Softer front springs for a Dommie?

Roadholders have always been a bit stiff. It is worth releasing the damper rods and checking the fork action for binding. I had to polish out some bruising on the staunchions to get mine to slide nicely. I also had to rotate the staunchions to find the sweet spot. I had to pack out the damper rods with washers to get the legs the same length to avoid a twisting effect on the axle. The axle needs  to slide through the fork ends to find its position. I am using progressive springs and covenant damping mods plus longer bronze bushes to give a hydraulic bump stop at both ends of travel. Extra slippy 10/40 fully synth oil . Cant say I notice the fork action now , but it was not good before.  

Back in the sixties I had a1960 Dommie 99. At that time I had same weight as you, substantially more now. Bike stripped of all unnecessary parts. Alloy rims, mudguards and engine plates. Clipons etc. So it was much lighter than standard. Never had any feeling that suspension was stiff. Much softer than the old flathead rigid Harley I had before.

Its probably the short suspension travel compared to a modern bike that you are noticing , The addition of effective bump stops may do the job. 

But I put another 10 stone on the machine.   The springs would be the right things to change for you but have you experimented with different weight/ volume of damping oil? Maybe a sluggish reaction to 20W or over volume??  My move would be to drain and go for a run to   evaluate the ride then retry with differing oils.

 Progressive springs were available back when, but I don't keep up with current product availability.  

Cheers

Jon

Fitting softer springs to the forks will probably result in the mudguard jamming between the frame front down tubes.

Robert is possibly coming up with the right reasons for the harshness of the action, especially if there are a bundle of new parts inside the forks.  I once purchased a fork refurbishment kit wearing the famous guaranteed quality green blob only to find the the bushes would not slide onto the stanchions.

Also check for twisted yokes, the wrong length wheel spindle and a bent stanchion. I use a modern 5W/60 synthetic oil in my forks which softens the action but does let them top out occasionally. 

hello

i had similar ,when i topped up the oil in the forks. with top nuts back on.  i dropped the bike down off its stand. the front end felt to firm to press up and down . so sitting on the bike i undid the fork top nuts slightly, not all the way. just to let trapped air out. and the forks dropped slowly then stopped.  i tightened the top nuts up. it seemed ok after that,

Barry

I find my forks to be too stiff - going over bumps, it seems to stay fairly rigid.  It's not stiction, I have tested for that and the fork action is fine. One thing that might need correction, my fork damper top caps were bushed a while back - the part was unobtainable at the time, so a local engineer used bronze.  They are a fairly close sliding fit on the damper rods.  Is that correct?