Fork Spring advice

[AMCQ46]

oil is normally 7.5wt with 140mm air gap. some spring need the spacer modified to get 28mm static sag.

I am trying 10wt now on mine this yer as I was not able to get enough damping adjustment. I will report back when the roads get clean enough to start to push it

[VTRDark]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Racetech have changed the way their rebound valves are made and not as good as they used to be. They are not cheap either. I am going down the cheap route that Roger takes and tapering my rebound rods.http://www.ablett.jp/bikes/vtr/vtr_sus.htm If one is going down the route of buying valves and springs then with the expense of all that, one may as well go down the Blade route.

I have a feeling the fork oil supplied with the hyperpro springs is 10w also I believe they are progressive springs and not linear (weight related). Markycee have a read of the link above, I think you will find it interesting and in case your wondering Revolution Racing specifically Roger Ditchfield are specialists and know the VTR inside out. Even if you decide not to go the whole hog and upgrade the insides of the forks, just chucking some springs and fresh oil in will be a big improvement over standard, Just not as good as they can be.

here some more suspension related links that may make interesting reading for you.
http://www.wpsuspension.co.uk/setup.php

http://www.triumphnet.com/st/acc/racetech/setup.htm

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto ... ion_setup/

http://www.vtwo.demon.co.uk/firestorm/introduction.htm

(:-})

[popkat]

I got my racetec springs from Reactive suspension, so yes you can get them here.

[markycee]

If anyone interested, I finally got round to changing the springs. I went for the Hyperpro kit with 7.5 oil. Job was easy enough to do, and by the colour of the oil I would say these forks had never been touched. The standard honda spring is much much shorter and less substantial hence you have to remove the pre-load bush to allow the Hyperpro's to sit in there. Just road tested and what an unbelievable difference. Bike feels planted round corners and no bottiming out anymore. For anyone thinking of changing, it makes a massive difference over stock springs. best £100 I ever spent on the bike without question.

One quick question for anyone that can help. Does anyone know the measurement from the top yoke clamp to the top of the fork tube? Or even better normal the distance between top of handle bar to top of fork tube. Mine was originally 13mm (above handle bar), but looking at various photos in the Honda manual it looks lower, so I set mine to 8mm. I cant find anywhere in the manual that mentions what this distance should reallty be?

[VTRDark]

On top of the fork leg there is a groove with a circular clip which is the stopping point. IIRC you you can drop the forks up to 10mm, so that's raising the fork legs through the yoke so there is a max of 10mm below the clip.

Good to hear that its made a massive difference for you,

(:-})

[markycee]

Tks for that. What is the effect of increasing that to 10mm? It obviously drops the front down but what will that do to handling?

[popkat]

it could cause instability, mild wobles or tank slappers. if you get anything like that even mild that you didn't get before then either pull the forks up until it doesn't do it or get a damper.

[markycee]

Popkat. I'm confused. Pulling the forks up means increasing that 10mm even further. Do you mean go the other way. Ie reduce that 10 mm toward the standard. 2 or 3 mm?

[VTRDark]

I think that's exactly what he's saying, reduce the 10mm. When talking about dropping or raising forks it can be a bit confusing depending on how it's worded. This is why I clarified myself

you you can drop the forks up to 10mm, so that's raising the fork legs through the yoke

TBH you shouldn't need to drop the front end any lower with the new springs. There's also the option of putting a 3mm spacer in the rear shock to raise the rear a tad. Why do you want to lower the front. Is there not enough turn in for you something.

(:-})

[markycee]

Yep. Already running the rear spacer. I guess at this point I'm just trying to establish what measurement is standard. I want to use that as my start point then move towards that 10mm you suggested. If standard feels okay ill prob stick with that. All interesting stuff tho. I'm surprised that hyperpro don't suggest a figure for this setup as their instructions manual covers just about everything else like rebound and preload etc. The Honda manual doesn't seem to list standard measurement either. Very odd considering it can make such a difference.

[VTRDark]

I think the standard set up is at that stopping point where the snap ring is. Obviously that is taking into consideration the height of the standard clip ons. If aftermarket cip ons or top yoke are used where the depth is different then this needs to be adjusted to compensate. The spap ring sits just above the top of the clip ons.

(:-})

[markycee]

Nice one. Tks again!

[popkat]

I know what i meant sorry for confusing post should have been pull the front up or push the forks through.

What you should have done was measure the height of the front of the bike before changing the springs, then with the new springs fitted set the front ride height the same by either sliding the forks up or down in the yoke and/or adjusting the preload.. preload should be at 25mm or close to it, you should be able to get this using the preload adjuster, if not cut down or lengthen the fork spring spacer to get required preload.