I have 79 Goldwing with a CA Friendship. I am in the process of inspecting and rebulding where necessary the bike from the ground up. I am using the Clymers Manual. In the chapter on sidecars it talks about putting a spacer in the forks to stiffen them up some. I purchased Progressive Springs to replace what was in there. Does any one have any experience they can pass on with this setup? Oops I almost forgot - it will have a windjammer on it when I'm finished too. I also will be using air shocks on the back.
I've only ridden it (prior to tear down) about 250 miles or so just around the neighborhood and with few ventures out on to the highway. What a blast. (well other than the suspension didn't really suspend very well!
i have a 1100T with progressive springs, they were installed when I got the rig, in the process of changing the oil in the forks I found that the spacers were a 1/4" above the top of the fork tube and you wouldn't want more because it a Bit** to compress the springs with that much up, you have to push like heck standing on the foot pegs or in my case the foot boards, when doing it be sure to turn it backwards untill you feel it click then carefully turn it to get it started, they have real fine threads and will cross thread real easy and you don't want to go there.
Try calling progressive and ask them what they recommend, you won't be the first, When I had my front end kicked out I was advised to use 25wt fork oil which I couldn't find so I used the heaviest fork oil I could find, the front end needs to be stiff because of the weight shift when stopping and making right hand turns, using air shocks on the back may not be a good idea but there are people on this forum that can advise you one way or the other much better than I could ever begin to.
Don't go to 25W fork oil. Racing, Heavy duty (sometimes called #2) or Screamin' Eagle will suffice.
Lonnie
