wiguzziman
New Member
New guy looking to connect with other SR500 owners
Posts: 11
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Post by wiguzziman on Jul 6, 2024 18:07:09 GMT -5
I have a 1978 SR500 that I've owned for the past 10 years. Love the bike, but the suspension is beating my 79 year old body to a pulp. Currently the bike has standard front forks with Race Tech gold valves, and Race Tech 85 lb. springs, and I believe 30 wt fork oil. The front end is very harsh over rough roads (which we have lots of). The rear isn't quite as bad. I'm running a Yamaha Radan swingarm with Hagon 2820 adjustable damping shocks. The shocks are set up for my weight (175 in riding gear) and riding style (agressive street riding). They are 13 1/4" eye to eye. The rear shocks work quite well, so it's mostly the front forks I'd like to do something with. Would I be better off for the type of street riding I do to go back to a progressive wound fork spring and ditch the Gold valves? Thoughts and opinions very welcome!! Carry on!! wiguzziman
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Petes2Wheels
Junior Member
Out riding the country roads
Posts: 91
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Post by Petes2Wheels on Jul 6, 2024 22:52:02 GMT -5
I went with the progressive springs and never looked back. They can't bottom out and as it gets bumpy they absorb the bumps better. Not sure if you can run the gold valves with progressive springs.
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wiguzziman
New Member
New guy looking to connect with other SR500 owners
Posts: 11
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Post by wiguzziman on Jul 7, 2024 7:57:41 GMT -5
According to Race Tech, no you can't run progressive springs with their Gold Valves. Not sure if it was a marketing ploy or not, but they talked me into buying a pair of their straight wound 85 lb. springs; which was suppose to solve all my problems. The sad part of all this is that I have nothing to compare to as I bought my 78 SR500 as a rolling chassis and several milk cartes of parts. I installed the Gold valves during the rebuild because of good things that I'd heard about them. :-( If I do go to progressive wound springs I'll have to round up another pair of damper rods as part of the Gold Valve installation is to drill several more holes in the damper rods for the Gold Valves to work properly. Carry on!! wiguzziman
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Petes2Wheels
Junior Member
Out riding the country roads
Posts: 91
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Post by Petes2Wheels on Jul 7, 2024 18:44:56 GMT -5
Bugger, definitely need to work out something. Maybe try different oil with your current set up and see if that makes a difference first
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wiguzziman
New Member
New guy looking to connect with other SR500 owners
Posts: 11
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Post by wiguzziman on Jul 7, 2024 21:33:05 GMT -5
Yes, I've decided to try and work with what I have. I did all this work 6-8 years ago and I don't remember how much pre-load I have on the springs or what weight oil I have in the forks. I did check the front fork movement compared to a couple of my other bikes (hold the front brake and push down on the front forks--crude, but it gives one some kind of an idea); and the front forks on the SR500 are definately stiffer (less movement) than the other bike I checked it against. Carry on!! wiguzziman
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wiguzziman
New Member
New guy looking to connect with other SR500 owners
Posts: 11
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Post by wiguzziman on Jul 14, 2024 14:19:06 GMT -5
Thought I'd do an update on my situation with looking for a better ride/suspension on the street. I FINALLY have the issue solved to my satisfaction. Here's what I did. First I contacted Race Tech and got ahold of their vintage suspension specialist , Matt Wiley. I explained my issue with the Race Tech Glod Valve Emulators and the Race Tech .85 straight wound fork springs. He sent me back a very thorough solution to the problem using the information that I had given him. First off; the Emulators. He explained that they can't be used exactly as they come in the box. They have to be tuned to your bike/style of riding, ect. The first thing he told me to do was disassemble the Emulators and check to see if all (4) bleed holes in the valve plate were drill through the valve plate. These control low speed bleed/damping. Guess what, only (2) of the (4) holes were drilled through the valve. I used a #53 drill bit and drilled the other (2) holes in each valve plate. This makes a total of (4) holes in each valve plate. I then reassembled the Emulator using (in my case) the silver 26 lb. spring and set the pre-load on these springs at (2) full turns of pre-load. Matt did recommend using the 40 lb. blue springs set at (2) full turns of pre-load. Because my forks were so harsh and stiff I decided to use the 26lb. silver springs (personal choice). Matt recommended using 15w fork oil and setting the oil level at 130mm from the top of the fork tube with the forks fully compressed and the Emulators in the fork tubes but nothing else. He also recommended 15mm of pre-load on the springs. The set up I was using had 20mm of pre-load so I shortened the pre-load spacers by 5mm. I then reassembled the forks after adding the fork oil to the proper height. The amount of fork travel in the shop (using the front brake and pumping the forks up & down) was completly different (much easier and more travel).
Then I took the bike out for a ride. I live on a very rough, paved rural town road. After riding only a mile I could feel the difference in the forks. The harshness was gone and the forks were much more compliant. After doing about another 30 miles or so I could find no weird handeling issues brought on by the changes I had made. Finally these forks work as they should!! Sorry this got so long, but hopefully this may help another SR500 owner with the same issues I was facing. Carry on!! wiguzziman
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