Nothing Like Suspens-ion

After a year of ownership of my 2008 Night Rod I looked at the odometer and made a determination. I had not been riding it enough. Yes, it is the bike of choice for short jaunts around town and the perfect Bike Night bike, but something about it was just not right.

I’ve made some minor changes to the bike to make it unique and mine, but where is really had a large issue was in handling and traction management. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was not looking for sport bike type handling, just a nice plush ride without bottoming and most importantly the front needed to track properly mid-turn if it encountered a dip or bump and as it was it was actually quite dangerous. The lack of damping was extremely evident and really limited my comfort on the bike.

Having completed a project with Race Tech in the past and having an even better relationship with them due to there support of Total Control I gave them a call to see what was available for my bike. Well, it turns out that the front was pretty straight forwards, but no one had yet done a bike like mine with their newest G3-S Custom shocks. That being the case a ride to Corona, CA was in order, because even with the factory suspension I could not justify a trailer, after all is was just a tad bit under 400 miles, right?




The night before I packed lightly and set out my new Piloti Moto800s, figuring this might be just the ride to see how they truly perform. I took my time the next morning (Easter Sunday) and headed out around 10 am. The trip over proved to be just as painful as you’d expect a ride to be with forward controls, a factory seat and a factory suspension. Add to that the pain from a fall on my tailbone just days before and one might understand why the trip took a good 6 hours.




I did stop and had a great salad at an unassuming Mexican restaurant in Quartzite, AZ, from there all was decent until I happened upon the windiest part of the day in the Valley of Windmills near Banning, CA. Ahead of time I thought of taking a photo there, but once in the midst of the wind blasts all I wanted to do was get to the other side. I finally arrived in Corona, found my friends at their tuning shop and then found my way to their house. Snug and sound I was ready for the next day.


That night in SoCal I found out I had missed a pretty large earthquake and that we would be getting rain, more than I had planned for based upon my small pack. I arose the next morning to find that it had indeed rained the night before and was threatening to rain more. I headed out to the shop, found it quickly since it was only 5 miles away and about 30 minutes after arrive found my bike devoid of a suspension, the upgrade had begun!



During the day the skies let loose at least 3 times, but after the progression of the upgrade was complete I was presented with sun dried roads! After a couple test rides, a few tweaks and 2 planned upgrades for a later date my bike was buttoned up and I returned to my friends’ house.


That night I was treated to a SoCal iconic meal in the form of Chicken and Waffles at the world famous Roscoe’s, I’m not sure my digestive system agreed, but it was an awesome treat!

The next morning I headed back for AZ and things were markedly different. My “seat of the pants” feel told me that I would be able to travel the distance home with a lot less pain that the trip to CA. Not only does the suspension now inspire confidence and provide me with the traction needed, it looks cool as well. The gold body looks cool, but will be getting swapped for an anodized black body in about a month or so. While the rear shocks would typically have the piggyback mounted on the topside to reduce un-sprung weight we decided that the Harley wouldn’t suffer drastically because of it and would look a lot cooler with the shocks mounted upside down.

The front upgrade was in the form of a spring that matches my weight and a Race Tech Gold Valve Emulator for the compression. The front currently is a progressive rate spring, but after my feedback and their techs support, we may be changing to a straight rate in the future.



The first thing that was decided for the rear was the right spring rate for me and then the fact that the shocks would be fully adjustable, including preload, rebound and compression. Then we decided to increase the travel of the rear shocks by about one and a half inches. While the overall ride height of the bike would not change the travel available would be larger. That means that for the lower nature of the bike, I would actually gain back SAG and be able to have more travel available for dips or extension into the roadway. This is key for better mid-corner traction management and proved so on the test rides.





Over the next month I’ll most likely dial in the exact settings for my personal riding style and I can do so because I was left with plenty of adjustment range by the techs at Race Tech. Out the door this system comes in at about $2300 and has drastically increased my confidence in the bike, not to mention my ability to ride it longer distances. I’m sure next year this time I’ll be looking at the odometer and smiling.







Give me a few days and I’ll write up my report of the Piloti Moto800’s, but as a quick nod let me say that they will be getting used quite often, more than I initially thought.

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