A lot of testing has been done these last few days to tune in the fork oil weight, oil height, spring rate, and spring preload.
First, the oil. The standard Triumph fork oil is 10 weight and the compressed fork tubes are filled up to 120 mm of the tube tops. The Intimidators will not work with 10 weight and a lighter oil is needed. Ricor used Amsoil 5 weight "Shock Therapy" when they calibrated the Intimidators. They recommend this oil, preferably, or another brand of 5 weight. Money is tight around here and I had a full can of Yamaha S1 suspension fluid on the shelf. It is either 0 or 5 weight oil for cartridge suspensions. In it went. The tubes were filled within 140 mm of the tops. This was a height recommendation given to me by Progressive Suspension years ago. The Intimidators work great with the Yamaha oil and this oil level.
Second, the racing springs. The custom IKON spring is 0.9 kg/mm rate and it is 20.5 inches long. This is about 51 pounds per inch, roughly. I tried them with the Thruxton adjustable caps set at minimum preload. The fork topped out when crossing over bumps. I used the standard Triumph T-100 fork caps next. This reduces the spring preload 0.578 inches and the topping occurred much less often. The suspension is stiff but tolerable. Just like an old time cafe racer. These springs will work well with the fairing at Bonneville. I will use them there.
Third, the street springs. Advice I had about the Intimidators was to try them with softer springs than I would normally use. A set of progressive Suspension #11-1126 springs fit in the tubes. These are 35 pound / 50 pound progressive springs. They were a bit soft for me based on past experience. I install these progressive springs the opposite of most people. The open coil is toward the wheel. This is what goes on top of each spring after some experimenting: a plain washer, a 1.577 inch long spacer, another plain washer, the Honda valve shim, and the Thruxton adjustable cap.
Fourth, suspension settings. The back end has a set of IKON shocks with progressive springs and adjustable damping and preload. Salt flat settings are maximum damping and minimum preload on the shocks. The front is not adjustable. Street settings are to set the fork spring preload to match the shock spring preload. Full preload on the shocks means the preload adjusters on the forks are screwed in all the way, as an example. I also try to set the shock damping to match the fork damping.
Does it work? Most of the freeways around here are concrete and the on and off ramps are asphalt. The seams between the two can get ratty and a person has to cross the seams at an angle to get on and off of the freeway. This could be a scary moment with the old forks. Sometimes they flexed and the front wheel did not go exactly where it was supposed to. No problem now. The new forks are noticeably stronger. This will be a very big help on the salt. There are rough places on the streets around here that I steer around. Now I do not need to. The Ricor valves allow the forks to respond to these bumps and the ride is much smoother. The bike holds a line much better when cornering on rough pavement. These modifications are worth the cost and trouble.