newbie kevin

bad knees have mad it harder for riding my bikes so i have an aprilia sportcity 300 and i have just bought a 2004 fjs 600 , very nice bike needing some love i am 59 and ride
everyday as my preferred transport and have done so since i was 15
thank you and i am happy to be a member of this forum

Hi Kev and welcome to the best place for Silver Wing owners. Plenty of folk from both sides of the big pond and one or two from other places.

What are of the UK are you located?

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome Kev, I too suffer poor knees and my 08 silver wing suits me, when the joints allow i have an 82 gold wing for pleasure. Wife cant understand how I prefer to take silver instead of the car, gotta be a biker thing I suppose !

Welcome to the forum, Kevin. Thank you for your Introduction.

Tim

Welcome Kevin, from the other side of the pond . Yes there are a lot of mature riders on the forum. Sorry about the knees,another sign of maturity. Howard

Welcome from the Pacific North Wet.

thamks guys
i live in grays essex thurrock , yes the knee thing is a problem
but the scooters gets around it nicely
bought the silverwing for longer trips (in theory)
as always had a european run for the summer holidays
and to take my wife (also dodgy knees and back) for our
trips londons soho for breakfast and touristy times
forks on scoot are terrible (left outside unused for 5 years)so i have bought another pair
the bottoms are different so i will just swap the stanchions/ sliders
with new seals

cagiva elephant 900ie
cagiva elephant 900ac
honda slr 650
ktm lc4 640
aprilia sportcity 300
and now fjs 600 abs 2004

HyperPro springs do wonders for improving the front suspension.

Tim

kevinbrady...Welcome from the Land of Lincoln, Naperville, Illinois. Happy to have you join the forum. We look forward to your posts and photos of your rides. Lots of great riders and writers here!

Kevin
Welcome to the site. If you are planning to work on the front forks do as Cosmic suggested and replace the OEM springs with HyperPro progressive springs. They cost about $100US and you will be amazed at how this will transform the ride, especially if you ride two up and on choppy roads.

thanks guys
just swapped the stanchions over so i had 2 sets (4 forks) to dismantle , had to drill 1 bottom allen bolt out but not a big problem
and 2 of the others revolved with the damper but an old broom handle pushed in with force did the job
also the previous owner had a bit of a right hand side tumble so i will tidy the plastics up and we are good to go
as advised i will do the hyperpro upgrade after xmas when i am not so skint
best wishes to all

Kevin welcome from o-HI-o and yes the lower extremity problem lives here also.

The Scootist wrote:

Kevin
Welcome to the site.  If you are planning to work on the front forks do as Cosmic suggested and replace the OEM springs with HyperPro progressive springs. They cost about $100US and you will be amazed at how this will transform the ride, especially if you ride two up and on choppy roads.

Scootist,
Do you have a website where I can get the Hyperpro springs for $100US? I'd like to get a set.

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum.
I know Grays, as I used to play snooker above Burtons there many years ago.
I'm just down the other end of the A13.
Two wheel transport is definitely the way to go around this area, so much easier!
Enjoy the Silverwing - I'm sure you will (your knees will anyway).

The Scootist wrote:

Kevin
Welcome to the site.  If you are planning to work on the front forks do as Cosmic suggested and replace the OEM springs with HyperPro progressive springs. They cost about $100US and you will be amazed at how this will transform the ride, especially if you ride two up and on choppy roads.

Not this HyperPro springs nonsense again, I've had my Silver Wing six years now and I've found the front suspension to be no different from any other maxi scooter I've owned,  apart from the Honda CN 250 Helix which had trailing link forks.


Why is it that when someone new to maxi scooters joins this forum with their newly acquired Silver Wing, half the time they get the spiel from someone urging them to fit a set of HyperPro springs. Never mind that the new guy is in the learning curve of riding a Silver Wing with riding characterics different from a motorcycle. If he happens to mentions this, sure enough someone is bound to say fit a set of the fabled fork springs.

I ride a lot of rural roads on stock fork springs and there isn't a problem, I ride motorways and autobahns and there isn't a problem, I tour solo and with Mrs M and there isn't a problem. My stock Silver Wing is also more competent in the bikers playground of Germany's Harz Mountains than any other maxi I've previously taken there, so I'm not and never have been convinced.

I've been over a lot of rough road surfaces and potholed frost damaged road since I bought my Silver Wing. Plus a stretch of road somewhere bad enough to damage and blister my rear tyre carcass to warrant it's replacement earlier this year. That's tyres though, the front forks and damping have never, ever been a problem.

I'll maybe waste a bit of time counting up how many times a new maxi rider joining this forum gets the spiel on changing the OE fork springs to HyperPro.

[quote="Meldrew
Not this HyperPro springs nonsense again,... [/quote]

Meldrew, I fitted them to mine and there IS an improvement.

Now, I'm not new to fixing vehicles and bikes, I've worked on classic cars and other vehicles all my life including rebuilding my 1974 Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas and it's engine, etc.

There is no way my front end was fine as it thumped and banged at the mere sight of a sight pot-hole. Hell, I had to slow down to silly-slow on some roads AND it's discernible in my videos taken when riding before and after. It had nothing to do with trying to get it to handle like a motorcycle - my aim was simply to improve the absorption of irregularities on normal roads.

Okay, I'm 6' 3" and too fond of ice-cream but I don't weigh the same as a rider and pillion! (on average)

Right now, my standard rear suspension is on maximum pre-load and very occasionally bottoms out, so they will be upgraded soon.

One important point ... as I drained the old oil out of the forks, it seemed there wasn't much in. It may be my imagination and unfortunately, I didn't measure what came out. There were no previous signs of leakage and the same seals are still being used.

I'm wondering if some assembly worker has been giving us short change?

Meldrew, maybe you were just lucky and got one assembled by a different shift worker. If yours works, that's fine.

I've often wondered  if the front suspension if the Silver Wing is that rubbish on OE front springs, why new owners actually actually buy the scooter in the first place. There's always other used Silver Wings to compare one against another, and alternative maxi scooters available.

I think SilverWing front forks ok......this is scooter.....my opinion is based on 2 new SilverWing and 80,000 miles......my current SilverWing has been as far as Alaska and Nova Scotia. I would not waste money changing anything on front end.

Important to look at load limits for bike----doesn't work well when exceeded.

Just to add my tuppence worth...
I've had my Silverwing for just over five years from new and I have never felt the desire to change the suspension.
It's certainly no worse than other bikes or scooters I've had.
Only the owner can decide whether they wan't to change anything as everyone's perception is different.

Kevin - I would just ride it around and use it. At the moment it will all seem a bit different. Once you get used to it and it all starts to feel normal to you then decide whether you want to change things. Otherwise you'll never know whether you've improved things or just chucked some more cash into the bottomless pit.
Essex is strewn with potholes but I tend to blame the various councils rather than the bike.

Usual disclaimer... other opinions are available etc etc...  

Kevin as you can see there are some forum members who freely criticize your personal choices to modify your own bike, even when they have no actual experience with that particular modification what so ever. If they are satisfied with the way the OEM suspension performs, great. They should stay with it. But if you are looking to improve the ride quality and safety, then consider upgrading to the HyperPro progressive springs. They make a significant difference in the ride quality and handling. It is one of the best "bang for the buck" modifications you can make. Here is the ordering information. You can Google HyperPro Progressive Springs to find a dealer and information regarding the manufacturer. Good luck.

SILVERWING / FJBS/FSC 600 `01-15 SP-HO06-SSA016

You're perfectly right of course, I am one of those members who freely criticise, but you're now saying HyperPro springs improve safety, am I and every other Silver Wing rider on OE fork springs unsafe?

You see IMHO I'm riding my bog stock Silver Wing in the UK, riding our sometimes patchy roads in our weather conditions all year round, your actual experience of riding our UK roads on a Silver Wing will be and I'm guessing here... zero.

Also while you're doing your sales pitch for HyperPro and in the interests of accuracy, the UK/European variant of the Silver Wing is the FJS not FJBS.


We also say scooterist, not scootist, you know motorist, cyclist, motorcyclist, scooterist etc.

To be safe I would sugfest
1. Front spring, for potholes
2. Rear shocks, for weight
3. Huge screen, for wind
4. 20gm slider, for safe acceleration
5. Replacement seat, for piles
6. Hard luggage, for spare pants and socks
7. Nitrous kit, for even more of everything

Or...
Just ride the thing for a bit then do what ever tickles your fancy :-)

I always suggest a quick 10,000 miles.....then figure out what is wrong/missing. But most never ride the miles and jump right into mods. Scooter is not sub for motorcycle, but the dry feet make up for it. One of the short comings, after 9 new maxiscooters and near 400,000 miles----we tend to ride them too fast...and then come up with buffeting and other problems.

I'm wondering if it's a year of manufacture thing.

I take videos every time I ride and have kept the videos of all my bike test rides. So this thread got me to review my videos of two test rides I had on two SWings that I tried before I bought mine.

The first was a very low mileage 2008 model and I rode it for more than half an hour on my local roads. Watching the video, I noticed I went along some seriously pot-holed roads - even hitting a few - and never passed a comment on the ride quality.

The second machine was in Blackpool and an older model, can't remember what year but the one with body-coloured glove boxes in the dash. Again, I rode for around half an hour but this time I had a couple of nasty bangs as the front end bottomed out on some low drain covers. This machine caused me to make a comment on the suspension (actually I swore as it hurt!).

The bike I eventually bought is a 2007 model and the suspension felt the same as the older bike I tried.

It too made me swear as it jarred my back. I know you'll say I should've bought the 2008 model, but the guy wanted too much for my wallet.

If anyone has the facilities to check the part numbers of the front springs/suspension, maybe they'll find a difference with the 2008 models from earlier versions? Or maybe Honda just started using thicker oil?

There's always going to be Silver Wing riders that feel the need to change perfectly serviceable items like exhausts for something, louder, flashier, and most importantly a big manufacturers logo.

It's the same with suspension, apart from this HyperPro nonsense, it's changing a simple twin shock set up with 5 settings that serves it's purpose for solo and two up riding and never gives a bit of trouble. But it has to go because it's just set and forget, and there's nothing brightly coloured, adonised, or any wheels to turn that make a clicking noise. No bits to fiddle with for 'preload' and ’rebound', and of course a big manufacturers logo.

As I've said before it's just old blokes with too much money and time on their hands farkling, or trying to turn a maxi scooter into a pretend motorcycle.

Meldrew wrote:

....it's changing a simple twin shock set up with 5 settings that serves it's purpose for solo and two up riding and never gives a bit of trouble..

So how come my standard rear suspension bottoms out on max pre-load when I'm riding solo?

Could it be that it just might be undersprung from the factory?

I don't want to turn it into a motorbike... I've already got a good one in my garage. I wanted a scooter for it's ease of use and practicality. Spine-jarring suspension isn't exactly easy on me or practical when bringing home the eggs in my shopping!

Scooterest Meldrew?
The trad brigade would take the hump about that :-)

Flyingpanman wrote:

So how come my standard rear suspension bottoms out on max pre-load when I'm riding solo?

Could it be that it just might be undersprung from the factory?

I wondered about that when you mentioned bottoming out.

My suspension is all standard and the rear shocks are still on the factory settings (so I assume set in the middle somewhere). I've never felt them bottom out and I'm no lightweight. I've ridden a variety of roads over the years and some of them have been pretty rough.

Something must be different somewhere. Did you buy the bike new or could a previous owner have changed the springs?

Cookie wrote:

Something must be different somewhere. Did you buy the bike new or could a previous owner have changed the springs?

It's (was) a 7k miles 2007 that I bought in summer this year. I'm certain the shocks are originals. Paperwork for the bike is all there and no mention of shock changes.

It doesn't bottom often, but some undulations can push it to the limit.

I certainly wouldn't feel happy with a pillion on board, but then I don't have a better half - I'm all bad