Greetings from Minnesota

Hey All-

New member here. I am a third owner of a 2004 SWing. My brother and I are currently adding the mods for the front shocks. The SW has less than 3k on the clock. We are trying to get it to ride well so I can get some miles in before the MN winter sets in. I live in St Paul.

I appreciate every who has, and will, share their knowledge.

-Joe HC (whiteclay)

Remember regardless of what you do to front suspension---it is always going to ride like scooter. For me, stock just fine....working right---my experience=over 90,000 with 2 new SilverWings.

In Midwest---I found I could ride, safely until about Nov 20, solo.

A 15 year old bike with 3000 miles?
I wonder if all the high age low millage bikes I have see has any thing to do that the owners were not happy with the performance like acceleration and stability at low speed. I discovered the same here at different 400 and 500cc scooters in Europe who drove like a diesel.
There is a simple solution to change it into a bike (scooter) so you just want to keep on riding.
Anyhow, welcome to the right place.

I think the first owner had a hard time with the size/weight of the scooter. It has a lot of scratches on the sides. The second owner lives down the street from me and didn’t ride it very often.

Sepp wrote:

A 15 year old bike with 3000 miles?
I wonder if all the high age low millage bikes I have see has any thing to do that the owners were not happy with the performance  like acceleration and stability at low speed. I discovered the same here at different 400 and 500cc scooters in Europe who drove like a diesel.
There is a simple solution to change it into a bike (scooter) so you just want to keep on riding.
Anyhow, welcome to the right place.

That's low miles for age for sure, mine had 8,500 at 10 years, the 1st owner put on the first 8400+ the 2nd bought it for his wife who decided it was more fun to ride on his bike, it's now getting ready to turn 17,700.

I haven't had a chance to ride it that much this summer since the weather here was very rainy. I am hoping to get some miles in before the winter weather kicks in.

Welcome to the forum and you better ride quick, the forecast doesn’t look good for riding after Sunday in Minnesota.

Welcome from Southern Oregon! I'm surprised you feel the need to modify the front suspension. At most I'd think new seals would bring it back to like new performance. I'm on my third Silverwing and they all handled well. Scooters are going to ride a bit rougher than most bikes due to their smaller diameter tires but overall I've found a stock SW in good shape handles just fine. I just sold my BMW C650GT which did handle better in the twisties and on rough ground but a lot of that was due to it's considerably larger diameter wheels. On normal paved roads and most Forest Service dirt roads in this area the SW handles very nicely.

We might have different areas of reference though since a large part of my motorcycle history was long rides on Goldwings which are to my mind the best highway bike, ever!