Gonna Showa You Howta Fork Upside Down Your S2R! The saga begins...

[Meerkat]

Ordered some stuff today:
Traxxion dynamics fork springs (you don't order a size, you enter weight, etc)
Fork compression tool (cuz I don't have a welder to make one)
Hypercoil shock spring (11.5 kg/mm)
Motul fork oil (5W, 3L)

Anything we're missing to change the springs/oil?

[EEL]

you dont need a welder. you need a hacksaw, a drill and a piece of drain pipe for 40 cents

[He Man]

Hey! i didnt know that was your writeup!

ha! i didnt realize anuyone would actually find it useful.

[bikepilot]

Ordered some stuff today:
Traxxion dynamics fork springs (you don't order a size, you enter weight, etc)
Fork compression tool (cuz I don't have a welder to make one)
Hypercoil shock spring (11.5 kg/mm)
Motul fork oil (5W, 3L)

Anything we're missing to change the springs/oil?

I don't think so, provided that you aren't doing seals/bushings at the same time. You'll need some means of sucking excess oil out of the fork let to set the oil level.  I use a turkey baster with a bit of hose on the end and an aluminum straw in the hose with a little thumb screw on the aluminum - set the thumb screw to the level, slide it down into the fork and suck

[Meerkat]

I don't think so, provided that you aren't doing seals/bushings at the same time. You'll need some means of sucking excess oil out of the fork let to set the oil level.  I use a turkey baster with a bit of hose on the end and an aluminum straw in the hose with a little thumb screw on the aluminum - set the thumb screw to the level, slide it down into the fork and suck

Got that part taken care of. Thanks for the help!

[bikepilot]

Cool 

[EEL]

Let me know if you actually end up using 3L of oil. The specs call for about 462 per leg..So 1 L should do.. Dont open the others till you need em. that way you can return.

Also, you need to overfill past the bleed hole in your 43mm fork tube. If you dont do this you'll never be able to get the air out of the compression damper rod assembly. Once you have a consistent flow of oil coming out of the rebound hole on the damper rod, you can set the fork oil level.

Most people will remind you that forks need to be compressed and spring out for oil measurement but you also need to have the damper rod down all the way. This affects fork oil level as well

[bikepilot]

You won't need all 3L, but you've got to use a bunch of oil to fill the forks up to bleed the cartridges.  Its best to let them sit for a while (full) so the air bubles all float to the top after you've bleed the cartridges so I like to have enough oil to fill both legs all the way at one time.  Most legs take about a liter, often just a little more, to fill all the way.  You might be able to get by with 2L, but it really depends on the fork and is usually a close call.  Nothing worse than not quite being able to bleed that last leg. The oil doesn't go bad so keep the extra and use it next year when you change fork oil    I haven't done monster forks though, but have done a bunch of 43mm showas from various bikes.  If monster forks are shorter than most they may hold a bit less oil.

[EEL]

I just did mine yesterday.. 1 Liter total for both forks. I cant say for anything but monsters.. But I cant imagine 2L unless you have an exxon valdez oil spill on your hands in the garage.

[bikepilot]

Cool.  IIRC it took two for the 43mm inverted showas on my TL (and I may have dipped into the third just a little during bleeding).

[Meerkat]

Thanks for the advice! I got the fork springs and oil yesterday. The rear spring was on back/never gonna appear/order at eshocks.com, so I canceled and got one off amazon. Who'd a thunk it?!?

Next saturday is the big day unless Tocino backs out on me. I promised him a ride on the Daytona I picked up, so I think he'll be there.

[EEL]

Be wary of fork springs. Not saying they are: but if you got linear ones they may be a different length than what you have. If thats the case you may need to make a new preload spacer (long hollow tube right below the fork cap). You can use threaded brass drain tubes (20 gauge) 1 1/4" OD to match the existing and to make up the difference. Get rid of the threads on both sides of the pipe. Get the 12" variety and cut down to size with either a pipe cutter or a hacksaw and drill 3/8" holes on bottom and top to match your existing. Make sure both spacers are exactly the same size. Use a file to shave off all the burrs. Get one from the local hardware store (Lowe's / Home Depot). It will set you back about 15 bucks for 2 pipes

If you're an anal bastard like me you can run around for two days to specialty plumbing stores and get stainless or unfinished brass drain tubing of the same OD and gauge for about the same price. Why? Because home depot and lowe's/home depot only stock chromed piping and I didnt want to risk any flaking chrome inside of my fork assembly. The preload spacer is a non moving part so I think is very unlikely the chrome would flake but like I said, I'm an anal bastard who likes to make his life more difficult than it should be.

Place your old springs next to your new ones and measure the difference before you throw into your forks.