Charles....what Traxxion does is "clean up" the inside of the fork tubes so there is no debris, burrs, etc inside the fork tubes. I have had three bikes done at their facility since '07 and cannot speak highly enough about the company with regards to the product, their professionalism, and their technical proficiency. They take extremely good care of your bike or components.
It would be my suggestion, as other's have mentioned, that if you cannot take a road trip to Atlanta, and you are obviously mechanically proficient enough to remove the forks yourself, to pull them, package them up carefully, and ship them to Traxxion. Dan is the man to talk to with regards to the best time to do this, anticipated turn around time, etc. Often, this time of year, they are busy, but it may still be possible to get a reasonably fast turnaround, which for me would mean two to three days in their shop, plus shipping times both directions. The actual installation of the cartridges is done on stainless steel tables which are kept relatively spotless. They will need a bit of information about what bike, your weight, if you ride two up or solo most of the time, and HOW you ride. That will help them determine the spring to install. They are VERY precise in how they put things back together. The cartridges are CNC'd totally in house...the only materials they use from outside vendors is the raw stock to make their product. When the springs are re-installed, they use a plastic tube around the spring so that the flexing of the spring never again contacts the fork tubes, which causes contamination of the oil with debris...so that is eliminated. The only other wear items are the bushings and the seals. HD bushings are used, and they wear a bit over time, and that contaminates the oil. However, the last time I was over (in '12), I had a long conversation with Max, the owner/president of the company (great guy), and he told me that they have now put enough of their cartridges on both HD's and Wings, and done enough servicing of each after the 20-25k mileage mark to get a feel for wear of the components. They find virtually no wear. Thus the reason Bob (Boatman) was told to wait a longer interval. They also use a very high quality synthetic fork oil, so that does not break down as quickly over time either.
Now once you have them installed, you can do the routine maintenance, like changing the fork oil, with their servicing kit. It is highly unlikely that the cartridge components themselves will show any appreciable wear for many, many thousands of miles. They have been putting their products in 'Wings for MANY years now, with many miles on some of them, and their product wear characteristics are more than outstanding. Their product is not inexpensive, but once you see and understand the work that goes into making it, you understand better about the expense. Max makes a real effort to keep his employees and technicians with him, and they are top notch and long term...you have to be doing something right to keep employees of that caliber with you over time. The difference in your bike will literally be night and day.
Author
Topic: Traxxion Dynamics AK-20 Installation (Read 5699 times)