I have horizon LST bars on my 2013 F6B and I love them now I'm thinking of adding the F6B fork brace does anyone have an opinion on this if it would be helpful especially for two up riding ?
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I have horizon LST bars on my 2013 F6B and I love them now I'm thinking of adding the F6B fork brace does anyone have an opinion on this if it would be helpful especially for two up riding ?
Many have done it, including myself, did I notice a major difference, no, but that's just me, it has to make some difference and others have commented about it, do a search.
To coin a phrase from Nike... "Just do it" :yes:
If you noticed a performance increase in steering from the addition of that cross-piece on the LST bars, you should notice the difference with a fork brace in the same parameters.
If you didn't, maybe not.
Cheers,
Steve
I still maintain "if it ain't broke why fix it"....JMHO on the fork brace issue.....
Get it, Superbrace.
I bought mine directly from Super Brace---then found out Wingstuff has them a lot cheaper plus free shipping.
I could tell a difference before I got out of 3rd gear.
I think I'm going to try a Super Brace as well as the Kury Mini Boards. I just have to decide if I'm keeping the "6" or moving on to another bike. I had a fork brace on my V-Strom and it did make the bike more solid feeling in the curves. Never had floor boards so that's kind of a crapshoot for me.
Curious as to what kind of "difference"?? I rode a friend's F6B a couple months ago for about 50 miles on some straight and curvy roads and did not notice anything his bike did/did not do that mine without a fork brace did....Maybe I am missing something....Regards
Opas,
I will tell you my experiences with and without brace.
First I keep my front tire at 40-41 psi - very firm.
With the brace, the feedback from the tire & front suspension through the handlebars was more uniform on both sides and the feeling was more stable under loading.
I had to remove the brace for a few days as one of the screws had backed out and I needed a new screw and some loctite. I reinstalled the OEM parts and immediately could feel the handlebars differently, almost like they were wiggling in different directions. Got the screw & loctite, reinstalled the SuperBrace and the feeling was uniform again.
If the front tire is below 38-40 psi, this effect may not come to pass - I do not know.
If you have Helibars or some other "brace" already going across the handlebars or forks, you may not notice either.
My Helibars just arrived and I'm pretty sure this will tighten up even more.
Cheers,
Steve
Your feedback comments are just the same feel improvement I felt on mine after installing the Superbrace.How someone cannot understand that with 900lbs before rider weight added that a brace would not improve the feel by keeping those fork legs from moving a little with road irregularities.Heck why do you think High Performance cars have a shock tower brace across the front-Not for looks.Oh well to each his own but I feel at the price it is a good investment.
I am not suggesting that for some they do not work..but, a slight correction on the above. The F6B does not weigh 900lbs...Closer to 835 lbs. Some riders are very heavy, some not, I suppose on a GW, loaded for touring, the front forks would be more stable and a fork brace is good to have. I am not opposed to installing one and those that seem to notice some difference in the front end feel and that is terrific. I just am not convinced that I need one, and don't ride that aggressive to warrant the expense..I am very familiar with front stabilizer bars, etc. on High Performance cars as myself and my sons have used them on Mustangs, and 3 Mazda Speeds...but, not to beat a dead horse to death, as I said a while back, if you want a fork brace "go for it" and enjoy the ride....JMHO
Opas... For Keerists sake... just buy the Superbrace and experience the improvement.
You consistently present negative posts about them, though you have never used one on a F6B...
... just as those whom dislike car tires on motorcycles and never have tried them.
I watched the traxion gold wing video thats a few years old . Its on YouTube, it was before they ( traxion) made their own brace. In the video he recomended the kury. I don't know if superbrace was around then. The traxion guy said you should be able to notice it at very low speeds. Its was quite convincing. I just got my kury in the mail today. I plan on getting the traxxion forks and rear springs done in a month or so. The video was at a goldwing event. It was very informative about our suspension systems weaknesses. Having a cartridge on only one side is a ridiculous oe cost savings scheme.
I put a Superbrace on my 6B and certainly noticed a difference. It tightened up the front end and feels like it's on a rail in those long sweeping curves.:yes:
The best way I know to describe it is that it made the handlebars "tighter" even going in a straight line. If your tires are a little low over time you don't notice the sponginess in handling--you become used to it--then you air them up and you can feel a "crispness" in the way the bike handles. That is the best way I know to tell you. It is like the suspension got tighter and crisper. Not saying it was bad to start. Heck, I have changed tire brands and got a different ride and as was already mentioned, PSI in the tires change the feel. Riding somebodys elses F6B may not be a fair way to judge. What is their PSI set at? What brand tires or what is the rear shock set at? It is probably set up for their personal taste. Just curious though---did you ask them if they saw an improvement in their bike when they installed it?
Helibars claim the same sensation to a degree. I already had the Superbrace on when I installed the Helibars and I could not tell a difference. It may be that if I had the Helibars on first and then installed the Superbrace, I may not have noticed it then. You may not notice it at all. Everybody is wired differently. I will say there are few accessories that get ALL positive comments by those who buy them. Helibars and Superbrace are about the only 2 items that I don't recall ANYBODY putting on their bike and then speaking negativity about it afterwards.
Then again, it may not just be for you. To each his own. But I do think most who have installed it, swear by it, "on their ride".
Cheers :beer3:
I am a believer in a fork brace, but after I installed my HeliBars I felt no need for a fork brace on my F6B as they tightened up the front end the same way I have notice when I have use a fork brace on other scoots in the past. I don't think I'll gain any thing more by adding the fork brace. Now a set of Mono shock cartridges like the ones from Progressive in the tubes would be nice.
I do plan to install a set of "All Balls" tapered roller bearings in the trees that I have setting on the shelf as I know the tapered roller bearing are much more stable than the ball bearings Honda put in there. kind of funny that Honda uses ball bearings as stem bearings in their flagship the GL1800, F6B even the Rune:shrug: but put the much better tapered roller bearings in the VTX1800 (VTX1300 is ball bearings).
All I meant was one fork in our bike uses a modern damping cartridge but the other fork has the 1960 type solid rod with a hole in which the fork oil is pushed through. The traxxion guy said it costs about 2 bucks. Great old video of a traxxion presentation to a gold wing event with a set of our forks for demo. On YouTube.
Yea 835lbs if you ride without anything extra on the bike-but most of us have hung all kinds of goodies on ours-lights,floorboards,footpegs like my Ergo 3's,racks ect.Not to mention what we load in the bags and on the rack/seat.Never took into account the rider as our weights vary.I just find it funny that you always put up your 2 cents worth on these questions as to run a brace or not and you have never had one.Kind of like me telling someone what it's like to grow up black-only problem is I'm white.So I guess you have beaten a dead horse when it comes to advise on this one subject.Have a nice day.
Oh I have no doubt about it as I have done the conversion on some other's scoots and test rode them. I also plan to do both my Runes with the same bearings and why I have had a set on the shelf for a while, just waiting till I need to change the front tire which is a bitch on the Rune and do the stem bearings at the same time. I do have the special tool for extracting the lower and upper races in the neck so that part is quick and easy.
I've been looking at the SuperBrace and the Kury. In the YouTube videos, the Kury appears to be a bit beefier than the Super....but once everything is nailed down,does it make a difference beyond looks?
Anyone try both? Any discernible difference in handling?
....sT
Just my personal opinion, but if I were putting one on my scoot it would be the Kury due to the design that maintains adjustability for that perfect fit without preloading the forks. Unless I'm missing something I don't see that type of adjustability with the SuperBrace you just bolt it on and hope your forks are exactly the same width as the brace.
I know all about machining and acceptable tolerances, but I personally don't want any side pull on my forks if my trees are a thou out from Honda or the brace was machined a thou out. Kury can be adjusted for any minor difference that might be found between mass produced trees. Now don't get me wrong I'm sure SuperBrace has built their brace to the tightest tolerances possible, but I still like the fact with a Kury fork brace there is a width adjustment.
Once installed they both do the same job and I doubt anyone could tell which one is on the bike by riding it.
Biglry, the Superbrace is machined to the exact tolerance. Why would one want to second guess the tolerance with the Kuryakyn?
The danger involved with an adjustable brace is that if your front end is not assembled correctly (i.e. axle nut pinch bolts tightened before the axle was properly seated) you are maintaining that overall front fork attitude with the adjustable brace; in believing that you are mating the brace with a correctly adjusted fork assembly.
Superbrace recommends reseating your front axle prior to installation of the brace. When I did that and installed the brace, the visual fork seal rub marks on the front fork stantions disappeared. Which is a good thing.
I'm not second guessing SuperBrace's tolerances or Kuryakyn's and I'm sure they both work just fine. I'm only saying they all are mass produced like Honda's trees and it is possible there might not be a perfect fit 100% of the time. With the Kuryakyn fork brace's adjustability when you install it the brace forms to the spec of the forks it is being installed on so if and I only say if the trees are a thou out there will be no lateral pull or push on the forks, this is not so with the SuperBrace. Kuryakyn is kind of like a custom fit verses a generic fit one finds with the SuperBrace IMO.
I would expect anyone installing any fork brace to reseat the front axle prior to installation of the brace and be sure that the front wheel, axel nut, pinch bolts are all properly installed an up to proper torque.:icon_biggrin:
My 2015 deluxe hasn't an issue that the fork brace would fix, it doesn't wander, the roads where they have grooved the concrete it runs straight over them and doesn't hunt the ridges, I run curves hard with the bike and it just runs them like its on rails. So spend the money on something, I have to see a need for it and its not there.
"Superbrace recommends reseating your front axle prior to installation of the brace. When I did that and installed the brace, the visual fork seal rub marks on the front fork stantions disappeared. Which is a good thing."
Yes it is and should be done when installing any fork brace IMO:yes:
Sea dog, initially I did not see a need for a Superbrace either, on my F6B.
But... I had installed a fork brace a long time ago on my past DL650. And it was a marvelous transformation on how my bike handled after that.
So I decided to try the Superbrace on my F6B to see if anything would be improved regarding the handling... my expectations of a better controlled front end were realized.
....which surprised me on my bike post install. These Fork braces are an improvement. Try one, you will see... Or money back from Superbrace guaranteed.
Sheesh... I think Superbrace should hire me as a salesman. :icon_lol:
I have to side with Larry on this one. While SuperBrace may take care to be exact with their tolerances....clearly Honda doesn't, in many cases.
A case in point....
Recently I installed the Rivco kickstand footpad. Roughly half of those who've done this have had no troubles and finished the job in 3 minutes dead. The rest of us...we found out that the casting for the kickstand is finished by hand after coming out of the mold. And...half of the kickstand feet are significantly thicker and even sometimes wider than the others. Those who got thicker and/or wider castings found that the foot would not fit the Rivco pad. We had to file or grind the kickstand down to get into the Rivco slot.
For me....I didn't want to take the stand off the bike. And power grinding would've flung filings everywhere...on the paint, in crevices where it might cause troubles...everywhere. I had to file mine down by hand. And THEN, everything had to be masked off and repainted.
A job which should have taken under 5 minutes instead took two-plus hours start to finish. Rivco watches their tolerances and, from the looks of the product, I'll bet out of a thousand of those pads, less than 5 will vary in any appreciable manner from the rest. Honda? Well....at Honda close enough is good enough.
Far cry comparing a fork brace to a kickstand pad, I agree. However....it does give proof that Honda does not mind a bit cutting corners in their manufacturing and Quality Control processes which could just as easily have been done properly. I have also found this to be the case elsewhere on my B as well.
And it's not just Honda, I'll admit. I find similar philosophies inherent in a lot of products these days. But things are what they are, and mass-production (especially on Honda's scale) tends to encourage this sort of laziness. Being able to clean up other peoples messes tends to be a feature these days rather than a bother.
.....sT
PS ---- BTW...I should think that it would be a good idea to loosen and refit the axle and pinch bolts, regardless which brace one chooses to install.
Hey guys,
I know this thread is a few weeks old, and i have my kury brace on for a month now. I followed kurys instructions and it did not require loosen of the pinch bolts. On my vtx 1800r, i remember taping the forks in or out to get the brakes to stop dragging after a tire change. The line on the spacer and the fork were critical to the rotor set between the pads. On the B , i have no issues after kury brace install, but would the same rotor / pad issue happen to the Goldwing/f6b if you reset the fork / axel spacing?