forks

hehehe...I saw the manual yesterday at a cycle gear shop but wanted to get some advice here first...at least I know where to get it if I need it :biggrin:

 

I would get it, you just never know what you are going to miss, and then you'll be pounding your head on something stupid (like I did, even though I had the manual.....*oh, that screw*)

 

yep...will drop by the dealer later today to see if they have it, the other place is kinda far from where Im at.

 

have fun and good luck!

 

got them off yesterday, couple busted knuckles and then almost stabbed myself with a screwdriver trying to break loose the screws that hold the brake pads in place... guess I'll have to wait till the new tire is mounted and everything back in place before I attempt to change those pads!

 

btw, how much oil does each fork gulp down?

 

man, I can't remember.....


my manual is at home. I did the whole thing with less than a liter (sold in liters, not quarts), so, you shouldn't need more than that.

 

why you taking break pads off to change fork seals?

 

just taking care of the whole front. the left fork was in pretty bad shape, gunked down everything, so I'm replacing all pads.

 

ahh!

fun times!

I need to do my front brake pads too...not looking forward to it...

 

well, progress so far: forks are off the bike, new tires mounted on rims, rear rim back in place, chain cleaned and lubed... but I still can't separate the bottom part of the fork from the upper! grrrrrr...I'm taking them tomorrow to a friend to have a look at them, hopefully tomorrow I'll be riding her for good! (I know, I know, gotta get the manual)

 

I had the same F*CKING PROBLEM


Ok, take your fork with the spring out and everything, and put a rag on the top of the fork. Set that end on the ground. Now, look up through the hole in the bottom of the fork. There's an allen head bolt that's hard to get to in there.

if you got that....

there's the snap ring too...

once you get those 2 things, it should pop apart if you pull...

pull harder....

sissy! PULL!

....there you go.....



btw...on the fork oil capacity:
right: 358 ml or 153 mm from the top
left: 370 ml or 153 mm from the top

you can use a ruler to measure how deep you are from the top, but if you add too much, getting the oil out is a BITCH.

I have a graduated cylinder that's accurate to the ml, so I used that to fill a plastic cup full of water, marked the level, dumped the water, dried out the cup, and filled to the mark with fork oil, and dumped from that.


btw, automatic tranny fluid is recommended by the manual, but it's equivalent to 7.5 weight fork oil. Use fork oil because it doesn't foam as much, not foaming helps your suspension, and it lasts longer too!

keep us posted!

 

undoubtedly your bottoming was partially caused by loss of fork oil due to bad seals.

less expensive than most other fixes, Progressive brand fork springs, easily available for about $75 would improve fork action significantly and worked well on my '86.
when installing stock springs NOTE that close-wound coils go in first, i.e., DOWN, while Progressive springs specify that their springs should be installed with close-wound coils UP. this difference does not affect springing but influences oil level, therefore damping.

BTW, we're lucky to have Jamie D. on here because he plainly is a PRO!

 

Not Fair!!!!

well, finally got the forks done with the help of a friend, man those f*king snap rings are a PITA. Then, after final assembly of everything (including changing all the front brake pads and bleeding of all brake lines) , plastics on and the engine rumbling I'm about to take her out for a lil joy ride and then...the f*king clutch is not working!!! :frusty: :mad2: :boom: My friends were here and we tried to the best of our knowledge, bled the clutch line, inspected the lever.... nothing. Tomorrow I'll go pick up my ninja and leave the vfr at the shop

 

glad you got your shocks done, but it sucks that the clutch died! that's no gooda!

 

that's ok. I got hammered that night anyway, so it was better that I was not riding.

 

Here's something most people don't know - the stock springs are progressively wound but are NOT progressive rate springs.

What happens in a progressive rate spring is that some of the coils go into bind (bottom out against each other) at which point they no longer effect the spring rate. As this happens the number of effective coils goes down which makes the rate go up.

So why aren't the stock springs progressive rate? Because all of the coils go into bind at the same time! My guess is that the springs are progressively wound only to minimize vibration (straight rate springs have a natural frequency). That's just another place where Honda has gone the extra step.

 

I thought that the springs were a dual rate or two step linear spring or at least that's what hyperpro and maxton told me when i was trying to improve the forks on my fh, for the street they recommended a progressively wound spring ( more expensive but a wider performance envelope, for the track the recommend a linear single rate spring simply to remove one of the chassis variables so reducing setup time.In a two-step linear spring, about half the coils have shorter spacing. As the spring compresses, the coils move closer. At a certain point, the shorter spaced coils touch, effectively eliminating them from the spring. You then have a spring comprised of only the longer coils. This "second-step" spring will be much stiffer than the whole spring (the more coils, the easier it is to compress the spring). The result is that you have one set of handling characteristics before the shorter coils touch and then you have another, completely different level of response after they touch, maybe this suspension lark is all black magic and we should just sacrifice a few chickens to a background of thrash metal in the hope that the gods guide our steeds round the twiddly bits LOL

 

Yes, I agree with all of that except with the stock springs there is one critical feature: all coils bind at the same time. I had to double and triple check my calculations the first time I noticed this, but Honda certainly did it on purpose. The bottom line is that the stock springs are a single straight rate.

I do not like progressive rate springs. Look at it this way - you need to maintain bottoming resistance no matter what. If you soften the top end you need to proportionally increase the bottom. That makes for a spring that is too soft or too hard but NEVER correct. I call this "the worst of both worlds."

Springs are not a black art, but valving/damping is.

 

I did a practical test home last night. Had some 7,5w and 15w fork oil laying around, so I put 7,5w in the other leg and compared it to the leg whit still stock oil, then changed to 15w oil and compared it to the one whit 7,5w oil. The test I did was simpel, as the fork legs are out of the triples, have them stand aganst flor and then push on the top of leg, first slow and then fast. The stock vs 7,5w was not hardly any diffrens, 7,5 slightly stiffer when pushing slowly. Then the 15w vs 7,5w, what a diffrense. When pushing the 15w leg slowly werry much damping, then when harder more damping than the 7,5w but not that big difference than when pushing slowly.
So the teory that JamieDaugherty says is fully correct.
So I have some thinking to do. I need a new upper triple (LSL whit regular bar fastners) and brakediscs for my Kawi front and was going to put the stock fork on for next season as a cheap option to have time to get funds for the pits I need to the Kawi front. Was going for heavyer oil to get the fork up to my Hagon shock, but seems it will be a not so good option.... hmm... mayby still will try whit 7,5w or 10w oil...