gold valve emulators

No. But the summer I got my first interstate ('05) and bolted on everything I wanted (a huge order), I also wanted Progressive springs. The bike only had 3400 miles on it but I had to have those springs in there (and 440s in back I did myself). Not being competent to tear down forks, I took it to our closest Metric dealer who had done good work on our other bikes, and when they were done, I had progressive springs, but the front end was a hardtail-front. Just a really hard, jarring ride. I took it back and they claimed they did everything right (for the big money I paid, it should have been right), and wouldn't go in again without more money. And I wouldn't pay more, and didn't want to sue them in small claims, so I lived with it. And in a year-18 months, it got better (maybe almost normal); I didn't just get used to it, it did get better, but there were no leaks (and none for the next 13 years either), and I have never understood HOW it got better. For a long time, I blamed the Progressive springs, but later figured it just had to be too much fork oil (or the wrong kind/wt).

My other interstate had intermittent fork leaks for about 4 years, temporarily fixed multiple times with the 35mm film trick and a Seal Mate. I certainly lost some oil (one side worse than the other) over all that time, but the ride and handling never seemed bad or defective (but certainly softer than the other bike). But the total oil loss over that time cannot have been all that large. And Big BF did a complete rebuild for me last year, and I told him about my bad experience with the other bike and suggested he use a bit less oil on each side, and he just wrote my forks would be fine. I didn't stand over him, and when done those forks are great, and normal, and I don't know if he used a little less or not.

This is a long way around the subject, but it has been discussed a lot on here, even lately, and over the years there's been a lot of talking about leaving a little oil out (from specified) (or sucking a little out) to ensure you don't get (or to cure) a harsh ride (obviously leading to more fairing shaking and bouncing). And a couple posts lately have claimed that leaving any oil out (from specified) is a bad idea, and will lead to abnormal front tire wear and improper internal physics in the designed fork compression, and that the proper remedy is to use a bit lighter weight oil (than the 10wt specified). I believe that Honda engineering and motorcycles are about as good as they get, and following their maintenance manual and instructions is a very good idea, but I don't think occasional workarounds ought to result in witch trials and burnings at the stake. My fork leak bike never got any abnormal front tire wear, and I went through three tires during that time period.

Now the interstate fairing shaking and noises has been a much discussed subject, and even Chet on his old Rattlebars site (well over a decade ago) devoted a whole long section discussing it. It seems clear that overly hard front forks would make it worse, but even with perfect forks (whatever that is) the fairing is going to bounce and shake on bad roads and potholes, etc. I love to explore out of the way roads and places, but I've never been a big fan or dirt and gravel (for long), and I've been on washboard roads where I was afraid my fairing was going to fly off entirely from all the shaking and rocking. I've also run over some giant potholes and raised manhole covers where the fairing rocked violently.

So, perfect functioning forks seems like a way to help with this problem, but I only see it as a way to help, not to cure the problem. And I still think if anyone has overly hard front forks, sucking out an ounce and half or so of oil from each side may be a good solution. So might using that much less oil on a complete rebuild, but how do you know they will be too hard unless you use the correct amount of oil on the rebuild first.... then suck it out after only if you need to?

BTW, I like your firm foam rubber idea (it took me a second to see it in your pic). Harleys shook like an earthquake for many years, and their EVOs began using rubber mount engines soon before I got my first (and only) rubber mount EVO FXR. They also used rubber mount handlebar bushings. They needed them (badly).

Short of having good front forks, I don't know if there is a way to improve the Valk fairing mounts. I can't ever remember that being a topic of discussion on here.

Sorry for my (usual) book.