Nose dive?

[Mtdew57]

On the road home from work at night I usually see more deer than vehicles. The other night a deer was on the highway instead of standing off to the side like usual. I hit the break hard - now I know how well the brakes work - and the front end went down so much the lights were just shining on the road right in front of me. Is there something I could/should do to help with this? I have a 2014 RT with no farkles other than Ultimate seat and Seal floorboards.
Thanks

 

[Poppy1144]

I believe that spring stiffeners would reduce the nose dive.

 

[cuznjohn]

or get a good pair of elka shocks, expensive but worth it

 

[Oldmanzues]

Above good, might try to lean back on seat, but keep control of handlebars.
Oldmanzues

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

or get a good pair of elka shocks, expensive but worth it

Yes I would agree .....spend $1000 to upgrade your shocks because you might have to stop THAT HARD AGAIN sometime in the next two or three years.......for all of two seconds..........................Why didn't I think of this first :roflblack: :roflblack: :roflblack:..............paleeeeeeeeeeeeeze......mike :thumbup:

 

[cuznjohn]

mike people think differently and that is what makes the world go round. i had them on my 13, and bought them for my 14

 

[Bob Denman]

If you want to stiffen-up the front suspension; you've got two easy choices:
Doc's "Magic Nuts"
BajaRon's shock preload adjusters

Or you can go with Elkas...
:dontknow:
Happy shopping!

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

OK

mike people think differently and that is what makes the world go round. i had them on my 13, and bought them for my 14

Was the primary purpose of your purchase to benefit from it maybe 2 or 3 times over the ownership of the Spyder .......Or did you plan to enjoy them every mile you owned them..............I answered the way I did because I didn't think He wanted to spend that kind of money to solve a 2 or 3 time problem.............................Is it clear now ???????.......Mike :thumbup:

 

[cuznjohn]

mike i a a 300 plus full figured man. and with the stock shocks the bike nosed dived on me also. i read a lot about the elkas and they cost me 765 for the pair. the bike even did the nose dive with them on, so after i adjusted them the bike rides really nice with very lil dive in hard breaking. so i am happy

 

[SailnDive]

One of the first things that I noted about the RT was how much anti-dive is built into the front suspension. If the nose did not hit the road...then it is doing it's job pretty well.

 

[Chupaca]

Here's the thing..!!

you can use the stiffeners (because they put non adjusting shocks on) or adjusters or get the elkas. Other option the shock relocators but you will be giving yourself a harder ryde which can translate to shoulder pains etc. Start with the stiffening nuts they are easy in easy out and see how that works and go from there....:dontknow:

 

[Bob Denman]

Hi Cuzn,
If Mike weighs 180 lbs.; I'd be surprised...
He doesn't understand what happens when you fall outside of the "design parameters"... :shocked:
I'm real glad that the Elkas were able to solve your problems with the potholes and rough roads down there! :thumbup:

I have BajaRon's preload adjusters. I only added two turns to them, so the change was minimal for me. That's all that I needed! :yes:

 

[cuznjohn]

Hi Cuzn,
If Mike weighs 180 lbs.; I'd be surprised...
He doesn't understand what happens when you fall outside of the "design parameters"... :shocked:
I'm real glad that the Elkas were able to solve your problems with the potholes and rough roads down there! :thumbup:

I have BajaRon's preload adjusters. I only added two turns to them, so the change was minimal for me. That's all that I needed! :yes:

180 pounds, i eat more than that for lunch

 

[Bob Denman]

But do you CRAP more than that, after dinner?? :roflblack:

WAIT! We don't want to know... :yikes:

 

[Omcge]

On the road home from work at night I usually see more deer than vehicles. The other night a deer was on the highway instead of standing off to the side like usual. I hit the break hard - now I know how well the brakes work - and the front end went down so much the lights were just shining on the road right in front of me. Is there something I could/should do to help with this? I have a 2014 RT with no farkles other than Ultimate seat and Seal floorboards.
Thanks

The nose diving on hard braking is also transferring weight to the fronts giving better traction giving better braking.
Anything that you do to limit nose diving is also going to give a harsher ride.

Just my 2 cents

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

YOU UNDERSTOOD WHAT I POSTED

The nose diving on hard braking is also transferring weight to the fronts giving better traction giving better braking.
Anything that you do to limit nose diving is also going to give a harsher ride.

Just my 2 cents

EXACTLY.....you get shocks for all the time not just for a few times, maybe " cuznjohn " will read this....Mike :thumbup:

 

[Bob Denman]

EXACTLY.....you get shocks for all the time not just for a few times, maybe " cuznjohn " will read this....Mike :thumbup:

I'm not sure that I can see how this relates to our Cuzn... he weighs what he weighs: ALL of the time...
(Unless he's figured out something that the rest of us would like to know. )

 

[Mtdew57]

The brake dive is inherent in almost all vehicles with suspension. Even an open wheel F1 or Indy car will experience it with super stiff suspension.

The main thing to consider is how much weight the designers decided the typical rider would be and what springs were installed.

Depending upon the model year, based on the alignment specs you can take a good guess at the engineers typical rider / payload. For 2014 RT series the payload is 220 lbs. Consider where you compare to this and adjust as needed. Preload changes to the spring can help for reasonable load changes. Heavier riders may want to increase spring rates, which as mentioned may be easiest with replacement shocks.

Stops or slowing as you mentioned are always heart pounding. Before going crazy to correct brake dive, you may find that adding more depth to the lighting will give that added margin of time to slow more safely.

We upgraded the headlights and without doubt it became much more relaxing riding in the dark.

Saying that, you might find that simply aiming the lights to the upper limit as specified in the owners manual may be a simple solution. It does not sound like the brake dive is the real concern, rather not knowing where the deer is since you could not see as well.

PK

The headlights are adjusted as high as I want, I get a lot of people coming toward me flashing their brights thinking I have mine on. What surprised me about the nose dive was then I couldn't see anything other than the road right in front of the bike.

 

[Bob Denman]

Actually; that's not the problem that it seems...
You identified the "target" in the road at normal ride height, and were already responding to it... :thumbup:
The fact that the nose of the bike dipped for a moment didn't keep you from seeing anything that you hadn't already seen...

 

[cuznjohn]

mike to be honest, the elkas made a world of difference in the handling of my bike. not just for the nose dive but also for turns at speed. i did find that the bike really leaned on me in turns, so like people say, you need to make the bike your own. so between the elkas, ron sway bar, and lamonts highway pegs i really feel the bike handles much better for me. if you rode my bike you might not like it, but after the money well spent on it by me, it feels much better than it ever did. and i also feel that if i spent the money on something i really didn't need but just in case i ever needed it, than it is money well spent by me...