I'm rebuilding my wrecked 500. Since the other woman's insurance was footing the bill I decided to upgrade the forks with gold valves and new springs. anyone have experience with these? I'm basically looking for a good starting point. I was thinking 10wt oil and 4 turns on the valve preload. Any suggestions.
I just ordered the Ricor Intiminators for my DR. Cost $30 more but they just drop in and no drilling of the damping rod required. Should be here this week. If you already have the gold valve, I'll be intetested to hear what you think of them after install.
I'd never been into a set of forks before but after seeing how these are made I can't see any reason for the gold valves to not make a HUGE difference. The "TRAC" left side had to be drilled on these, there were only two holes and they were inside a cup, that would explain why they felt like a steel rod on big bumps. there was no way for fluid to move with any speed. I know they say rebound is not adjustable other than with oil weight but after looking these over they could be adjusted with shims or a different spring. Another thing that had to be done on the TRAC side was remove a spring, two cir clips and two washers that diverted the fluid through the TRAC device. This disables the anti dive thing but makes both forks operate the same. The way it looks to me, the TRAC side was the only one doing any dampening since it was so much more of a restricted system leaving the right fork there just to help hold up the weight. That also makes me wonder how much deflection there was since only one side was actually really doing anything. So far the biggest PIA with the gold valves is not with the valves but the new short springs. Making the dang spacers. Real pain to get them both exactly the same with out a lathe. Oh If anyone wants a set of progressive springs let me know, you pay shipping of course.
