Fork adjusters

[embee]

I'm about 12st and intended to fit 0.80 springs (std are 0.709 IIRC), but where I got them from discovered they only had 0.85 in stock, so I had them.

For me at 12st the 0.85 are slightly stiffer than ideal, for you they'd probably be about right.

Higher viscosity oil and standard springs will be a slight improvement, but bite the bullet and get the springs, you'll never regret it, best bang-for-buck mod by far.

Originally Posted by embee

..Higher viscosity oil and standard springs will be a slight improvement, but ...

Trying to increase the perceived 'stiffness' of forks by increasing/over damping, is at best ill informed and potentially dangerous way of doing things*!!

I'd never say that was an option ... even an inferior one ..

*ever heard of 'pump down'???

[northwind]

Embee knows stuff Blue Prepare for a schoolin'.

[Grant66]

Thanks for the advice, so I should;

Change fork oil for better.
Fit fork top adjusters. (adjust when girlie is on the back)
Stiffer springs.

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

*ever heard of 'pump down'???

err....no what is it?

Originally Posted by gajjii

err....no what is it?

A bit of google-fu will give you a fuller explanation, but it is essentially where over rebound damping means that the forks will ‘ratchet’ down as they cannot return quick enough for the next bump.

Admittedly this is normally a worry when you have separate compression and rebound damping (little compression damping lots of rebound), but depending on the series of bumps you could get this with using too heavy an oil weight/damping.

You can also get the forks to hydraulic lock if you just up the oil viscosity … this is your bigger risk in this stuation!!

Basically the oil/damping should match the spring, to stop it from .. well acting like a spring (a spring tends to go boing … boing … boing , you just want it to go boing! ) … not used to make the suspension ‘stiffer’.

Assuming Mr suzuki matched the stock 10w oil damping properties to his stock ~7 springs properly, then the only time one should be changing his oil weight from that is if you up your spring weight … or large changes in ambient temp ...

[Grant66]

Originally Posted by alpinestarhero

BTW, nice topbox

It was until a white van's mirror did this:

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Basically the oil/damping should match the spring, to stop it from .. well acting like a spring (a spring tends to go boing … boing … boing , you just want it to go boing! ) … not used to make the suspension ‘stiffer’.

Assuming Mr suzuki matched the stock 10w oil damping properties to his stock ~7 springs properly, then the only time one should be changing his oil weight from that is if you up your spring weight … or large changes in ambient temp ...

What is compression damping for then? Mr Suzuki didn't do a very good job of matching the stock oil either, 10W oil is appropriate, 12.5W is OK, the stuff used is thinner though, those who know reckon it's more like 7W.

[embee]

Of course you're right, Blue.
Mismatching springs and damping doesn't fix anything!
I wouldn't suggest departing far from what Suzuki-san put in the pogos from new, but whether you have a 7.5W or a 10W isn't going to suddenly turn it into a widow-maker, plus check out the viscosity comparison charts
http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/lowspeed.htm
and that bottle of "10W" could be nearly anything anyway.

I confess I did the cheapo route with mine early on and put in a mix of 10 and 15W, which did make a slight improvement over what it originally had, but doing it "properly" (but still the cheap route!) with springs+10W gives a vastly better solution at relatively low cost (short of emulators/GSX front etc).

Whether the original spring/damper combination was right is very debatable, mine was certainly boing-boing-boingy General concensus says it was about right for a 9 stoner.

There are/have been some suspension gurus on the site, it's not really my field at all other than the basics.

Originally Posted by northwind

You can't make the front end stiffer with washers, that adjusts preload not spring rate, but apart from that yes, the two do the same thing. I'm not sure if I'd say recommended, I used mine for 10 minutes then never adjusted them again but it saved me a fair amount of trial and error doing it with spacers.

Just a wild stab in the dark here but are there any parts left on your SV(s) that are as they came out of the factory? Why hasn't Mr Suzuki whisked you off to his secret volcanic island R&D department to develop the new improved SV? I'd buy one.

[northwind]

Answer- because all I do is copy other people's ideas