I'm keeping mine in. From the posts here, it seems comfort is the most compelling reason to remove it. I'm going to error on the side of load handling as I doubt I'll ever feel like I'm riding in an air conditioned full size vehicle no matter what mods I make to my P500. Given it's size, I'd prefer the stiffer suspension to handle loads and high CG in the wide range of terrain I encounter. MWO subject to change without notice.
My deal...was safety....
Been riding..over 40 yrs
The Honda propaganda brags about IRS- Independent Rear Suspension. If you ever watch a P5 going over rough terrain from the back, the rear suspension (stock) barely moves, (or the front for that matter) and when going through ruts, or over big obstacles you will often see the corner to corner teetering act with one wheel on two corners in the air- some of you have seen my videos in the suspension thread demonstrating that one- because the machine is ridiculously over-sprung to begin with- unless loaded very heavy, like stupid heavy- I had 700+ lbs on mine, and still couldn't compress the suspension to get all four wheels on the ground during one of those 'teetering' events- with the rsb removed!. So, what the h** is the point of IRS if it never IRS's to begin with, and then adding an additional, ridiculously over sized torsion spring (rsb) that ties the two sides of the rear suspension together virtually guaranteeing that it will never move independently like it is supposed to? I must concur, that when I removed mine, there was a very slight improvement in ride over the small bumps at higher speed (more than 10mph) but it made no appreciable difference when traversing rough terrain, and definitely did not make the machine 'tippy-er' Some of you might be loading your machines really heavy, with a lot of stuff up high, and in those cases, it might actually accomplish something, but I doubt it, because your tires are going compress more than the suspension anyways, so again, the rsb is moot. I know Chooglin loads his heavy, he had to add more spring to the rear, but he still removed the sway bar. I honestly, after all the research I've done, and many years of hobby, and professional experience in the automotive world of suspension set-ups, am at a complete loss to explain Honda's suspension choices on the P-500. (aside from cheep-cheep & tuff) So, bottom line (IMHO) 1st- remove the stupid sway bar! It does nothing, but make an already bad suspension set up worse. 2nd.- do one of the suspension upgrades in the P5 suspension thread and find out how amazing independent suspension really is! Phew! glad i got that off my chest!
Dammit Trigger! Now I gotta get my 2cents in.
I'm hopeful we're not too far away from a 'bolt on' set up in the near future.
