Sackmonkey
New Member
Hi all,
I bought the R6 forks and brakes from Tom here on the forum. They came with R6 calipers, axle and shims. The forks were just rebuilt with new seals and had 1kg springs installed, which are perfect for my fat self (220lbs). I then spent over a month drooling over the parts because we were in the coldest part of winter. Finally, Michigan is warming up a bit, so I tackled it last weekend. I've never pulled forks off a bike before, so it seemed intimidating, but the actual swap was ridiculously easy to do. I think the hardest part was just deciding how to best route the new stainless steel brake lines.
I had my wife measure the sag with the old setup, but haven't checked the new one yet. If she measured correctly, I was at a whopping 52mm of sag in front!
I aired up my tires and went riding for several hours yesterday. I haven't dialed in the shock settings at all yet (I haven't even checked them!), but all I can say is WOW! I'm completely blown away by the change. It still feels like an FZ6, but it's better in every way. I raised the forks up 8.25mm from flush to tweak turn-in response. I thought this was going to be too much and that I'd be happier closer to 5mm, but I was wrong. I'm thrilled with the turn-in and the high speed stability is fine at 100+mph.
Bumps are definitely more noticeable on rough roads, but the bike seems so much more solid and planted that the bumps don't bother me at all. Mid-corner bumps are now irrelevant. Carving corners has never, ever been so fun on this bike.
The improvement to hard braking is huge. I'm not sure how much improvement is due to new pads, the better calipers, or just the fact that the nose-diving is cut down to less than half of stock amount, but those three changes combined are MASSIVE.
For the fender, I reused the stock hardware on the two rear mounting points, but added a washer hidden between the fork and the fender (otherwise the fender has to stretch out a few mm's to reach the fenders). In front, I stole the old design from the PDF online. I spent a couple days teaching myself how to use CAD (using a free trial of Rhino software), then recreated the tab design from the PDF. I then made the parts on a 3D printer at work. They're just plastic, but seem solid enough for now. I just approved a new 3D printer at work that will be able to print with carbon fiber and/or kevlar and can supposedly make parts stronger than aluminum. Once we get that in, I plan to re-print some new tabs with it and will swap those in.
Installing the front tabs was a little tricky to figure out, but I finally got it done. I used four new bolts (cut down in length) and a couple nuts. Once done, the installation is perfectly aligned and completely invisible. THANK YOU to whoever came up with this clever tab design in the first place! I don't know who you are, but I appreciate it.
The new forks look awesome in black, especially with the 2006 black fender. The blue plugs on the calipers actually look really sweet on my red bike. I bought brake lines that had anodize blue on their banjos to make a pretty cool theme out of it. I need to take some pics and post them.
Anyway, if you have ever considered this R6 fork swap but been intimidated by the magnitude of it, don't be. It was a piece of cake and definitely worth doing!
Rob
I bought the R6 forks and brakes from Tom here on the forum. They came with R6 calipers, axle and shims. The forks were just rebuilt with new seals and had 1kg springs installed, which are perfect for my fat self (220lbs). I then spent over a month drooling over the parts because we were in the coldest part of winter. Finally, Michigan is warming up a bit, so I tackled it last weekend. I've never pulled forks off a bike before, so it seemed intimidating, but the actual swap was ridiculously easy to do. I think the hardest part was just deciding how to best route the new stainless steel brake lines.
I had my wife measure the sag with the old setup, but haven't checked the new one yet. If she measured correctly, I was at a whopping 52mm of sag in front!
I aired up my tires and went riding for several hours yesterday. I haven't dialed in the shock settings at all yet (I haven't even checked them!), but all I can say is WOW! I'm completely blown away by the change. It still feels like an FZ6, but it's better in every way. I raised the forks up 8.25mm from flush to tweak turn-in response. I thought this was going to be too much and that I'd be happier closer to 5mm, but I was wrong. I'm thrilled with the turn-in and the high speed stability is fine at 100+mph.
Bumps are definitely more noticeable on rough roads, but the bike seems so much more solid and planted that the bumps don't bother me at all. Mid-corner bumps are now irrelevant. Carving corners has never, ever been so fun on this bike.
The improvement to hard braking is huge. I'm not sure how much improvement is due to new pads, the better calipers, or just the fact that the nose-diving is cut down to less than half of stock amount, but those three changes combined are MASSIVE.
For the fender, I reused the stock hardware on the two rear mounting points, but added a washer hidden between the fork and the fender (otherwise the fender has to stretch out a few mm's to reach the fenders). In front, I stole the old design from the PDF online. I spent a couple days teaching myself how to use CAD (using a free trial of Rhino software), then recreated the tab design from the PDF. I then made the parts on a 3D printer at work. They're just plastic, but seem solid enough for now. I just approved a new 3D printer at work that will be able to print with carbon fiber and/or kevlar and can supposedly make parts stronger than aluminum. Once we get that in, I plan to re-print some new tabs with it and will swap those in.
Installing the front tabs was a little tricky to figure out, but I finally got it done. I used four new bolts (cut down in length) and a couple nuts. Once done, the installation is perfectly aligned and completely invisible. THANK YOU to whoever came up with this clever tab design in the first place! I don't know who you are, but I appreciate it.
The new forks look awesome in black, especially with the 2006 black fender. The blue plugs on the calipers actually look really sweet on my red bike. I bought brake lines that had anodize blue on their banjos to make a pretty cool theme out of it. I need to take some pics and post them.
Anyway, if you have ever considered this R6 fork swap but been intimidated by the magnitude of it, don't be. It was a piece of cake and definitely worth doing!
Rob
