Spring has sprung!

[Mossleymonster]

It's coming back together now.

Calipers cleaned and new pads.

[IMG][/IMG]

New wheel bearings and the tyre on the right way around.



New taper rollers in and greased, I preloaded them to about 50 Nm then slackened off and retightened to rick oth eye. wwill check again after a short blurt.

[Mossleymonster]

Well, yesterday was very enlightening.

Went to see Teut @TWsuspension with my forks to get the oil changed as I was sure there was more in one leg than the other.

Lo and behold, the air gap in one fork was 120mm and about 50mm in the other!
Also the top nut was not tight on the damper rod and the hominid that had done this had also had hold of the damper rod with what must have been Mole grips.

Teut's words when he saw it "SHAMEFUL"

Anyway, all stripped cleaned checked and new 7.5w oil at 120mm gap.

Came home, reassembled and went for a blurt, different bike, still a bit too stiff for my liking but it's now supple over bumps, predictable and you can actually put the thing where you want it, an unqualified success.

Am going back to Teut on Monday with the bike and we are going to have a little play around with the settings.

I really feel sorry for the previous owner of this bike who'd been lied to and stolen from, had his life put in danger by some Chimps masquerading as engineers. He paid these arseholes £497 for what they did to his bike.

[Mossleymonster]

An hour or so spent with Teut this morning, went on the bike. Came home on a magic carpet.
Outstanding.

[Mossleymonster]

@Luddite

Hows the 105 spring suiting you?

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by Mossleymonster

@Luddite

Hows the 105 spring suiting you?

Very well, thanks for asking. It seems a perfect fit for my weight and style of riding.

Interestingly, when I fitted the Öhlins shock with the standard 115Nmm spring, there was no discernable static sag whatsoever and the shock was topping out over bumps on the supplied preload setting. It was ok once I'd wound back the preload by a few turns but now I have the softer 105Nmm spring, I've put the preload back to how it was originally set by Öhlins.

I think if I took frequent pillions or was a 'sportier' rider, then the 115Nmm might be better but, for me, the 105Nmm is perfect.

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by Luddite

Ideally, I'd like to try some 7.5N/mm fork springs like in the Öhlins of the 1100S, but I can't find any suitable for the Evo's Marzocchis. I've currently got 8.5N/mm Ktech springs in, which are the softest they do. If anyone knows anyone who does 7.5N/mm springs for the Evo, please let me know. It's a strange setup on the 1100S - soft at the front and really hard at the back (130N/mm). If any 1100 owners want to try a 115N/mm spring, let me know.

The springs in the Marzocchi forks are 330mm long and the lightest ones that are a straight swap are 8.5Nmm. Because K-tech couldn't supply a 7.5Nmm, I thought I'd give Maxton a try. I spoke with Richard, who was really helpful. He said he could supply a 7.5Nmm but that it was 260mm long. However, if I let them have my forks, they would make an alternative preload spacer so that the shorter springs would work in my forks.

So, come the end of season, that's what I'll do and I'll report back on the results in due course.

[Jez900ie]

Originally Posted by Mossleymonster

An hour or so spent with Teut this morning, went on the bike. Came home on a magic carpet.
Outstanding.

Magic carpet! Sounds amazing. This fellow Teut - can you send me some contact details? I'm guessing he is somewhere around the North West or are you in Anglesea now?

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by Jez900ie

This fellow Teut - can you send me some contact details?

See post #17.

https://www.twsuspensiontech.co.uk/about-us/
https://www.twsuspensiontech.co.uk/contact-us/

[Mossleymonster]

Originally Posted by Jez900ie

Magic carpet! Sounds amazing. This fellow Teut - can you send me some contact details? I'm guessing he is somewhere around the North West or are you in Anglesea now?

Teut 07743735346

Tell him Bacon Boy sent you lol.

[Mossleymonster]

Originally Posted by Luddite

The springs in the Marzocchi forks are 330mm long and the lightest ones that are a straight swap are 8.5Nmm. Because K-tech couldn't supply a 7.5Nmm, I thought I'd give Maxton a try. I spoke with Richard, who was really helpful. He said he could supply a 7.5Nmm but that it was 260mm long. However, if I let them have my forks, they would make an alternative preload spacer so that the shorter springs would work in my forks.

So, come the end of season, that's what I'll do and I'll report back on the results in due course.

Teut tested my springs and they came out at 8.5 ish he said he wouldn't recommend a lighter spring, I'll be interested in your results.

[Luddite]

Originally Posted by Mossleymonster

Teut tested my springs and they came out at 8.5 ish he said he wouldn't recommend a lighter spring, I'll be interested in your results.

That's interesting. The Öhlins part number for the stock 1100S spring is 04744-75 (the last two digits denoting 7.5N/mm). It could be that yours have been changed. From what you've already told us, someone's definitely had them apart in the past sometime, perhaps for that reason.

[Jez900ie]

Originally Posted by Mossleymonster

Teut 07743735346

Tell him Bacon Boy sent you lol.

Thanks & to you as well Luddite.

[Mossleymonster]

Originally Posted by Luddite

That's interesting. The Öhlins part number for the stock 1100S spring is 04744-75 (the last two digits denoting 7.5N/mm). It could be that yours have been changed. From what you've already told us, someone's definitely had them apart in the past sometime, perhaps for that reason.

We'll never know, but I doubt it. Only one fork has been diassambled, that's pretty much certain as the monkey wot dun it used mole grips on the damper rod, if he'd been at both legs the same tools would have been used but no signs on the other leg.

[Luddite]

I mentioned earlier that I'd wanted to try 7.5 N/mm springs in my forks (as that's what the Öhlins use on the 1100S) but K-tech couldn't supply anything lighter than 8.5 N/mm.

Just on the off chance, I dropped Richard Adams at Maxton an email to see if he could offer anything. The standard spring length is 330 mm while Maxton's 7.5 N/mm are only 260 mm but Richard said that, if I sent them my forks, they would replace the internal spacer with one 70 mm longer so I could use their springs. I'm sure K-tech could have done the same modifications but, as they never mentioned it as an option and Maxton suggested it without being asked, I thought I'd go with them.

Maxton rang me twice before sending them back; first to confirm what I wanted and then to tell me what they had done, which included changing the shims in the damping adjusters to match the softer springs.

The turnaround time was a surprise - I sent them off on a Monday and they were back with me on the Friday of the same week.

Result
Just bouncing on them in the kitchen showed them to be much more supple with a nice smooth damping action on both compression and rebound.

Of course, the only real test is how they feel on the bike. Refitting the forks is straightforward enough, it's just a bit if a faff getting the height right and both forks exactly the same. I had wrapped tape around each leg right up against the bottom of the lower yoke before removing them but Maxton took it off - d'oh! 😖

There's a favourite route not far from me that takes in the B3035 and has a 200 yd stretch of washboard-like tarmac that really tests your suspension. On the standard springs the ride was awful. At 70 it actually gave me blurred vision. Even my Gilera Runner coped better and its suspension is little more than biro springs and Vaseline! 8.5N/mm springs and K-tech dampers were a huge improvement although you could still feel the bumps but the new 7.5 N/mm springs really absorb the bumps and give a much plusher ride while the revised damping keeps everything under control.

Some (reasonably) spirited cornering down a series of bumpy B-road bends revealed no pitching, wallowing or weaving, just a much smoother, controlled ride. The new springs also seem a much better match with the softer (105 N/mm) rear spring that I fitted earlier this year.

I was worried whether the softer springs would cope with heavy braking but some test emergency stops failed to bottom them out, even on bumpy roads, so no problems there.

I guess if you often take a pillion or regularly explore the upper 20% of the Evo's performance, then firmer springs might be better. But for me, the way I ride and the roads I ride, this set up works perfectly.

As chris.p observed some time ago http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...ad.php?t=51391, (it was his thread that originally prompted me to upgrade the forks), it's definitely worth investing some time and money in improving the Evo's suspension as it really pays dividends in better handling and comfort.

So thanks to Richard for going the extra mile (or 70 mm to be precise!).

[Flip]

Richard is a top man- he's sorted both my Monster and my little race bike with fork internals (the race bike also had their rear shocks) and both have been nothing short of a revelation for me.

Suspension is probably the least upgraded thing on a motorcycle but is probably the one thing most people would notice instantly (other than the noise of loud pipes obviously) even if they're not using the upper echelons of the bikes performance.

It's the everyday compliance over the UK's crappy road surfaces the bike now has as much as it no longer kicking off bumps when pushing on a bit that makes it a joy to ride.

1997


1965