we were just looking at the fork extensions on the bikes of "Cornfed Biker" and "Swomack" today. They look pretty good on the Raider! I suggest that you get the 4-inch extensions if you decide to go that route. Send a private message to either of those guys, and get the name of the supplier. They can also tell you about the installation.
Some riders (incl. me) are a bit cautious about the fork extensions because of possible breakage at the threaded joint between the extension and the top of the original forks. However, Scott (Swomack) was telling us today that the guy who makes these solid extensions has only seen one failure in the history of all his parts, and that was when a rider had a front-end collision. So there are a lot of fork extensions apparently installed on bikes out there.
There's your link. You will just have to call to order the Raider extensions. They don't have them listed on the site yet. Also there is nothing to the mod. I did it alone in about 2 hours give or take, including new brake lines. Super easy.
buy a springer,be the first on the block,somebody photoshop one to a raider and lets take a look!!?. I wouldnt be afraid to extend one 4" now if you went 12 or 14 like we did in the 70's,that was crazy or sluggin the hydraulics with flat washers. that was insane like struts on the back to replace the shocks so you had a hardtail.
12-14 is a bit rough. I can't imagine how that'd look and how high your front end would be. You'd have no choice but to rake it out by a huge amount. :yikes:
Hey ... one final thought about this subject. I have thought about changing the front suspension of the Raider quite a bit myself. Incidentally, I really like the suggestion above - about going with a Springer suspension. Too bad that costs some serious $$.
But to get back to the 4-inch fork extensions. The only possible problem with this arrangement would be if the threaded joint between the extensions and the fork column breaks while you are riding. That's clearly a disaster. The most likely cause of such a failure would be metal fatigue, after the bike has been ridden for many, many miles. The threaded joint in the fork columns was designed to hold the spring force from the internal springs. It wasn't necessarily designed to hold the forces in the front forks when the Raider is riding down the road esp. over bumps. You would probably be OK if you ride the bike on smooth roads (not a lot of potholes or speed bumps), and if you assemble the fork extensions by tightening them up all the way on the threads.
But as a practical check ... you could disassemble the Raider forks and compare the internal threads to the same kind of threads on Harleys. I mentioned above that the guy who sells these extensions hasn't seen any failures - except one. Chances are ... that he sold a lot of these fork extensions to Harley owners. So all the riding history with his product would be a meaningful comparison, if the threads in the Raider forks are as strong as the threads in the Harley.
You could take a look at the Raider threads, and then go down to the local Harley shop and ask them what the threads are like on a typical Harley suspension. If the Raider threads are about equivalent, then that would give you some confidence. But if the Harley threads look much stronger than Raider threads, you might give the project some second thought.
check out DNA springers, as the threads are between the trees I wouldnt worrie as much as with those that were below the trees ,now that as I look back was asking for it ,back to the springers wouldnt you need the trees offset like the factory ??
remember when they use to weld the piece of an old ford axle to the harley springers for extension, rechrome and start watching for hairlines, how cool................dumb.......but cool
there is also a site called Jeri's Springer and he custom makes them to your specs. I suppose you could give him the dimensions of the neck and bearings and he could make a set.
Perse performance smoothies would be an excellent choice for long hydro front suspension and would blend to the raider, man where is the photoshop dudes when you need them??? How do you even do "photoshop" is it a computer originated deal??copy machine??cut out pictures and paste is the way I use to do it,learned that from.............forget it
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