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06-06-06, 02:38 PM

I have been playing with my forks recently, so this is very topical for me!!

Short answer, depends on what you want to do??? Do you feel the front is too springy or too stiff/slow?

Ok as a bit of background, your basic premise is that the thicker the oil the more damping you have. The thinner the oil the less damping you have.

If you have put in stiffer springs, then it would be logical to ‘up’ the damping to compensate (else the springs will be stronger than the damping, effectively making the forks under damped). The crude way of doing this is to change the oil viscosity.

So theoretically you have done the right thing going from 10w (stock) to 15w with the, what I presume are stiffer springs. This will keep the damping properties consistent.

But now for the personal preference bit!!! I like a soft, low damped front, I had .85kg/mm springs (stock is ~ .7kg/mm), I did have 20w oil in there, hated it, put 15w in still not much better, finally I have put 7.5w oil in there and am now happy (still think it is over sprung).

Any help?

06-06-06, 02:38 PM	#3
Blue_SV650S Guest Posts: n/a	I have been playing with my forks recently, so this is very topical for me!! Short answer, depends on what you want to do??? Do you feel the front is too springy or too stiff/slow? Ok as a bit of background, your basic premise is that the thicker the oil the more damping you have. The thinner the oil the less damping you have. If you have put in stiffer springs, then it would be logical to ‘up’ the damping to compensate (else the springs will be stronger than the damping, effectively making the forks under damped). The crude way of doing this is to change the oil viscosity. So theoretically you have done the right thing going from 10w (stock) to 15w with the, what I presume are stiffer springs. This will keep the damping properties consistent. But now for the personal preference bit!!! I like a soft, low damped front, I had .85kg/mm springs (stock is ~ .7kg/mm), I did have 20w oil in there, hated it, put 15w in still not much better, finally I have put 7.5w oil in there and am now happy (still think it is over sprung). Any help?