Getting one's arse off the ground on a 695.

[DUCMONROB]

Hey Suzy looking good on the ugrade to the front.


How is the diameter of the forks compared to the stockers where the tripple clamps fit?

Rob

[suzyj]

Happy happy joy joy.

My lovely new (to me) 998 Showa forks were sitting on the doorstep when I arrived home this evening.

They're so wonderfully gold.  Mmmm...  Shiny...  

Looks like the seals are perfect, and the titanium nitride legs are bright and smooth and blemish free.  They go in and out like forks should.  They've had the top taken off at some point, so they might have different springs to stock - I'll open them up later and have a peek.

For reference, in case anyone's reading this, they measure 718mm unloaded from middle of axle to top of tube.  The same measurement (also unloaded) on my stock Marzocchi forks is just 695mm.  Once it's all put together I'll have an extra 23mm of fork tube poking out the top of my triple, plus the extra length of the preload etc adjusters.

That measurement is important, as it means I'm able to use clip-ons with no rise and mount them above the triple, for a relatively relaxed bar position.  It also means there's absolutely no way my stock bars are going to fit.

According to my verniers, the tube is 52.9mm diameter at the spot where both triples mount, as expected.

Now to choose some nice clip-ons (not this fortnight though, or even next, as I already blew my bike money on a booking for superbike school).

[suzyj]

Suzyj, 20mm will make quite a difference, if you dont have the spacers for the front (and me not knowing the ID of your forks) an old trick was to use twenty cent coins to help preload the front, might cost you a whole dollar to do this.

Following up on this.

My 998 forks, with shiny new springs and oil, are still waiting to go on the bike.  I still need to get clipons, space my masters, get adjustable levers, and bore my upper triple before they'll go on the bike.  At the rate I work (and given that I have a limited budget for bike toys, and given that that budget is going towards new tyres before my superbike school date in September) it'll be a goodly number of months (ie after superbike school) before I have my 998 front end on my monster.

Having gotten the rear end up to speed, I'm now painfully aware of how bad the front is.  It dives when I get on the brakes, and there's gobs too much sag, at 55mm (nearly half the suspension travel).

So young monstermick's suggestion of using 20c pieces as spacers came to me again.  I pulled my forks out and partially disassembled one.  Inside is a spring, plus a plastic tube that spaces it out.  I wandered down to the hardware store in search of a similar diameter/thickness tube that I could cut as a longer spacer to improve my sag.

I bought some PVC pipe, that was okay but a tad on the skimpy side.  What I did find that was just the ticket is 5/8" zinc plated washers.  These things are the same OD as the spring, 16mm ID (so they slip over the damper rod with plenty of space to spare), and 3.3mm thick.

I ended up not bothering with the PVC, but instead just putting a stack of five washers (~17.5mm) between the existing spacer tube and the spring.  I reassembled the forks with 10wt oil (filling to 104mm from the top w/o spring and spacers, fwiw), then put the whole assembly back on the bike.

It's a definite improve.  The loaded sag is now 35mm (I know the math doesn't add up - I think it's to do with the progressive spring).  The spring rate is still all wrong (and progressive).  Certainly it'll do for the next few months while I patiently gather the remaining bits for the sbk conversion.

If anyone wants some washers, I've got half a dozen left over.

[monstermick58]

Following up on this.

So young monstermick's suggestion of using 20c pieces as spacers came to me again.  I pulled

Geeze, I've not been called that for......................................

.....................ages   



                              Mmick