Fearless
Gone But Not Forgotten
Alan I went to 70 series tires and really planted the front tire and I'm running 21lbs. VIVA 3 Goodyear made in USA just sayin... FredApparently the Beast is not done with the windmill tilting around the shocks, and I'm glad.
I woke abruptly at 3 am this morning with two words on my mind .... Tire Pressure
So a little background:
1) Like most folks entering the Tri Glide world, I thought the trike had a terrible ride and steered like a 1950's truck without power steering.
2) When I first did searches about the ride, I realized that lowering tire pressure would help, been running 21# ever since. The consensus was 20-22#, so I split the difference. Although I didn't know it, this resulted in the uneasy feeling in a 75 mph turn while going downhill. Felt like the trike just wanted to squat to the outside of a turn. Never really felt unsafe, or really slowed down much, but, the trike always had my full attention in those situations, still does.
3) The other issue was the steering. Again, a cheap fix was a lift kit, not perfect in fixing the heavy steering, but, good bang for the buck since it also removed the "load" in the Tri's "Pants" and help with the pipe dragging.
4) Recently I ordered Goodyear Comfort Treads for the rear, and the Cobra Trike tire for the front. With the softer sidewall, I wondered if I'd need to raise the tire pressure, and wanted to pose that question to the forum if a search didn't result in the answer.
So, with that on my mind, the Beast put 2 and 2 together and came up with 6 ... LOL ... or another windmill tilt or rabbit hole about trying raised tire pressure in the rear before the new "feets" were installed ... which woke me at 3 am. Went back to sleep, never removing the CPAP mask.
So 7am, I was out doing a parking brake adjustment )already planned), then off to Big O to have them adjust the tire pressure to 26#, as prescribed by the owners manual. Since I'm a fan of nitrogen, I figured go to the max, I can remove it in 1-2# increments if need be. I tipped the tech and headed for the highway to test my theory.
Highway stability was awesome. My least favorite turn in my neck of the woods was very comfortable at 75 mph ... who knew 6# could make that difference. But, did I destroy the good ride I had worked so hard to achieve?
Back to my designated test track to see how the ride was. Initial conditions, 36# front, 26# rears, 1 additional turn of preload (which turns out to be what it would of been had I not guessed about what I really carried), 3 clicks right shock, 2 clicks left shock. The weirdest thing happened, I expected the ride to be rough, but, it was very plush, almost too much. So, pulled over, got out my long screw driver and added a click to the left side. Redid the test track, and the ride was awesome. Went back to the highway, the stability thing stayed very good.
Nirvana achieved ... well ... at least until the new tires arrive and get installed. Then I may have to adjust the tire pressures some. :AGGHH: