Topic: Fork spring, on OEM hONDA SOHC'S ??

[754]

Took a front end apart for a member on here, Do Stock Honda springs on a 78 550 , come in regular wound springs, or multi rate springs??

 Just wondering, had a hunch that this fork may have aftermarket springs.. they are multi-rate..

[HondaMan]

550 and 500 had progressive springs. I suppose that's what you mean by multi-rate?
They were too soft, too, sagging early. 

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Frank, I just installed my new Progressive springs in my freshly built NOS forks. The original are single rate in my 750F while the Progressive are, well, progressive rate. Funny thing, Progressive must have generic springs. Their's are shorter than stock but make up for that with a washer that goes on top of the spring and a PVC pipe spacer that fits between that and the cap.

[HondaMan]

Frank, I just installed my new Progressive springs in my freshly built NOS forks. The original are single rate in my 750F while the Progressive are, well, progressive rate. Funny thing, Progressive must have generic springs. Their's are shorter than stock but make up for that with a washer that goes on top of the spring and a PVC pipe spacer that fits between that and the cap.

Funny: that's how we 'fixed' the 500/550 springs after they had about 5000 miles on them! 

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Helps keep overhead down. PVC is cheaper than winding springs and keeping additional overhead/stock. The piece is 1" I think (can't measure now) I would have thought they'd go with a larger diameter.

[HondaMan]

On bikes I build, I've always used electrical conduit. It's cheap ($3) and very strong, and one 10 foot piece lasts for about 50 bikes. 

I first started using it when the extended forks were a big deal in the 1970s: it was a good way to improve preload AND make up the extra fork length while using the stock springs. For racing, it was common to see 2" longer front forks with 18" front wheels, and desiring 1" extra preload: easily made with a hacksaw.