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Post by marlon on Oct 1, 2007 13:31:57 GMT -5
Hey Fellas, I'm going to fix up my front end on my SR when i get to Melbourne town. The symptoms of the current bike are excessive compression, very little rebound with is resulting in very unstable handling over bad roads (I.E. Wisemans Ferry the other week!) So... here's my thoughts on the front end... www.ohlins.com/Motorcycle/Hidden/Recommendationlist/tabid/110/Default.aspxI'm predicting they'll be a fair bit harder - if they are still too soft I'll stick some racetek gold valves down there as well. Those springs are $229. Does anybody have experience with their springs? And then the rear end to even things up... www.ohlins.com/Motorcycle/Hidden/Recommendationlist/tabid/110/Default.aspxThe piggyback shocks are $1119 dollars. $835 for the standard. Is the extra $300-odd dollars worth it for the adjustments? |
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Post by pablosrfivehundred on Oct 1, 2007 14:17:40 GMT -5
hmm, if your forks aren't alined correctly, they bind up. so no rebound.
if you can afford them, buy them.
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Post by marlon on Oct 1, 2007 15:01:13 GMT -5
Yeah, I should be able to, to be honest.
Benefits of being young and not having kids!
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Post by curly001 on Oct 1, 2007 18:35:27 GMT -5
Marlon,my two cents worth.
Price on the springs is about right as long as they are progressive wound. Hang off on the racetek gold valves see how the forks go with new springs and some decent weight fork oil in them. If your still not happy try some air caps at $60 a pair. Then if it's still not right put in the gold valves.
As for the shocks waste your money if you want. Hey they look good but just buy some Koni's at $300 a pair. They'll make them to what ever length you want and if you ask nicely what weight you want to carry. They work just fine on the slow XT and there good enough to handle the race track on Ricks SR. Plus there made in Albury.
They will also do you a nice set of springs for the forks.
Curly
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Post by fenz on Oct 1, 2007 22:22:26 GMT -5
Look into YSS shocks on the rear.They make several different types (adjustable)and are priced not to bad.I am thinking of grabbing a set for my bike as a couple of guys in my area are running them and say they are fine.
Ohlins are nice but very expensive.
Ikon do progresive springs for the front there are several post in here on them.
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Post by curly001 on Oct 2, 2007 5:17:08 GMT -5
Ikon is koni. Have also heard good things about YSS
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Post by milkman on Oct 2, 2007 6:06:05 GMT -5
I just think $1500 is a big outlay.
For teh pace you can normally punt your bike on the road, i think you'll get just as good value from the ikons/knoi.
I have them on the back of my bike and I can't complain.
I didn't experience the tank slappers you did though, so I'm sure it seems like good value to prevent that.
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Post by marlon on Oct 2, 2007 13:30:02 GMT -5
Yes, tis a lot of money. Suppose If i spend $600 setting up my suspension the way below, that's $1000 worth of other goodies. Or a lot of beer!
I went trolling through the old suspension threads and managed to find this, which I'm thinking i'm going to copy note for note off Rick. (with the exception of changing the front wheel size) I figure he's had good success with it and alraedy done the trial and error for me.
I'll repost it here, because I think it's worth repeating...
Hi Retread,
I've sent a detailed reply to your PM.
In essence, I prefer to get things working optimally before swapping parts and changing geometry. You'll be surprised how much you can improve things on stock parts.
On the front forks, use Racetech Gold Valve emulators to get better compression damping control. Use 20W or 30W fork oil to get the best rebound damping and then adjust the compression damping using the spring preload adjuster on the emulator.
Use a stiffer spring to avoid excessive dive under braking and allow you to speed up steering by dropping the forks through the yokes by 10mm.
Front wheel - try changing to 18" instead of 19" to quicken steering and give greater tyre choice
Rear ride height - increase shock length to 330m from 315mm
Swingarm bearings and pivot pin - check and most likely replace as they tend to rust and seize almost solid.
Riding position - change it from sit up and beg to the racer crouch. You will need clipons and rearsets to shift more weight over the front.
Wheels and braking - the stock wheels are very heavy and adding a second disc is not advisable as the weight of the disc and the extra caliper will make decent spring control impossible. I'm still running stock wheels, but using a Brembo caliper with an adapter plate and this is as good as a twin disc setup of that Era without the weight.
The setup I have just described is all that is required to set the fastest lap in class in the 1 hour endurance race at Wakefield Park, on a motor that is producing only 40hp at the rear wheel. The suspension is much more important than the engine and it doesn't take much to get it right.
There are other improvements I will be trying this year and when I think I have reached the end of the development path, that's when I will try other parts. At the moment I think there's still a lot more potential from the stock setup with fine tuning.
Reference:
Ikon fork spring - part number 500-181 which I think is good for the road but too soft for racing. Depends on your weight too.
Ikon rear shocks - Koni Dial-a-ride equivalent 7610-1418 with suitable spring for your weight
These are all cheap parts and work perfectly well. You can go to Ohlins rear shocks but they will be worth more than the bike!
Thanks Rick! Have there been any mods/updates since that? And was there any reason why you went with the RD springs and not the SR's?
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Post by curly001 on Oct 2, 2007 17:04:09 GMT -5
Marlon,
YSS make a cheaper version of the gold valves about $160 might be worth looking at if you must have one. Be carefull you don't over do the setup. Remember it's a road blke, Rick's is a deicated race bike with stiff suspension & quick steering. On the road this combo can be deadly (Worse Tankslappers). I know Rick has made plenty of changes (which I'll let him tell) But his biggest one I believe is to slow up the steering because of those dreaded tankslappers.
Curly
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Post by marlon on Oct 2, 2007 17:59:02 GMT -5
Yeah, that's something i was aware of. Last I heard rick was suffering from nasty tankslap and was looking for a steering damper. Certainly the rear end of rick's setup makes sense to me.
Maybe I won't drop the bars 10 mills or so through the yoke. That should slow up things a little bit?
PS: Thanks for your help/advice guys, it really is appreciated - keep the suggestions coming!
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Post by wizz954 on Oct 3, 2007 7:11:28 GMT -5
There's a few changes done since then, to cure tankslappers on the fast sweepers, introduced by the 18" front wheel mostly, so not relevant to road riding.
My previous recommendations stand for road use, stick to 19" front wheel and leave the forks in the factory position. You can go 330mm on the rear shocks to quicken the steering a bit without losing ground clearance and choose the correct spring for your weight (medium is a safe bet if you're going to have a pillion). That's how I ran it at Wakefield for the 1 hour and it was stable as anything. Maybe use 20W oil for the road which is available in most good bike shops, whereas 30W is impossible to find.
The fork springs were recommended by Geoff at Proven Products as a race spring, but they feel pretty soft to me and would be a good sporty road spring. They are longer than the fork tube and don't require preload spacers but this also means you get no adjustment which might be useful for fine tuning. Check with Geoff if the SR springs are shorter.
Until the 18" front wheel I have raced happily without a steering damper, so for road use the setup should be fine.
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Post by marlon on Oct 3, 2007 14:27:11 GMT -5
Alright then, I'll give Ikon a call.
So, slightly higher 330mm shocks at rear to quicken the stear a tad (Would be handy anyway) standard wheels front, standard fork height (I'm going to drop the clip ons a tad) I'll go with the 20wt oil in the forks because it's as soft as shite at the moment. I'll use the springs you've got and see how we go. They're pretty cheap anyway.
In a few weeks time I'll starting annoying you all with questions on how to get the forks off and swap springs etc. Christ I love this stuff!
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Post by curly001 on Oct 3, 2007 16:58:10 GMT -5
You won't be saying that when you get half way through it! But hey it will be worth it in the end.
Curly
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Post by fenz on Oct 3, 2007 18:12:33 GMT -5
Hey you will never know if you dont have a go....
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Post by StewRoss on Oct 10, 2007 3:39:47 GMT -5
Hi Marlon, Into it mate!  Excellent fun...can't wait 'till I get into mine and all that entails...I'll start posting the changes when I do. It will probaby be a rather painful process...still you never know until you try things...heh, heh... SR  |
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