Kaneone

i dont knwo what exactly racetech did to my suspesion but after finally getting to do some testing this weekend... whew.. i likes

-kane

STICKYstunts

Yessir, I will definetly be making the trip up there this summer to ride. There are 2 nice spots in Frederick. One is real nice for stoppies. Im gonna try to ride alot in Baltimore too. You should come down for the Baltimore street sessions were are doing. DC is an option too. I know John from BMoreX.com wants to start getting his 2nd dvd rolling.

djhex36

when you say 1/8th to a 1/4 inch past flush on your tripples, do you mean its actually sunk in?? like u can stick a ruller on the top of for and it'll read 1/8th inch inside?? a pic would be great!

martino

Matt you are the man, thanks for helping us all out.

With stiffness/ heavier fluid, more is better ? Is there such thing as too much the front end is too stiff to dampen bumps

929 springs are available up to 1.2 and fork oil 30wt.

I think the stock on a 929 front end is .77

What exactly is the front end doing when your rolling a long endo, does it ever completely bottom out? Is that what you mean by pogo the front end?

Matt Gorka

Like I said, I had good results with .95's and 15wt fluid. Yes, you can have it too stiff, especially for street conditions. The whole concept behind suspension/springs and valving is keeping your tire in contact with the ground under any/all circumstances. For stoppies, you want a consistent fork. You don't want it compressed to the bottom of the travel going into your stoppie, then it extending,then compressing when you are modulating the brake...hence the "pogo" term I used...Don't know of one better, so it wins by default. The more compressed your springs, the shorter the fork, the more radical the geometry. Make sense? Imagine how fast your bike would steer if your forks were 3 inches shorter? Now, put yourself in a stoppie.....Get the point? Also, the weaker the springs and sloppier your valving, the more your suspension moves up and down when you modulate the brake. Make sense?

Close your eyes and imagine what your forks are doing in a stoppie from start to finish and it will all begin to make sense. Remember, when you're at the balance point your forks are facing rearward and do not have the same forces exerted on them....

djhex36

Matt if you could elaborate more on the whole sinking in your forks 1/8th to 1/4th of an inch that'd be awesome.. maybe a picture?? cuzz mine shows 1 line as far as how high the forks are on the tripple...

Z.w.A

Chech this site out!
http://www.racetech.com/evalving/menu/searchstreet.asp
Then go to: Custom Fork Spring Calculation
This way you can calculate out your ideal spring weight.
Plus there is also alot of useful info about your bikes suspension.

Big Tom

:YEAH Great tips guys, thanks!!

andy342

If we built the forks at our shop, there is a number engraved at the bottom of the fork, under the axle clamp. We use this number to track our work.

Otherwise, if you know the name of the former owner, we can usually look it up in the computer.

Stock spring rates and other information can be found at www.racetech.com

andy342

Here's what we did:

Kane weighs about 140lbs, and we figured the cage, 12:00 bar, etc on the bike weighed about 30 pounds. So we based our settings on a 170lb rider.

I stripped the suspension off the bike, and cleaned off as much of the spray paint as I could.

The forks felt really weird, like there was too much oil in them. They would go into hydraulic lock when I pushed on them, off the bike.

We completely disassembled the forks and shock. The fork feet were coming loose from the chrome fork tubes. This caused the feet to wobble and also caused oil to leak up from the bottom. Dangerous all around. We took the feet off the tubes, put in new o rings, and reassembled them with red loctite and new set screws. DON't try that at home. It takes special tools and the right technique to avoid ruining both pieces.

Aside from the loose feet, and a frozen rebound adjuster on one fork, the job was pretty normal. Amazingly, none of the fork tubes were bent.

On to the good stuff. We took out the stock fork pistons and shock piston, and replaced them with Race Tech Gold Valves. These fit in the same space as the stock ones (we make sizes for all bikes) but they have much larger ports that can flow a lot more oil. That way we can use shim stacks (little round metal springs that cover the ports) to control the damping any way we want.

We also replaced the fork and shock springs.

We started with the springs and damping that we would give to a 170 lb pro roadracer. Stiffer than stock, but not harsh.

We installed new fork oil seals, dust seals, bushings, and a new shock oil seal and bottoming bumper.

With the little bit of testing done so far, I think things are going well. I made a couple of small changes before Sunday's show that helped a little more.

Once we can replace the right side fork cap, we'll be able to adjust more. Anybody got an old bent fork around that I can use the cap off of?

shermsmoka

what would cause my front wheel to slide pretty much on every attempt to pull up the rear? i used to be able to get them up easily until i put inverted 1000 forks on my 600 along with the rear shock and spring. the front does have a little give, around 2 inches when compressed and feels stable and firm. the forks were suppossedly loaded with traxxion components. could the rear have anything to do with it? i have steel braided lines, street pads, dunlop 208s with factory pressure in front tire. the brakes dont feel jerky and work good its just if you try and snap up the rear most of the time it slides the front tire. is it the pressure? i run 20-25psi in rear but i ride the highway alot and need a little stability at speed and kind of rely on the front to hold me on the road. should i drop some air out of the front tire?

kj

your front tire is probably shot or not warmed up enough

Matt Gorka

Drop the front tire pressure to 22lbs. when rolling stoppies. I personally found that 20lbs was perfect for me in the front, but may be a little low for most. I'd start there, but I'm pretty sure it will solve your problem. Just put pressure back into it when you're riding the streets. A good overall street pressure front and back is about 25lbs if you plan on rolling stoppies to intersections and rocking 12's and still want to feel in control.

shortGSXR1000

I have that same problem alot... and i put 1000 forks on my 600. I dont know if maybe they are at a diff angle compared to the 600 forks or what the deal is. And im running low tire pressure. ITs def weird. If anyone has an anwser it would be appricated

martino

I had the exact problem, switched to 1000 forks and my tire would skid at ANY speed on a 100 degree day after riding for 4 hours at any psi. Turns out the old tire was garbage, mustve been contaminated with something, I put another used tire on there and it was night and day

Gorka thanks for your input

this should be a sticky

Matt Gorka

Woods put a 954 front end on a 900rr and it always did that. It's a totally different front end and while everybody thinks the answer to long stoppies are inverted forks (for whatever reason that is) they just slap them on and forget that it is designed for another bike. Try lowering the forks in the triple. If that doesn't work, try raising them a bit. Like Martino said, could be the tire. Both Death and Dunlop start with the letter "D"
I know everybody likes the Pilots, but I like Metzeler M1's. I have pilot powers on my bike now, but always rolled with M1's and got the best results. I wouldn't run a Dunlop if you sent it to my doorstep.
....Just out of curiosity anybody ever run a rain race tire? I'd imagine you couldn't get any more grip than that.

shortGSXR1000

I have a brand new M1 tire on my bike right now. And it still looks up a good bit.. NOt all the time but it does alot even when its hot. I moved the tripple down on the forks about 1/2... maybe i need to go the othe way???

STICKYstunts

I wonder if I measured the exact distance from the top of the lower triple to the bottom of the forks on a stock f4i front end and set up my 954 front end the same way if that would help. Since its a different front end, have it set up the same length but actually help it with geometry.

Matt Gorka

It has to. Engineers get paid good money and do a lot of R&D setting up the front ends on motorcycles. We're hack jobs putting our lives in the hands of our front ends and we just slap them together any old way as long as they bolt up. Cracks me up.

letsride

what about tire pressure????