Forking dilemma.

I have discussed my forks before, and have just done a search on here, there has been much discussion about the forks on the SV in general. Seems the best solution is to chuck them away and get some GSXR forks. Next best is to fit emulators and springs. Finally just to fit springs and thicker oil.

I have a curvy roadbike, I have recently bought a second curvy SV, which I intend to use as a track bike.

Ok, so my road bike forks had been ‘modified’ when the previous owner had it, and are supposidly ready for the track. It has 85 springs and emulators in. The new bike as far as I am aware has stock forks.

Now for my dilemma: I have never liked the forks setup on my roadbike(i.e. with the modded forks), they have always been too stiff and well reluctant to move at all!! You could say that they were intended for the track hence made stiff, but even when I took it out for a session on a trackday, it felt too stiff, but then I do like compliant suspension as it give me more feel and make the bike turn better. There was little dive meaning the front just didn’t have ‘feel’. I have since bodged it by putting 7.5w oil in there, and backed the emulator preload spring with off to get some compliancy. Although the spring and damping are a little mismatched now, I feel the ride overall is much improved!!!

Ok I still haven’t quite reached the dilemma … I took the new bike (soon to be track bike) out for a spin and the forks felt much better than my other bike!!!! Admittedly I didn’t get to test them completely, but they just felt better …

So … I was originally going to swap the forks over, perhaps pouttign some 80 or even 75 springs in there … but now I am tempted to just try the new bike with the stock springs in there, is it recommended to use 15w oil with stock springs??? Else I was just going to reduce the air gap in an attempt to stiffen the front near full compression, which will keep it compliant, but prevent it from topping out. Any recommendations on level?

I am not really interested in spending lots of cash on the forks, or indeed the GSXR fork conversion as, well for the cost of that I could sell the SV and with the combined money buy a SRAD, where lets face it everything is better!!! But I want an SV track bike and just want to make the best of what is there now. \/

FYI, I weight about 12.5 stone nekked, about 15-16 with all my gear on (and my full rucksack) for the road, so say 14 with just track gear on.

I have waffled so in summery:-

1: Do I give up on the ‘modified’ forks and start again with the stock ones?
2: Is it recommended to put 15w oil in stock forks? (couldn’t find that in the search).
3: What is the recommended airgap with stock springs? .. i.e. has anyone reduced the airgap to try and stiffen the front at full throw, yet keep initial compleincy?

I have a pal that swapped to progressive Ohlin springs only. He is more than happy and does lots of track days on his black curvey. The full GSX front end jobbie seems a touch of using a sledge hammer to crack a nut to me? But what do I know. I am sure Sir Sid will pop along to put you right before long.

Id like to know the options aswell the forks on my pointy just crashes when she hits bumps in the road seems very undersprung and underdamped im about 80kg in riding gear and the bikes got standard suspension. Im going to go for the gsxr shock to hopefully improve the rear end but as for the front il be watching this post very carefully.

Marc

Oh and if I go for the different springs route:-

4: Could I use my emulators with softer springs?? i.e. are there different emulators for different weight springs?? I am presuming the valveing might differ as it needs to cope with different spring weights??

[northwind]

You can change springs with the emulators, no problem. They're highly adjustable. Personally I'd persevere with the bits you have, but there's more than enough options in there to mess you up- it might well be worth calling in the pros?

One thing, though, is that the emulators, forks, wheel, springs etc should sell for enough to make the GSXR swap far more cost effective than you realise... I would have broken even on mine even without the emulators if I'd not splashed out on bells and whistles. So it might be worth putting that back on the table. Then again, you'd probably benefit from a revalve rather than just running stock as I did, which would add a bit to the cost.

Hadn’t thought of the original parts worth too factor in, that is a good point!! But first I’ll see if when I optimise what I have, if it is good enough then cool, if its not, then indeed the GSXR route doesn’t seem so cost prohibitive with that in mind.

Remember it was ‘the professionals’ that did the forks in the first place!! I am not saying they did a bad job, and I know they are a reputable person/firm, just that it is not how I like it. To be fair I can’t see how anyone would like it that stiff!! But I know there is a trend that track bikes should have stiff suspension, but to me this is over-stiff.

As all the hard work has presumably been done (drilling the damper rod, cutting the spacers) I can’t see what a professional could do over what I can? All there is to do is to fit softer springs, and corresponding oil. It really isn’t that complicated!!! If the forks had proper cartridge internals, then that is a bit more of a black art and requires valves and tooling etc to make changes!!

As for my stock forks, if I was to run them, what is the recommended oil and oil level to make the best of them??

As you know already, the first thing you have to do is to take apart those forks and see exactly what has and hasn't been done, and whether they are even straight! BTW, I consider my .80 springs/emulators/20w oil combo to be quite soft compared to most factory race reps.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

As all the hard work has presumably been done (drilling the damper rod, cutting the spacers) I can’t see what a professional could do over what I can? All there is to do is to fit softer springs, and corresponding oil. It really isn’t that complicated!!! If the forks had proper cartridge internals, then that is a bit more of a black art and requires valves and tooling etc to make changes!!

As for my stock forks, if I was to run them, what is the recommended oil and oil level to make the best of them??

TBH mate, teh pros can do as bad a job as anyone- it'll be technically perfect but that doesn't mean it'll work for you. But a good shop will do what you want, not what they think it calls for. Proper cartridges, as long as you're within the right range for them, are actually easier to set up well with the external adjustment. That was one of the things that put me off emulators, I knew I wouldn't put in the legwork to set them up!

As for oil and gap, I used 15W which was just on the heavy side for me at 11st geared, and the standard airgap. You can play around with the gap, but I came back to standard in the end. (remember that if you replace the spacers to adjust the preload, and you use a different thickness of pipe or washers to space it, that'll reduce the effective air gap as they'll be bulkier!)

[21QUEST]

I'll go with sdusk about making sure the forks with the emulators are fine ie straight and nothing being dislodged etc. I don't know about how the emulators fit the the forks but .85 is not stiff stiff a spring for 14-16 stones IMHO and think your problem is something else.

1)My suggestion would be to check forks are straight and then go into the forks if you haven't already.
2)Some people have used 15WT with stock forks and be happy with it while some have found it a bit stiff especially on cold days . You could try 12.5WT.
3)I've only ever ran the standard air gap when I had the stock forks. Tell a lie did run a different air gap with progressive springs (nicked off my Bros) but can't remember.
Off hand I wouldn't go less than 90mm without working it out. I'm sure you can theoritically work out how low or high you can go.

Cheers
Ben

Ok, I’ll whip the emulator forks out and check for straightness. The other thing is/was that I first got the bike around Christmas time, and started fiddling about Jan-Feb – Mar time … it was well stiff, but the 20w oil must have been like treacle … as was the 15w when I plumped for that… I might find the 15w oil ok with the summer ambient temperatures?

Oh and just looked through my previous posts, here are my sag measurements I took a while back.

20mm Static
30mm Rider

130mm travel

What do you reckon to that??? I think I am about 10mm too tight …

Sdusk – do you want to swap your 80s for my 85s??

Who sells the springs? And how much are they?