Spring 2020 updates! Thanks to Covid-19 I have a lot of time to work on the bike now. My last post was about questions on shortening the forks and I got that done as well as lowering the top triple about 1” so it sits more flush with the line of the tank. Much better appearance in my opinion.
The Cognito top and bottom triples are great, but they are thick and the top triple doesn’t have a counterbore or “pocket” on the hole of the steering stem so it just sits on top of the bearing preload nuts. Doesn’t make for a clean install in my opinion. At least for my ‘03-‘04 R6 forks.
I called a small local machine shop and they milled out a counterbore to my dimensions in about an hour. Also bought an M28 x 1.0 thread cutting die to increase the amount of threads on the steering stem. Put it in my old pipe threading die wrench and it worked like a charm. This worked out nicely and it sits a hair shy of flush with the top of the frame.
Lowering the forks took some research just on how to do it. But, once I saw how, it was extremely easy. Turned up some lowering spacers on my lathe out of UHMW of the amount I want the bike lowered (.750”). I heard that’s a good plastic for this which is highly impact resistant (doesn’t need to be) and has excellent chemical resistance, especially to hydraulic oils. Also reduced the length of the stock spacers by .750” and things went together easy and lowered the forks perfectly.
To lower the forks I added the small UHMW spacers to the fork at about the 25” mark on the cutting mat. Between the small spring and the spring stop. Then also shortened the length of the large spacers to the far left the same amount.
Also, when removing the forks I slipped in PVC pipe to keep the handlebars and headlight in place, worked great. I was please with myself, haha.
After this I found some good info on RaceTech’s website on how to set up your bike’s suspension for your weight.
https://www.racetech.com/page/id/30#3Because I’m so small and frail the stock R6 forks, even with the preload adjusters all the way out for it’s minimal stiffness, were still way too stiff. I felt it on the road and the measurements confirmed it. I bought some used RaceTech .80 kg/mm springs on eBay for under $17 which still measured out well within spec. Threw those in and it’s a lot better. I still have to have the preload adjusters at it’s lightest setting but now it’s adjusted as it should be. Haven’t ridden yet to confirm the performance but that will happen soon.
