Forza ride...spring rates

[SteveP]

I really like my Forza, with the exception of the ride, which seems unduly hard on sharp bumps. Others have complained of the same. The rear springs feel as if they don't give any. I kinda figured some of the problem is that, at about 140 pounds, I don't weigh enough to make the suspension work. The service manual doesn't show the spring rates of either the front or rear springs, so I decided I'd try to measure the rear spring rate myself. Using bathroom scale, tape measure and lever arrangement (crude setup for sure but it worked) I came up with this: with preload set at lowest setting, compressing the shock 1" required about 80 pounds while compressing it 2" required 130 pounds. I didn't go more then 2" because of safety concerns with the crude test setup. What these figures suggest to me is that the spring rate for the first 2" is around 50-60 pounds per inch and that the lowest preload is about 30 pounds. That certainly doesn't seem very "stiff". So the conclusion of what to do to improve the ride is....???

The spring appears to be a variable rate spring, based on the fact that the spacing between coils varies along the length of the spring...as the closer coils bottom out on each other they are no longer being twisted as the spring is compressed and the spring rate then goes up.

[beegmouse]

The rear shocks are rubbish.

I find the only comfortable setting solo is on their softest.
But If I ever ride two up, I have to crank them onto their hardest just to stop them bottoming out over every paperclip on the road.

Reading your post. Your issue is most likely that you are bottoming them out.
Scooters never have a lot of travel. If just sitting on the bike is using 2 inches of travel you won't have a lot left for any bumps.