Minor Winter Project - installing suspension worth 1/3 of the bike

[Papa_Complex]

The forks get gutted this weekend. Hopefully my electric impact gun will be able to generate enough torque, to get the retaining bolts out of the fork bottoms. If not then I might have to make a trip to the local shop, and have them do that.

The pop can is on the end of the handlebars because that isn't a handlebar; it's a piece of conduit acting as a stand-in to keep the controls in place. During the week I pulled them so that I could replace them with a set of Renthal bars that I had to drill the holes for the switchgear locating pins in, then slapped a brace from a set of Hardy dirtbike bars on. The bars will go back on after the forks, just to make my life easier.

As an aside it always amazes me when I disassemble a brand new machine, and find things like the axles are completely dry. I realize that the bearings do the job of allowing the wheels to spin but, come on, what about corrosion and disassembly?!

[Papa_Complex]

Starting up:

Off with the fork caps.



Drain the oil



Remove the spacer, washer, and spring.



... and you're left with a fork, with the damper rod assembly yet to be removed.



More later.

[Rangerscott]

Damn. I wreally wreally want to do an R1 swap to my vfr. Maybe some day.

[Papa_Complex]

Damper rod and spring assemblies above the forks.

Bitubo cartridge inserts below the forks.



Cap, locking nut, spring, and spacer have to come out, before securing the damper. Oil level has to be measured without the spring in place.



Then Loctite (blue), copper washer, bolt, and impact in to spec.



And ready to be filled, reassembled, and capped for installation.

[Papa_Complex]

That bit is for tomorrow.

[Papa_Complex]

And now.... (drum roll please) THE FINAL PRODUCT!

I would have taken shots of the forks being filled and reassembled, but I was a couple of hands short.

[Papa_Complex]

Installed and ready for a test ride if it ever stops raining, snowing, freezing, whatever

[Particle Man]

Cool. When I did my front end I almost wrecked when the nose didn't dive like I expected it to

[Papa_Complex]

I'll be setting the static sag before I ride it ANYWHERE. Trust me I think they sent the cartridges out set to maximum preload, since there's very little compression from my weight when I sit on the bike. It does move freely though, so they aren't bound in the fork tubes.

[Papa_Complex]

I took my bike out for a quick 10k ride, to check out the suspension, and here's what I found.

The front end feels fairly similar to how it did before which is interesting, given that the original springs were something like 1.2 Kg.mm. I think that the current ones are 0.95 Kg/mm. They feel more reactive but I'll have to take it out for an extended ride, to see how much better the forks really are.

The shock, for all intents and purposes, feels very much like my Ohlins did. It's quite plush and, where the stock shock felt like mush, this one just rides over the bumps and soaks them up. It's a definite and obvious improvement.

*EDIT* I also gave up on trying to adapt that Givi windscreen and just ordered the Kawasaki screen, from a shop in Cornwall, UK. It isn't available in North America.