Carlos840
Junior Member
Hi everyone,
Last week i installed some new fork springs on my bike and i thought i would write a quick report in case any one is on the verge of doing and needs extra convincing.
My bike is a 2009 with 6000miles, i weight 180 lbs and measure 6'2".
From the beginning i always felt that the forks were to soft, like many people on the forum i didn't like the dive i would get under braking and the unsettling wobble i got whenever i made any mid turn adjustments.
I changed the oil to 15w (actually it was 10w!) last summer, which really helped, but i still wanted to change the springs and get the setup done properly.
I ordered Racetech springs, they recommended 0.88 for street and 0.92 for racing so i went with 0.90.
The installation was pretty easy, i had bought a length of cheap tubing to experiment on spacer length with, ended up having to tear everything down 3 times before i got the spacer length correct (175mm). I think all together it took around 3 hours from start to finish.
I first wanted to go with 0.95 springs but i really don't regret going with 0.90, they give a great ride, they don't feel to hard, but do get rid of any unwanted dive. More importantly the bike is a lot more stable in turns, it also is a bit more direct in turns and wobbles less in general.
On very bad roads things do get a bit rough though, it gets a bit bouncy in the rear. I suspect that the better reactions of the front now makes the short coming of the rear more obvious.
In the end i ended up with:
Front static sag: 20mm
Front rider sag: 32mm
Cable tie on the fork shows i have 1/2" of travel left before i bottom out.
Rear preload on 5
Rear static sag: 7mm
Rear rider sag: 30mm
Now, although those numbers are pretty much exactly what i was aiming for, and the ride is a lot better than stock, i can't help but wonder how much better it would be with some emulators in the front and a Nitron shock in the rear...
If anybody has done the front in two stages, how much improvement did the gold valves do compared to springs alone?
Is it worth upgrading the shock?
Since threads are better with pics, here isone, since these pics the bike has had new pegs, and an FZ1 bar...
Last week i installed some new fork springs on my bike and i thought i would write a quick report in case any one is on the verge of doing and needs extra convincing.
My bike is a 2009 with 6000miles, i weight 180 lbs and measure 6'2".
From the beginning i always felt that the forks were to soft, like many people on the forum i didn't like the dive i would get under braking and the unsettling wobble i got whenever i made any mid turn adjustments.
I changed the oil to 15w (actually it was 10w!) last summer, which really helped, but i still wanted to change the springs and get the setup done properly.
I ordered Racetech springs, they recommended 0.88 for street and 0.92 for racing so i went with 0.90.
The installation was pretty easy, i had bought a length of cheap tubing to experiment on spacer length with, ended up having to tear everything down 3 times before i got the spacer length correct (175mm). I think all together it took around 3 hours from start to finish.
I first wanted to go with 0.95 springs but i really don't regret going with 0.90, they give a great ride, they don't feel to hard, but do get rid of any unwanted dive. More importantly the bike is a lot more stable in turns, it also is a bit more direct in turns and wobbles less in general.
On very bad roads things do get a bit rough though, it gets a bit bouncy in the rear. I suspect that the better reactions of the front now makes the short coming of the rear more obvious.
In the end i ended up with:
Front static sag: 20mm
Front rider sag: 32mm
Cable tie on the fork shows i have 1/2" of travel left before i bottom out.
Rear preload on 5
Rear static sag: 7mm
Rear rider sag: 30mm
Now, although those numbers are pretty much exactly what i was aiming for, and the ride is a lot better than stock, i can't help but wonder how much better it would be with some emulators in the front and a Nitron shock in the rear...
If anybody has done the front in two stages, how much improvement did the gold valves do compared to springs alone?
Is it worth upgrading the shock?
Since threads are better with pics, here isone, since these pics the bike has had new pegs, and an FZ1 bar...
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