KYB Bladder Forks

[marcusgunby]

Take out the rb and ride it with the same oil height, if its not good just put the rb back into place.I think you may need to get them valved again if they are that bad, ive found removing the rb helps alot but it doesnt make a terrible fork great.

 

[russ17]

Onore GT
How dare you employ the voice of reason just when I was getting passionate!
Now I have to climb down from that soap box and start again.
The KXs have been on a downward spiral (saleswise) in this country until the arrival of the KXF250. Since its arrival I have worked on 6 KXFs and I have an RMZ booked in on Monday. I believe they are the same but I'll let you know if there is any difference. Every one is complaining of similar things with the forks. Harsh, deflecting, armpump. Mind you I have to be fair and say that the only time I hear from people is when they're unhappy with their bikes. We had Team Kawasaki out here on Monday testing on our supercross track and overrunning our workshop. Interestingly they also disable the bladder arrangement. We recently set up a bike for Dirt Action magazine in which we left the bladders intact. It was raining that day and we couldn't test sufficiently. We are due to do some more development with them on Saturday. You seem rather passionate about the bladder arrangement yourself. If you have any suggestions now would be the perfect time to speak up as I am always willing to test and the mags are always keen on a new angle.
Regards
Terry

Terry,
How did the test go for Dirt Action in which you left the bladders in place, compared to diabling the bladder system as as whole.
The weather here has been terrible to test. and was curious in your findings.

Russ

 

[terry hay]

Russ
We made several alterations to the fork and all the while reductions in lap times were made. The most significant one to this thread was a single mod at the end of the day that involved removing the seal band at the top of the cartridge to negate the bladder effect. 2.6 second lap time reduction instantly. This bike was in the care of Shannon Warner, assistant editor of Dirt Action magazine and he was our test rider. Our track is just over 2 kilometers long and is usually a +2 minute lap time. The results should be published next month.
Terry

 

[russ17]

Sounds like you had a productive day

Thanks
Russ

 

[terry hay]

Another interesting point was that in order to bring under control the hopping from the rear end of that bike (KXF250) we found it necessary to revalve the compression adjuster. Problem solved.
Terry

 

[Onore GT]

Onore GT
How can you defend a design parameter and then exceed those parameters by adding subtanks? Which, given that the bladder was originally designed to replicate the effect of the subtanks, aren't you simply admitting its failure by adding them in the first place?

Do you want to wrestle with this one again Terry? I must apologize for the delay in my response, my wife and I now have a new little baby girl to keep us busy.

Since the secondary air chamber and bladder serve a different function in the new KX fork I don't think that I am admitting failure of the bladder at all. The subtanks will improve fork action on any KYB fork and as I mentioned before, once I tested them I have used them ever since on all my KXs. If we are talking about the original bladder fork, yes, I believe that the speed sensitive springing characteristic is better controlled pneumatically rather than hydraulically.

I am not trying to say the bladder fork is the Holy Grail, far from it. I just think that as tuners when we are faced with a problem sometimes we tend to fall into the same course of action too often. Of course we have to draw on our past experience to improve anything but occasionally it takes looking at something from a different perspective to tune it properly. If removing the bladder provides the desired results than case closed. I will keep running the bladders in my forks however…