Post by Wheels on Sept 16, 2020 16:21:56 GMT 10
For quite a while now the Retro has been progressively pulling to the left and last weekends ride it was virtually a left stiff arm on the handlebars to keep it on track.
After a long chat to my mate Lee it was start looking!...one very noticeable thing was a fair bit more sag in the SC shock (it was on minimum preset) so I gave it max preset and went for a ride with Bobsie as passenger....surprise! a very noticeable difference with no where near as much pulling to the left but still enough to warrant looking further, but why should a shock spring start losing it which this one did? and more importantly why should it have affected the steering?..Lee nailed it re the spring losing it when he said “you’ve done a lot of corrugation rides over the years” which we have, and he went on further to say there is nothing like corrugations to knock the sting out of a shock spring. Lee is smack bang on with that comment, because after our Mount Ives trip in SA where there were major corrugations and a major bottoming out of shocks when Bobsie and I got the Retro airborne (after hitting a huge Bulldust covered hole then headed bush for 50 metres or more knocking out a couple of tree stumps and avoiding trees which resulted in a broken top engine mount, badly bent foot pedal and a 10ltr fuel drum hanging off the SC). It was sometime later on that I noticed that there was more sag on the rear shocks (which had no preset) so I upped them 2 clicks and everything was fine.
I never did have much lean out (not good) and with shock springs slightly losing it I decided to put in 1 degree lean out, but before doing that I checked the toe in and got my 10mm. After loosening off struts etc I got 3 full turns out on the rear strut to get a sniff over 1 degree (the front strut is the last thing to adjust to get the hole to line up). After tightening everything up I took the bike for a ride (without checking the toe in again) and experienced perfect straight line steering with no pulling to the left BUT!... it was a little tight in corners!..Why?
When I got home I checked the toe in and had zero! (so the 3 full turns on the rear strut to get the lean out I wanted resulted in losing the 10mm toe in I had). I loosened everything off again and put in 13mm toe in and moved the lean out one more turn on the rear strut (remember! touching one adjustment affects the other). After tightening everything back up again I had a sniff over 10mm toe in and a sniff over 1 degree lean out and took the rear shock presets up another click (now 3) and pulled the SC shock preset from full, back 1 click.
Now the test! (50kms of it)....unbloodybelievable! the Retro is a different bike. It’s tighter on the road, corners like a dream and steers like it never has before. I had a real nasty side wind (going out and coming home) and even that didn’t put things out.
I’ve learnt a lot in the last few days (because that’s how long it has taken to get things right) the big lesson was everything has got to be set up correctly for the perfect ride and surprisingly spring presets come into it (for me anyway) which I now place a lot of importance on.
Finally!...here’s your brand new Ural!...Looks great sitting there on the garage floor!...1 degree lean out, all the shock presets at zero (for a supposed soft ride) and the dealer has set the toe in perfectly. Now on you get (without a passenger) and go for a ride and somethings not right! it’s pulling let’s say to the right and is as uncomfortable as hell to ride. Let’s look at that!...because you weigh say 100kg then lean out with you sitting on the bike is now say 2-3 degrees (or worse even more) because there is zero shock preset causing a fair bit of sag, no wonder the bike is pulling to the right there’s to much lean out!... Now you load in a SC passenger say 90kg and off you go!..hey! things are fine now or a lot better than what they were. Of course it is! the SC passenger has helped offset your weight on the bike and the leanout is somewhere near 1 degree and all is good (remember your toe in is spot on).
lots of things to get right! I’ve set the Retro up taking into account me as rider, Bobsie as passenger and all our day to day gear (which there is a lot of) and if I only got the toe in and leanout spot on without setting the shock preloads it still wouldn’t be exactly right.
Because I have the bike and SC shocks preset fairly high I can ride without a passenger without affecting performance because when I sit on the seat there is very little sag (I weigh 70kg) and the same goes with the SC (Bobsie 58kg). Get a bunch of sag either way then out the door goes your lean out values and your bike will pull one way or the other (especially if a heavy weight passenger climbs in or out of the SC!...over goes the rider!)
As an aside! upping the preset on the shocks to compensate for load factors has not created a lousy, bumpy ride, sure it’s a little tighter but the bike hangs to the road like glue creating a positive, pleasant ride.
I hope I have got all this right?....but maybe just maybe it will help to make someone’s Ural ride a lot more comfortable and happier. It has for us!
Cheers Wheels😎
Note: it’s not an easy task setting up! It’s fiddly, time consuming and knuckle busting work and please remember!...messing with one setting affects the other!
One more thing! I’ve heard it said many times...”mate when I’ve got a passenger in my sidecar the wind drag is terrible”....I’ll bet anything that the passenger in the SC is causing lean in causing the bike to pull to the left. On our final test ride the wind on Bobsie in the sidecar had no negligible effect on performance and there is no SC windscreen.
After a long chat to my mate Lee it was start looking!...one very noticeable thing was a fair bit more sag in the SC shock (it was on minimum preset) so I gave it max preset and went for a ride with Bobsie as passenger....surprise! a very noticeable difference with no where near as much pulling to the left but still enough to warrant looking further, but why should a shock spring start losing it which this one did? and more importantly why should it have affected the steering?..Lee nailed it re the spring losing it when he said “you’ve done a lot of corrugation rides over the years” which we have, and he went on further to say there is nothing like corrugations to knock the sting out of a shock spring. Lee is smack bang on with that comment, because after our Mount Ives trip in SA where there were major corrugations and a major bottoming out of shocks when Bobsie and I got the Retro airborne (after hitting a huge Bulldust covered hole then headed bush for 50 metres or more knocking out a couple of tree stumps and avoiding trees which resulted in a broken top engine mount, badly bent foot pedal and a 10ltr fuel drum hanging off the SC). It was sometime later on that I noticed that there was more sag on the rear shocks (which had no preset) so I upped them 2 clicks and everything was fine.
I never did have much lean out (not good) and with shock springs slightly losing it I decided to put in 1 degree lean out, but before doing that I checked the toe in and got my 10mm. After loosening off struts etc I got 3 full turns out on the rear strut to get a sniff over 1 degree (the front strut is the last thing to adjust to get the hole to line up). After tightening everything up I took the bike for a ride (without checking the toe in again) and experienced perfect straight line steering with no pulling to the left BUT!... it was a little tight in corners!..Why?
When I got home I checked the toe in and had zero! (so the 3 full turns on the rear strut to get the lean out I wanted resulted in losing the 10mm toe in I had). I loosened everything off again and put in 13mm toe in and moved the lean out one more turn on the rear strut (remember! touching one adjustment affects the other). After tightening everything back up again I had a sniff over 10mm toe in and a sniff over 1 degree lean out and took the rear shock presets up another click (now 3) and pulled the SC shock preset from full, back 1 click.
Now the test! (50kms of it)....unbloodybelievable! the Retro is a different bike. It’s tighter on the road, corners like a dream and steers like it never has before. I had a real nasty side wind (going out and coming home) and even that didn’t put things out.
I’ve learnt a lot in the last few days (because that’s how long it has taken to get things right) the big lesson was everything has got to be set up correctly for the perfect ride and surprisingly spring presets come into it (for me anyway) which I now place a lot of importance on.
Finally!...here’s your brand new Ural!...Looks great sitting there on the garage floor!...1 degree lean out, all the shock presets at zero (for a supposed soft ride) and the dealer has set the toe in perfectly. Now on you get (without a passenger) and go for a ride and somethings not right! it’s pulling let’s say to the right and is as uncomfortable as hell to ride. Let’s look at that!...because you weigh say 100kg then lean out with you sitting on the bike is now say 2-3 degrees (or worse even more) because there is zero shock preset causing a fair bit of sag, no wonder the bike is pulling to the right there’s to much lean out!... Now you load in a SC passenger say 90kg and off you go!..hey! things are fine now or a lot better than what they were. Of course it is! the SC passenger has helped offset your weight on the bike and the leanout is somewhere near 1 degree and all is good (remember your toe in is spot on).
lots of things to get right! I’ve set the Retro up taking into account me as rider, Bobsie as passenger and all our day to day gear (which there is a lot of) and if I only got the toe in and leanout spot on without setting the shock preloads it still wouldn’t be exactly right.
Because I have the bike and SC shocks preset fairly high I can ride without a passenger without affecting performance because when I sit on the seat there is very little sag (I weigh 70kg) and the same goes with the SC (Bobsie 58kg). Get a bunch of sag either way then out the door goes your lean out values and your bike will pull one way or the other (especially if a heavy weight passenger climbs in or out of the SC!...over goes the rider!)
As an aside! upping the preset on the shocks to compensate for load factors has not created a lousy, bumpy ride, sure it’s a little tighter but the bike hangs to the road like glue creating a positive, pleasant ride.
I hope I have got all this right?....but maybe just maybe it will help to make someone’s Ural ride a lot more comfortable and happier. It has for us!
Cheers Wheels😎
Note: it’s not an easy task setting up! It’s fiddly, time consuming and knuckle busting work and please remember!...messing with one setting affects the other!
One more thing! I’ve heard it said many times...”mate when I’ve got a passenger in my sidecar the wind drag is terrible”....I’ll bet anything that the passenger in the SC is causing lean in causing the bike to pull to the left. On our final test ride the wind on Bobsie in the sidecar had no negligible effect on performance and there is no SC windscreen.
