Holy Fork Springs Batman

[shigs]

These suckers are $100 shipped.....anyone know of a more cost effective place to get them? Ebay and Bikebandit seem to be pretty steep.....

[delvryboy]

That seems to be a good price. Race-Tech wants $109 + ship

[ragedigital]

Are you looking for aftermarket or stock ones?

I bought the Race Techs... they were $120 shipped at the time.

[shigs]

My forks are spongy I can push them down and almost bottom them out, figured is throw some new springs and seals in them but since its an old bike I didn't want to spend an Arm and a leg

[ragedigital]

You can get by with a longer pre-load spacer and some thicker weight for oil (15w/20w oil mix).

[shigs]

Any chance you have a step by step on that?

[thatkid]

There's two write ups you should read, before changing/swapping the fork oil & pre-load spacer/collar. The front end MUST be lifted before removing the Fork Caps, otherwise they could get embedded in your forehead.

http://www.saltmine.org.uk/fzr/fork.html << Y-Geo even tells you what paint matches the engine casings ( i bought some and it does) also take note of how to measure the air gap.

HOW-TO: Fork Seal Replacement

I'm sure someone else will chime in to keep you right.

[_Will_]

mine had bad dive before I switched to straight 20w when I went in to do new seals. No more bottoming out and much more composed over rr tracks and other obstacles . The pogo action is gone. Not sure if I still have stock spring, mine were progressive ones when I went in and there were signs of previous work that could only be described as creative.

edit: I'm 280lbs if that gives you a reference point for if it will work for you.

[yamaha_george]

Hi,
there are two ways to improve the springs for forks (I have covered this before )
a} cut the springs length (gives them a higher spring rating}
B} buy new springs yeh I heard the cash bit about the RT mob etc wanting the family as hostages, you have a computer time to use it !

I simply put spring manufacturers into google, I found 2 within 20min or so ride of where I live, they need to know how long the spring is supposed to be (check the workshop manual) and the outer diameter (2mm smaller than the tube internal diameter worked for me) and the spring rate you desire.
Now that can be looked up on that bunch of RO merchants Race tech web site., cost in my hand 40 UKP next day collection.

Now that with some time in front of my computer one evening, two rides one rainy the other sunny and warm was a good result. As Mawler said my web site has all the details of how to right down to making tools for fork work & and measuring etc.

[shigs]

SO if I just wanted to put bigger spacers in and thicker oil, would I have to go through all of that in the how-to?

[sweekster]

SO if I just wanted to put bigger spacers in and thicker oil, would I have to go through all of that in the how-to?

If your seals aren't leaking then you'd only need to get front end off the ground, syphon the oil out, and put in the new oil and spacers. The key is getting the front end COMPLETELY off the ground.

[shigs]

And the only way to get the oil out that way is to siphon it? How much do I put back in?

[thatkid]

Some forks have a Phillips drain screw @ the bottom of the forks. You add oil with the springs & spacers removed then measure the air gap (from the top of the forks) too much oil = blown seals, too little = inadequate damping, read Y-Geo's write up.

[gre3nskeeper]

George-

do you have the specs to get the custom springs made? From what I can tell from Race-Tech's site:
RT FRK SPR 31.7x340mm .85kg
the over all length should be 3400mm. I assume a spring manufacturer would also need to know the wire thickness, spring diameter, and wire material to be able to make these.