I have ordered two of these, color unknown. (Black preferred, not pictured, I’ll prolly paint them green, more on that in a sec.) they go on here
Technically, ONE goes “on here” at the bottom of the spring at finger point. With the frunk off, the timing is ideal. The collar or bracket is threaded, and when installed, turns to compress the spring, increase spring load.
One thing Spyders do, more like a car, not at all like a properly cornering motorcycle, is “dive” into the corner. The inertia and momentum keep the nose going forward as the bike is turned, thus as one corners and the mass wants to go forward, it pushes down, away from the direction of the corner.
Lots of things are going on here, machine wise. Much of the weight of the bike is between the front wheels, and just behind it. A motorcycle is more balanced, distributed more between the two axles, only tires. A “reverse tricycle” (two in front, not in back) behaves like a car upfront, and a bike in the back. (Reverse mullet?!).
See that red thing in the bottom of the picture? That’s my new link, and will soon be connected to a better/stiffer (anti)sway bar. The sway bar very much addresses the car like cornering behavior, to varying degrees. It attempts to stabilize the physics of “pilot desires that way, bike goes this way” (to oversimplify it a wee).
The shocks can too, despite having the main job of absorbing up and down motion. If one shock is being pushed (down towards the outside of the corner) while the other is being pulled (up, away from the inside of the corner) then the machine tips, THE WRONG WAY. Cars deal with that all the time, and why you slow before cornering (unless you can drift, breaking the traction/friction that is pushing and pulling versus cornering)
On two wheels the bike counter steers (not going into that here) and drops INTO the corner, USING the physics of the inertia and momentum. Done properly, it’s graceful, smooth, fun. Like anything slalom, dancing with physics, weaving back and forth across the knife’s edge of forward motion.
The new sway bar, links and now spring compressors will NOT make DownEaster slalom that way. They will, however, lessen the tendency of the machine’s physics to go straight, or dive otherwise. A simpler way of putting it, it tightens the cornering practice, makes if feel less like a car (but not more like a motorcycle, I think I just ruined the simplicity process…)
Because Maine roads are neither flat nor straight, these upgrades will make DownEaster more stable, safer as well as more fun to ride. It’s like having a fire in winter, you make a mini-sun and hover near it, soaking it up. Wrenching on DownEaster isn’t as fun as riding, but it’s better than sitting around looking out the windows bleak winterness!!
As for painting, that red link doesn’t look right to me, so I’ll paint it green (it’s the accent color of DownEaster) and likely the spring adjusters too. Some aesthetics involved as well, just not the priority…
