?!
All in all, I’m very pleased with the experience, - learning how to jack up my bike, doing a shock R&R, discovering how versatile the shock turns out to be, and happy as a clam that by some serendipity, I got the pre-load close to right first try. An afternoon well spent. Long winded, but if Brammo had some version of this in the Owner’s Manual we wouldn’t have been left wondering how in the hell you get a spanner around that damned pre-load ring. Even the hammer and drift method is better explanation than none. Cheers!
