going over all the things breaking my back,,,,,, all shocks I've owned (first honda) say FAST or SLOW on the rebound. no problem.

The Honda says SOFT/HARD. So I set softer and softer because the roads are very very rought. but that aint' werkin. but I read this book tonight, 'owners manual' or something like that, I forget, it says the opposite: for rough roads set to HARD. So am i correct understanding that hard=faster rebound??? the lack of rebound is ..... !@#$%. roads (and I use that term loosely) where I live are more like broken slabs of concrete.

next, my headlight is illuminating racoons at night, when they're in the trees. the strange 'owners manual' doesn't tell me how to lower it to racoons on the highway, is it that big grey knob beneath the front fairing on the right?

lastly, how in the hell am I to get the bar ends from spinning? I'm serious.

well thanks,,,, more brain stumpers coming for sure :grin:

You must have an aftermarket shock Rock.

The hard/soft on the origional shock is rebound damping.
You have to turn lock rings to change preload.

I sugest you do a complete suspension setup from static sag on.

It's in the latest Motorcyclist. (again)
You can get a smother ride by tightening spring preload if now it is too compressed.

I changed the preload (loosened the collar, counterclockwise) a while ago and that was a significant improvement. I'm assuming that lessened the preload, maybe I'm wrong. the ride feels softer and the spring is less compressed.

But I still don't get your answer on rebound. Does HARD on the honda mean faster rebound?

the rebound is not fast enough, the shock takes too long to rebound and that is dangerous. Compression seems to be a bit better.

thanks for the headlight info, racoon's can sleep tonight in the trees. :lol:

I could be wrong on this, but we are talking about rebound damping. So, HARD should mean more damping. The shock shoud rebound slower.

You turn it to soft for less rebound damping, to hard for more.

With the riseing rate linkage it is important to get spring preload right.
I don't know what you weigh but I had to crank my preload up to get 30mm of static sag.