Advice on front fork springs

[embee]

I'd just add a comment on emulators.
I spent a lot of time playing with the Debrix items and I'm not alone with deciding the holes in the disc need tuning and the valve springs which came fitted were far too stiff. Racetech give info on their recommended (or suggested) valve spring rates.
I ended up adding more holes and opening them out to 3mm, and trying a couple of different spring stiffnesses at different preloads. Eventually I reached a decent functioning emuator. It's quite a lot of faff.
Unless you are prepared to do this sort of tuning I'd suggest a simple spring/oil change as talked about in this thread will give you by far the best bang-for-buck result. It won't be perfect but it'll be plenty good enough for general road riding.

[coldtyres]

Originally Posted by Bibio

unless your doing track work all the time then emulators are not worth it.

my advice for what its worth is to weld up the rebound holes, fit linear springs for your weight and RSF 7.5 or 10w oil. you must use Silkolene RSF as its known to work.

the SV has not too bad comp as standard but its the rebound thats carp... this is why you weld up the rebound holes on the damper rods.

unless your some god like Rossi then you are never going to use your suspension to full potential. emulators will and do make for a harsh ride on the road unless your willing to take your forks apart for about 10 times. emulators only really work in compression.

if you want to do it right then do as i suggest above but start with 7.5wt oil then use 20w as the 40ml at a time to get it right for rebound. take 40ml out of fork legs then add 20wt and repeat till you get a proper rebound.

Hi Bibio.
Can you explain this last paragraph please? I am not sure what you mean.
Cheers Ryan

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by coldtyres

Hi Bibio.
Can you explain this last paragraph please? I am not sure what you mean.
Cheers Ryan

rebound and compression in damper rod forks rely on oil viscosity passing through orifices (holes) . if one welds up the rebound on the damper rods then this helps slow the rebound but keep the compression decent. this is why i always recommend welding up the rebound holes, if you dont then compression can get a too "slow" hard and teeth rattling.

taking into account the above adjusting the rebound (and less so the compression due to the huge oil orifices) is largely via oil viscosity.

now lets fine tune the oil viscosity to get the rebound working properly:
1.you need to be able to do a basic "bounce test".
2.using the bounce test you adjust the oil viscosity in your forks.
3.lets assume that you have put 7.5wt oil on your forks.
4.if the forks over shoot too much when doing the bounce test then take 40ml out of each fork leg and replace with 40ml of 20wt oil.
5. replace fork caps, repeat bounce test. keep repeating the adding of 20wt oil till your rebound has about 3mm of overshoot.

you need to "mix the oil" using a long tube and syringe each time you add to 20wt oil. when you think ist done go ride the bike for a few weeks and then test the "rebound bounce" and adjust if necessary.

the above is a long drawn out process and takes a long time so dont rush things. trust me at the end of it you will be amazed at the difference.

with patience, damper rod forks can be just as good as cartridge.

[coldtyres]

Thanks Bibio!
That all makes perfect sense. I appreciate your effort and patience.
Cheers Ryan

[aesmith]

I blocked mine with epoxy. However when I temporarily used a different set of forks I simply dropped in the emulators with no damper rod mods. I didn't detect a bit difference to be honest. The holes are very small, and some articles refer to them as "bleed" holes rather than rebound.

[Bibio]

aesmith is correct in calling them bleed holes.