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â? according to Cycle World. Back in the '70s CW used to take the suspension off its test bikes to measure their damping forces over a full cycle of compression and rebound.This link - http://bit.ly/CWnorton75forks - should take you straight to their results for Roadholders.Some points to note:
- their appreciation of the front forks didn't extend to the rear dampers (presumably Girling), which they were evident underwhelmed by
- they qualify their admiration by noting that it is for sports riding on good roads; touring riders on secondary roads might find them less satisfactory
- this directly relates to the units on an electric-start 850 (apparently a pre-production model), although presumably would be applicable to the units on a wide range of models
- justified or not, their assessment is by the standards of the mid-'70s, not those of 2016.
When CW first introduced these damping tests they ran a feature setting out the precise test procedure and discussing the issues, but some light Googling has failed to turn it up, although it seems that many issues of CW and other contemporary US mag.s are fully readable on Google Books. (I found the Roadholder piece when searching for something else - as one does).
