Front end stiffness

[Ketis]

Hey all, i just took apart my front forks to rebuild them and install Hugh's 2" lowering kit and i was curious how stiff these things are supposed to be?

It appears that i have some sort of progressive springs on there and even before i installed the lowering kit they were super stiff! even when i drained the fluid i had to put my whole weight into them to get them to compress.

Is it possible the PO installed improper springs? I trimmed off 2" on the springs per hughs directions and they are still stiff (no fluid)

Any advice would be appreciated, i will add pics of the spring (uncut) when i take apart that one..

 

[Ketis]

Pic

 

[Royboy]

That appears to be the correct adjustable preload top piece and spring. Should be just fine. Sping length is as it would have been per spec.

roy

 

[Ketis]

My buddies xs650 has a much lower rate, can compress normally. Mine is almost twice as stiff.

 

[gggGary]

Nothing wrong with a stiff front end.....
You had to know THAT was coming.

My stock forks however tend to be flaccid.
The one I put the cartridge emulator in is nice though.

 

[5twins]

It sounds like your forks are tweaked, twisted, or bent. So, it has nothing to do with the springs, the forks are binding.

 

[gggGary]

Take the axle out, does that change how stiff they are?

 

[Ketis]

The tubes are or of the bike. And out of the trees. I have to put quite a bit of muscle to compress them

 

[Ketis]

there is also zero compression when it is installed on the bike. they are fully extended

 

[wherearewe]

XXXX double post XXXX

 

[wherearewe]

So the forks are off the bike with springs out and its still hard to compress them?

 

[Ketis]

yes, its not like ungodly hard. They compress, but its quite hard. It is also really difficult to put the top cap on (even at lowest setting) because of the spring tension

 

[XSLeo]

If they are hard to compress with out the springs you have a problem somewhere else. The upper tube should slide easily in and out of the lower with out the springs installed.
When you slide the tubes in/out of the lowers is there just one place they won't move or is it the whole length of the tube.
As others have mentioned, the tubes may be bent.
Cutting the spring makes the spring stiffer.
At looking at your pic that spring is a bit longer than stock. The spec for the later 35 mm forks is 18.98 inchs/482 mm Yours look to be about 19 and 5/8 or so. Maybe they are Harley springs like I used in my forks. They are stronger than stock. Hard to assemble with those adjustable caps.
With your lowered forks the extra strength will help prevent bottoming out on bumps.
Leo

 

[Ketis]

They do slide very nice without the springs.

With the springs, they are very hard.

 

[pekka]

I had this same problem.

I have the progressive springs from Heiden Tuning (same that Mike's sells?). They are longer than stock and apparently meant to be run with the non-adjustable top caps. I had zero sag in the forks with these springs. Really hard and bumpy ride. And the top caps were a nightmare to put on.

Today I cut 3cm of the springs. Now the sag is about 3cm and the fork works much better in the bumps.

Pekka

 

[Ketis]

I cut down the springs to the length that leo suggested, (-2 inches for lowering kit) and now they went together much nicer.

Frame is getting powdercoated so i cant test sag, but they are much nicer now.

 

[wherearewe]

Gary could be onto something with the springs. My stock springs, and replacements were both 19 inches. That extra inch would make quite a difference. When you screw on the cap screw, make sure the pre-load is as low as possible. Also it helps if you have a tee style wrench or something similar (think homemade tool opportunity here), that way you can exert downward pressure rather the sideways pressure. If you are putting in 2" slugs i would start by cutting of about 1.5" from the wider wound end. You are better to cut less a couple of times than too much the 1st time

 

[jd750ace]

To ease installation of the caps, start them on the tubes without the springs in. Grab a sharpie. Pull up lightly on the cap as you remove it, and at the point the threads dis-engage, make a vertical stripe on the tube and cap at the point of alignment. When you install, start with about 1/4 inch mis-match with the cap counter-clockwise to the mark on the tube. That way, when you push it down to the threads, it's a quick twist to thread engagement. Minimizes the time you spend trying to hold the spring tension and get the cap started. This works if you mix up the caps too.