Question for all the older (89-92) KDX owners that have done spring swaps, specifically to XR400 springs. This might apply to the 86-88 KDX's as well.
I finally got around to putting the XR400 springs (.38 or .40's I'm not exactly sure) that I had sitting around the shop in my forks. When I installed them I used 7w BelRay Fork Oil and set the oil level at 110mm. I cut the spacer to give a preload of 10mm.
So far i'm happy with the results. The front end doesn't dive while braking now and seems to track a little better as well. And it actually soaks up waterbars now instead of bottoming and trying to toss me over the bars :-) The initial little bit of the compression seems on the harsh side though, so i'm thinking that I might need to cut the preload down a bit?
I'm wondering what other people that did this swap ended up with for their settings. Keep in mind that these forks are not Cartridge forks like the H series (95-current) KDX's are. They are Damper Rod forks with .29kg springs stock.
-Maurice
I finally got around to putting the XR400 springs (.38 or .40's I'm not exactly sure) that I had sitting around the shop in my forks. When I installed them I used 7w BelRay Fork Oil and set the oil level at 110mm. I cut the spacer to give a preload of 10mm.
So far i'm happy with the results. The front end doesn't dive while braking now and seems to track a little better as well. And it actually soaks up waterbars now instead of bottoming and trying to toss me over the bars :-) The initial little bit of the compression seems on the harsh side though, so i'm thinking that I might need to cut the preload down a bit?
I'm wondering what other people that did this swap ended up with for their settings. Keep in mind that these forks are not Cartridge forks like the H series (95-current) KDX's are. They are Damper Rod forks with .29kg springs stock.
-Maurice