I am working on the forks on my XR650L. It has conventional cartridge Showas.
The forks seemed to blow through the travel too quickly, and the compression clicker was full hard. My wt is about 155 and the bike is used mostly for street riding but must also take the punishment of some decent sized jumps at the local mx track (these bikes were made for that, right?).
I am noticing that there is "negative preload", that is, there is actually a .5 - .75" gap between the fork spring and the cap! All of the forks I have worked on (altough I have never worked on an XR) had either zero or a small amount of preload. What gives?
The free length of the spring is well within spec. I am putting in 10 wt. oil (stock is ss-7), with the idea of making the forks a bit stiffer overall, hopefully this is ok as there is no rebound adjustment. The forks contained about 530ccs of very ugly (stock?) oil, and the level was 6.25", spring removed and dampening rod compressed.
Has anyone had any experience with using chunks of pvc pipe for spacers? Did a search-no results. My concerns with this are: allignment of the spring with the spacer, and small shavings of the plastic getting in the valving.
Thank you in advance for you help with this heavy but very very fun to ride bike!
The forks seemed to blow through the travel too quickly, and the compression clicker was full hard. My wt is about 155 and the bike is used mostly for street riding but must also take the punishment of some decent sized jumps at the local mx track (these bikes were made for that, right?).
I am noticing that there is "negative preload", that is, there is actually a .5 - .75" gap between the fork spring and the cap! All of the forks I have worked on (altough I have never worked on an XR) had either zero or a small amount of preload. What gives?
The free length of the spring is well within spec. I am putting in 10 wt. oil (stock is ss-7), with the idea of making the forks a bit stiffer overall, hopefully this is ok as there is no rebound adjustment. The forks contained about 530ccs of very ugly (stock?) oil, and the level was 6.25", spring removed and dampening rod compressed.
Has anyone had any experience with using chunks of pvc pipe for spacers? Did a search-no results. My concerns with this are: allignment of the spring with the spacer, and small shavings of the plastic getting in the valving.
Thank you in advance for you help with this heavy but very very fun to ride bike!
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