Soft front suspension - Normal on 2000 Curvy S?

[StewartR]

The front end on my 2000 S seems stupidly soft. Seems like a really low spring rate and no compression damping at all. Is that normal? I should say that the bike's a non runner right now so this is just a handful of front brake and a shove so I don't suppose I'm feeling the benefit of any progressive action the bike may have but still, I'd have expected much more resistance. Happy to figure out oil weight and replacement spring rate for myself but will that sort things out or does this suggest a damper problem?

[MJC-DEV]

Do lots of serching on here as lots on improving front ends. Top mods are: change springs to suit your weight followed by Cartridge emulators (brand of your choice) to replace the original damper rod damping.

The cheap version is just to change the oil but does't improve much unless old oil way over-due replacement.

[Ricky650]

Had the same problem with mine it was really soft and nose dived bad under braking, Thought that an oil change wouldn't make much diffrence but I did it anyway and WOW it definetly has it feels alot firmer now and the bike feels like it handles better, I just used halfords own 10w fork oil.

[maviczap]

Yes, it is normal

Heavier fork oil is part of the solution, stiffer springs and better damping by fitting Debrix emulators are the quickest and cheapest way of curing this.

More expensive options are CBR600 fork internals or GSXR front end.

All the above will also improve the handling as well

[rictus01]

if it's a curvy then the fork oil is probably old and wasn't that good when new, standard springs are going to be softer now to, once again weren't good to start with.