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Real American Suspension

Article & Photos By: Jeremy Johnson

Originally Published In The June 2012 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

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One of the long, overlooked aspects of the Harley has been the suspension. They have lacked the performance that the Japanese brands of motorcycles have. Harleys are supposed to be American made, right? However, for years they have used Showa suspension; the same suspension you could get on a 1968 Honda CB750. Now Showa is a well known name and has been around since 1938 – almost a hundred years. Don’t get me wrong, they know what they’re doing but it’s still a Japan based company. For a couple years in the seventies, Harley used a company named Kayaba, but this company was so smart, they didn’t even use bushings in their sliders. This did nothing but wear the sliders out to the point where you would have to replace them with new ones. With that being said, Harley has really fallen behind in their suspension aspect of the motorcycles. We have all watched the CB750 turn into the CBR750. Every time one passes us in the curve, we understand how bad our bikes’ handle. The front forks are the first line of defense when it comes to the handling characteristics of a motorcycle.

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This is something that American made m o t o r c y c l e s have taken for granted. There is no specific weight for each rider and each rider has their own style of riding. Coming from an Enduro racing background, I understand the importance of a performance suspension. Through all types of riding, there are different needs for each rider. I have been looking for an American based company that produces a product for Harleys. This proved to be harder than I thought until I ran into a company right here in my own backyard: Atlanta. Traxxion Dynamics is the company that I just happened to find. Max McAlister, the owner, bleeds red, white and blue. He has taken his belief of buying American to the extent of making sure that every tool and machine in his business is American made. This is the type of person we need to run this country today. Not only does Max sell 100% American made products, he uses USA made tools and material as well. Max has been in the motorcycle industry for over twenty years, from racing himself to working on race bikes. He started building frontends as a part time job years ago after he made the decision to quit racing. Over the years he has developed a frontend set-up that is unbeatable on the track or road course. Eventually his part time thing became full time. Along the way, he decided that like us, trying to find a high quality, American made frontend was not easy. With that in mind, he went to work and designed the first all American made components front fork.

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Max now has a full staff of employees including machinists and mechanics. I know a lot of people claim that their products are American made but Max takes this concept to a whole new level. To tell you the truth, if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would have said it was a lie. Everything in this shop is made right here in the States. When I say everything, I mean everything, right down to the vacuum and the lights. All of Traxxion’s tools and machines are top of the line and the metals that they use to make their components are of high grade American metal. Now, on to what this article is all about. After a conversation with Max about his products, we worked out a deal on a cartridge front fork for my Ultra Classic. Ultras have a bad problem with head shake and diving under braking. The cartridge front fork isn’t new technology but it is very new to the Motor Company. They just recently started using cartridge front forks. The Japanese have been using this type of fork for almost twenty years now. With Traxxion, all of the internals in your stock front fork are replaced with all of their custom made parts. I won’t go into the details of how their system works because it’s pretty complicated. The great thing about a cartridge system is that it’s completely tunable, whether it’s rebound or damping. After we built the tubes at the Traxxion location, I did the install of the forks myself and it was a day long process, but was well worth it. It has been a few months now since I did the install and it has been one of the best upgrades I have ever done to my bike. As soon as I took off for the first ride, I could tell it was different. The handling of the bike was like I was riding on a rail though the curves. The braking was incredible; there was no nosedive under hard braking so it allows the brakes to perform the way they’re suppose to. I have put over three-thousand miles on the frontend since I did the job and can’t wait to get on the bike and ride every day; it’s like riding a new bike. I can only imagine what this system would be like on an FXR or a Sporty. Traxxion Dynamics offers their kits for just about every bike made.

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The next time you start thinking about doing some kind of an upgrade on your bike, seriously consider the suspension. A bike that goes fast also needs to be able to stop. All motorcycles need to be able to maneuver safely and this is a huge upgrade for your bike. If you love peeling the turns back on those two-lane roads, then this is a must have. I decided not to do an actual tech article on the Traxxion Dynamics’ forks because my main goal here was to bring light to a company that is proud to be American. There is still hope for this country after all. We need to take the time to find a company to support and that wants to support us. It was a great pleasure to be able to interview these guys and be part of their team. Go check them out and see what they can do for you today.

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