SV650 ZX6R F1 Fork Hybrid

So, back in the garage after a long week at work.
Got the forks back on Wednesday, can't fault Qprep, they've done a top job!
Seeing as they were flaking pretty badly, i though it'd be time for a respray.
I didn't want anything fancy, just to look nice from a few foot away.

So, washed with some strong degreaser to get rid of all the nasty road crap, then sanded all the loose paint off and roughed up the surfaces with some rough sandpaper. Using old bolts and cheapo halfords ones, I bolted up all the threads to make sure I didn't give them a good coating of primer, and covered up the holes for the axle.




Before applying 2 coats of etching primer, I made sure all the loose rubbish and remaining grease was removed with some white spirit clothes.





Half hour before the second coat, made sure the forks were kept warm with a heater.





And now on with the lovely satin black! 3 coats.





I'm leaving them over night to dry properly, then i'll start the rebuild process, stay tuned for an update!

[shiftin_gear98]

Quick question, what paint did you go with? Thinking of doing this to mine soon - the painting bit anyway.

Originally Posted by shiftin_gear98

Quick question, what paint did you go with? Thinking of doing this to mine soon - the painting bit anyway.

Just two coats of etching primer, rubbed down with 1200 wet n dry, then 3 coats of satin black, If I had more time + cash I would have done 6+ coats of paint and some lacquer.

Now then suspension gurus, I need your guidance!

I rebuilt one this evening as I've spent all bloody day fixing the mrs's corsa (pile of S**T)
I'll do a full write up next week.



Looking nice and sharp in black!

Now, fork's all rebuild, new seals and dust seals, all the right way round etc, all torqued up properly. Now, I've gone buy the ZX6R manual and gone with 150mm air gap with 10W oil. Pumped the sanction up n down 10 times, and the cartridge rod the same to get rid of the air bubbles, measured twice with a turkey baster and then (as the manual says) put the spring back in, washer, then the top cap back onto the cartridge rod then done up back onto the fork sanction.

I'm 99.9% sure that there are no leaks anywhere, however, the rebound seems incredibly slow?? Like really slow. The compression feels a lot stiffer, which is fantastic, but the rebound takes around 2 seconds to get the fork back to its normal sitting.

I've got an old pair of speed four forks lying about and they spring back to normal a lot quicker.

I've adjusted the rebound to its quickest setting and there doesn't seem to be any improvement?

Any ideas what could have caused this? Maybe I need the SV air gap rather than the ZX6R? Or is something catching?

[Sid Squid]

Have you set the fork caps on the damper rod as per the manual? If they're not right the rebound will be out of range - either all up the top or all down the bottom, depending on whether it's set too high or too low. As it's ultra stiff I suspect the adjuster may be too low down on the damper.
There will almost certainly be too much compression, a certain amount of fluid passes through the cartridge and the amount flowing through the adjuster bypasses this, now nothing does as there is no adjuster/bypass.

Ah, right, I think I've done 3 things potentially wrong to affect the rebound....

First, I didn't put and lubricant on the fork sanction, meaning there'll be a lot of friction against the seal....

Second (as sid squid has said) I just put the top cap back on, I didn't read the part saying that there must be a 25mm cap between the preload part of the cap and the actual top cap bit. Serves me right for rushing.....

Thirdly.... I may have been really, really stupid and poured fork oil directly into the damper adjuster rod when refilling. Just been looking at diagrams online and it appears that it'll fill up to its own level when pumping rather than some muppet (ie me) filling it to the brim.....

Everyone else think that resolving these mistakes will rectify the problem? Or should I have filled the damper adjuster rod with oil??? It looks like it should be air on the diagrams! Also, what about the air gap? keep at 150mm? or go with the SV gap of 94mm? (I think)

[Sid Squid]

Do not under any circumstances fill the fork to the SV specs. It is not an SV fork so the specs are utterly irrelevant.
Not oiling the seal is not the problem.
The damper cartridge must be filled in order to work - the adjuster rod hole will be oiled like the rest of the fork.
Fit the cap properly and see what happens. There'll still be way too much compression though.

[yorkie_chris]

Sounds like rebound bleed problem to me too. Although why 10w and what 10w have you used?

Compression problem, maybe maybe not, some forks have a fixed bleed in comp valve anyway.


Air gap is just one adjustment of many you can make, get the bleeds working first. I like 125mm as starting point.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Sounds like rebound bleed problem to me too. Although why 10w and what 10w have you used?

Compression problem, maybe maybe not, some forks have a fixed bleed in comp valve anyway.


Air gap is just one adjustment of many you can make, get the bleeds working first. I like 125mm as starting point.

Fully synthetic Castrol 10W, mainly because I've always used it on a few bikes and the manual said 10W

Is the rebound bleed at the top or bottom of the cartridge unit? I noticed the damping bolt looked like it had a bleed? I'm fairly sure that's not blocked as they drilled the depth of the new hole the same as on the ZX6R fork?

[yorkie_chris]

Rebound is top.

Think about that last bit. Suggest a careful look over the donor legs...