Topic: SUPER Cheap Front Fork Upgrade.

[crazypj]

PVC pipe seems to work pretty well and doesnt shatter or compress, at least not at the pressure we are putting on it. As the fork springs were progressive wound, the preload removes some of the initail sag and moves spring into a heavier range ( the soft bit gets squashed so you have less working coils and spring rate is increased)
The easiest waty to refit fork nuts (and you should have removed or at least covered tank, just in case) is to use a half inch drive speedbrace and socket, you can push down on it and still turn the damn thing. Make sure front of bike is jacked off the floor before you remove fork nuts.
PJ

[liaudio]

crazypj wrote: "Make sure front of bike is jacked off the floor before you remove fork nuts."


I found out the hard way...

[crazypj]

ttr400,
we usually tell people to set sag about one third of full travel (20mm~30mm with rider) with 5mm~10mm unladen sag. Set rear first and check balance of forks
If you cant get in that range springs are either too hard or too soft. Too soft and free sag (without rider) will be less than 5mm springs oo hard, more than 10mm free sag.
I know it sounds backwards but if spring is too hard you have to back off preload so much that the weight of bike is doing most of spring compression, the rider is adding very little to overall weight.
 If spring is too soft you have to crank preload down so much  the weight of bike wont compress spring.
It isnt possible to set race sag on yyour own, you need at least one other person to help and two extra people make it easy.

PJ