Ricor Intiminators Review, damper rods begone! Options

[vx800inwpa]

I installed Ricor Intiminators on the sv a few days ago and wrote the review below on svrider. The intiminator sits on top of the damper rod and is essentially a valve that can distinguish between wheel movement and chassis movement and perform accordingly. This "Inertia Active Suspension System" has been in use in competition cars for some years and Ricor (www.ricorshocks.com) recently began targeting the motorcycle market with 50% off offers on advrider, svrider, and some Harley forums. The 50% off offer had a money back guarantee and Ricor's only requirement was that people who got them post a review on the board where the offer was made. I'm very impressed - soaks up the imperfections and has really made the bike feel much more settled and planted.

Two thumbs up for the Ricor Intiminators
The verdict first: The intiminators are a very cost-effective way to really improve the suspension and handling of the SV. It's a breeze to put them in, pull the forks, drain the oil, add the 5wt oil, add the intiminators, measure the oil level, add the springs, and button them up (no drilling damper rods, no replacing fork seals, neither of which are difficult, but it just doesn't get any easier). Go ride and marvel at how much better the bike handles!

I was assembling the pieces for a gsxr fork swap (even have ak-20s to put into my gsxr forks) when Ricor made an offer that was too good to pass up – the intiminators for half-price in return for a posted honest review and a money back guarantee if they didn't live up to expectations.

They arrived last Thursday, seven days after I ordered them, and I put them in that evening.
Install was easy – especially since I had the benefit of lew360's experience – he pointed out to add the oil (to the top of the damper rods) before dropping in the intiminator. The intiminators are a tight fit in the fork tubes which is good but it could make bleeding the air out of the damper rods difficult.

I'm 170-175lbs in gear and used original fork springs, original preload spacers (not shortened to account for the intiminators), drilled damper rods, and Amsoil 5wt fork oil. Set the oil level at 130mm from top of tubes with forks compressed, intiminators installed, springs out. I “set” the preload at one turn of the adjusters in from minimum for now since my son hasn't been around to help me measure and set it more accurately. My previous set up was .90 Race Tech springs, 1.75 turns on emulators, 15wt Spectro oil 140mm from top of fork tubes (less oil than typical to compensate for the fact that .90 springs are on the stiff end of the range for my weight). Cogent Dynamics shock on the back sprung for my weight.

I finished putting the forks and wheel back on the bike just as it was about to get dark and start thundering but I had to go for a short run. The first thing I noticed was how the forks soaked up the rough pavement on the road that runs at the back of my house. The second thing I noticed was how stable and sure-footed the bike felt on the fairly technical sweepers on the nearby Serpentine Road. It felt like the front tire was following every dip and bump of the road. There's one frost heave on a fairly tight 130/140 degree curve that had always unsettled the chassis when well leaned over and running at a brisk pace. I ran it as fast (probably faster) as I usually do and while I still felt the frost heave, the effect was *much* less dramatic than usual.

Next morning on my commute the smaller frost heaves were smoothed out considerably and were much less noticeable. The bumps that would rattle my teeth and pitch the front of the bike were still there but the pitching was gone and they were smoothed out a lot - it's probably only a matter of time before I stop bracing myself for them.

I was out this afternoon on some favorite roads - a mix of sweepers and more twisty stuff that I ride a lot. Again, I was impressed with how much more planted the bike felt – I was riding faster than I usually do and the bike felt more settled. When I went from stock suspension to the race tech springs/emulators and Cogent Dynamics shock the bike was less skittish and more planted at the same speeds – a huge improvement. Putting in the intiminators has resulted in an equally dramatic improvement over the emulators and race tech springs. My sense is that it's even more of an improvement but that would be hard to say for sure without doing back-to-back tests.