06-27-2020, 10:14 PM
Hey Ozigoo,
the front suspension must have been designed for a 60Kg Honda test rider! I recall that someone on the forum tested the original springs to determine they were near enough to 0.75Kg/mm which is barely enough to hold up the weight of the bike ... no wonder you need all of the preload yet still bottoming out. Further, they are progressive rate springs so they will always have a lot of initial sag. For your weight and that of our heavy bike you might consider 0.90 or 0.95 kg/mm springs - these would go nicely with your new valving. From memory the rear wasn't too bad so you could leave that end alone and just wind up the preload a little to get the 30-35mm of sag. One additional point that i noticed when changing fork seals was that the new seals created quite a lot of stiction ... where they have friction which affects their static resting position. Mine took a while to 'wear' in so in the meantime you might want to measure the average sag, i.e. the middle of where it settles from both unloaded down to resting position and from compressed back up to resting position.
Good luck with it all. Once you've worked it out and found pre-load and damping settings to suit you the ride will be much better.
the front suspension must have been designed for a 60Kg Honda test rider! I recall that someone on the forum tested the original springs to determine they were near enough to 0.75Kg/mm which is barely enough to hold up the weight of the bike ... no wonder you need all of the preload yet still bottoming out. Further, they are progressive rate springs so they will always have a lot of initial sag. For your weight and that of our heavy bike you might consider 0.90 or 0.95 kg/mm springs - these would go nicely with your new valving. From memory the rear wasn't too bad so you could leave that end alone and just wind up the preload a little to get the 30-35mm of sag. One additional point that i noticed when changing fork seals was that the new seals created quite a lot of stiction ... where they have friction which affects their static resting position. Mine took a while to 'wear' in so in the meantime you might want to measure the average sag, i.e. the middle of where it settles from both unloaded down to resting position and from compressed back up to resting position.
Good luck with it all. Once you've worked it out and found pre-load and damping settings to suit you the ride will be much better.