'01 KTM 520 MXC Fork set up? (Diving problem!)

[Wild Hare]

I'm a 217lbs. "novice" riding western desert ( D-37 ) with this bike and will doing some GP's as well.

I set rear sag on the bike and was able to get the back dialed pretty well but the front....

At speed straight line is "okay", pushing/tucking the front a little bit in turns and under braking.... it's not great but I can live with that for now....What's killing me is "low speed" like on technical descents...the front dives BIGTIME anytime you touch the front brake...I'm talking 3 or 4 inches and it rebounds just as fast if the brake is released...it's like pogo stick! This is not a good thing with your Butt hanging over the rear fender trying to pick your way down through the bolders!;)

I'll get the fork "done" at some point I just wondered if there was something "setup" wise I could do to help out until then....

Spring preload? different oil? oil level? :eek:

 

[Jeremy Wilkey]

Wildhare,
Your biggest issue it would seem is that your undersprung! I'm sure adding some rate would help very much.

Regards,
Jer

 

[Wild Hare]

I was afraid of that... :scream:

I was going to try to hold off on springs because I wanted to let the tuner pick based on how he was going to valve it. I looked at the manual for the forks last night, looks like a spring change isn't too tough. That would give a chance to get Mobil 1 ATF in there as well. I had to turn the pre-load down pretty far to get the sag right in the back ( 10mm I think...don't have my notes here).

I'm 217...230 in gear...Riding... aggressive trail riding, western desert racing and GP's.... GP's around here have been 45 minutes of moto lately. I'd like to set the bike up to be best off-road...with the Moto/GP stuff secondary. What would you recommend for springs? Would that recommendation change if Mr. Brice did a revalve? :)

 

[johnf3]

I can answer that because I just went through the same thing with mine, plus I weigh about the same. I did .46's in the front and a straight rate 9.0 in the back. (MX Tech fork oil set at 120 mm, which is max height) I can't believe you can get the proper sag with a PDS 2 spring. I couldn't. Resprung as above the bike is great for its intended purpose, but if you are used to a converted Japanese motocrosser like I was the suspension action is very different. Really, the suspension is the only thing I am not wild about on this bike, I will give it some time and some races to make my final decision.