If you guy's can offer something more then a baseless opinion. I'm all ears. If I'm wrong, back your claim up and I'll admit I made a mistake.
It's the "front end pulling to either side and causing the bikes ride position to come out of plumb and create unnatural front tire wear" part of it I disagree with. The left and right lower fork tubes work as a unit with the axle. I think was wrong earlier in saying that rebound and compression damping are in different sides of the fork, but rather, it seems that rebound and compression damping are in the right side. That being said, having the damping only on one side means that when you hit a bump or jam on your brakes, the right fork tube will offer more resistance than the left fork tube, and if the left inner fork / axle / right inner fork assembly was not as structurally solid as it is, the front wheel would be constantly flexing off of vertical. This is not the case.
Thank you for being more specific as to which part of my statement you disagreed with.
I disagree with you.
The right side dampener meters fluid transition on compression and rebound. Give the right dampener rod a pull and a push, you'll see. The left tube works in unison by utilizing the rebound rod assembly [spring] that also dampens. Honda's got this system working in unison with about a .25 oz. fluid variant! Or Showa did. The only other things that can alter this system is a.) a variance with lock-nut heights between both dampener rods to fork caps. b.) a variance in the variable fluid quantities. c.) an improperly aligned front axle effecting the left lower leg. Or way too little fluid or too much.
Now, if the fluid variance % is slightly off, i.e. a quarter ounce, I doubt any of us would notice. How many of us have had slight seal leaks? Not hard to loose 1/2 ounce in one leg. My point was; if you alter the systems response via fluid/air ratios you need to keep them identical in removing or adding to existing OEM levels and that's with regard to no fluid loss due to leaking seals. That suggests if you take 1.5 oz. from the left take the same from the right. Same with the dampener lock-nut heights, match the changes. That's a justified recommendation.
I can vouch to handling issues caused by removing 4 ounces from the right and 2 from the left. I did it by mistake. See my thread:
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,14595.0.html . Under normal riding the weaker/spongier right fork pulled the bike to the left so I was forced to counter-steer to the right to pull it back left to run straight. Thus handling issues and abnormal tire wear. Was I all over the road with a 2 oz. discrepancy? Only if I took my hands off the grips. Was it difficult to ride - No! Annoying yes. And that's with a heavy variance of 2 oz's.
Your right though, under braking load or bumps it wanted to go right because I'm not computerized and fast enough to predict what bump is going to take me right. No one I ride with saw it, but I could feel it as I corrected. It wasn't death defying...Yes, while braking it wanted to go right. The only observations made by my fellow riders was that I was always cantered to the left.
My recommendation stands in my mind - duplicate fluid level changes equally based on Honda's L&R quantities and keep any dampener rod nut adjustments equal also.
Or you will experience handling and abnormal tire wear. I can't be any clearer.
Dampener rod adjustments are internal in our Valks. If you want to make adjustments. Sport bike's and others are external. No difference really other then access and no indicator indexes.
You could experiment on your ride and you'll understand what I mean.
I've already experimented [unintentionally] on mine.l I've been there, 6 ways to Sunday...
