Been thinking- fork swap

LOL, no worries, my pleasure. I agree with Glenn that the forks can be made to work for some folks and terrain applications. Let's try a couple things that do not cost you much $ and if all fails, we will start building a showa or WP front end.
 
I am still confused how you can tune a fork with valves like these?

Is this something that GasGas should be made aware of, or is this normal? All of them on all the valves were like this or worse.
 

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Thats not a port, its just a mid valve bleed hole that GasGas likes for some reason. Husky Zokes I've been into do not have this. But, if your going to drill a hole drill it right! Some guys have JB welded this shut.

In a nutshell: Up the rebound a lot, drop the compression, and add a light mid valve. Spring correctly or on the stiff side, and run very little preload. My biggest issue with the fork now is its a very focused rock setup, and blows through the travel when things get fast. I've been racing more hare scrambles than enduros so its more noticeable. I can live with it until my '12 gets here, and then I'll probably be trying to get that to work in the rocks. The point of the more advanced fork is it should be easier to come to a setup that works in a wider range of terrain.
 
Oh and Glenn that is not the mid/rebound piston in the picture. That is the base valve. That is the compression side of the base valve as well. That closed off port is exactly what some, not all, of mine looked like. A couple were drilled out and the rest were closed off 50-65%. Very inconsistent. I drilled them out correctly and the whole system became much more smooth. With some lighter oil, shimming, etc they started to work in the slower terrain and speeds.
 
sniff even after reading this thread I still I love my revalved 45's, far better than anything else I've rode on in the east coast woods

I have not tried a 2012 gasgas yet
 
Your right, hard to tell with the closeup, but the rebound piston has a hole as well. That hole is in Husky Zokes, but the size has varied from 1 - 2 mm in GG Zokes over the years. There was a thread with pics awhile ago comparing an '05 GG Zoke with an '07.
 
Oring should have gave it away. Anyway, what that would do is just make the valving come into play sooner (at a lower speed) as there is less free bleed. Should have no effect at higher speeds. Its just a parallel path to the clicker.
 
I think you may be confused or I am not understanding your thought. There are 4 holes per piston for the compression dampening. On the base valve those 4 holes are facing up. The oil is forced through those holes and into the stack. On rebound there is check plate and very open straight through ports. This picture is not showing a bleed hole in any manner. That is the port hole that leads to the shim stack and there a 4.

There is bleed hole on the rebound stack but there are also 4 ports just like the one pictured on that piston as well.
 
I like pictures! That one with all the shims layed out looks like voodoo magic! This thread is way over my head.
 
http://s981.photobucket.com/albums/ae298/BrentMartell/Gas%20Gas%202011/

Password is gasgas2011

Here are a few to start. I am not sure if took photos of the insides of my showas or not. However, I do have to pull them apart again to build spacers. From all my calculations I come up with 5mm difference in the two forks. So if I shorten the showa's 5 my preload will go up to 8mm. That is in spec of what I read is acceptable.

I am not sure what route to go on the springs though. I have a 46 in one side and 44 in the other to get a 45. I am thinking 44's? I weigh in at 210 geared up.
 
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Just curious, how fork specific are spring weights? If you are running .44 on showas will you be running similar on sachs, WP etc? Or are there big differences from brand to brand. From what I have learnt about suspension (mostly from threads like this - thanks Brent) I am guessing they would be similar ... If the bike is similar weight

And if say a .44 is for 210, what weight would a .46 be for?
 
Spring weight should be the same btw forks, it's a geometry and weight issue, what will be different is the valving, which is done for the stock springs, as you get heavier springs for the same pace of rider, the valving should get lighter compression and whatever is needed in rebound for the application.

What muddies the waters even more is the style of valving, some makes have harder valving with lighter springs and vice Versa, even within brands of fork. ( eg Yamaha vs kwaka kyb)

You gotta ride em. But they should generally be close.
 
It is generally a weight issue vs anything else. However, spring preload comes into play as well regarding sag numbers.

Vinduro/Dwight targets around 75mm rider sag and 35 or so bike. According to the honda book the forks came stock at .46 for a 450R. The 450R is 10 lbs lighter than my gas gas. You would think that you should spring up then. However, the gg came with .42's. LMAO. It is all over the board. I went to .46's on the gg and it held the bik up in the stroke better and seemed to work in general better everywhere. If my old memory serves me well the GG stock springs measured out 3.5-3.75 inches or 89-95mm and I think 50mm static. That is a lot of sag IMO.

I think with 46s I was around 65mm and 30m.

Now, the showa's are a different animal. With 46's the rider sag was 45mm and bike/static was 25-28. I do know my showa's have 6mm preload. My buddies Suzuki has 7mm.

So to confuse the whole mess if you go to zero preload or equal preload you might be able to get an accurate measurement. LOL. It seems like the whole fork sag issue is not understood that well for dirt bikes. Road bike riders have sag dialed in due to high speeds etc....at least I think that is why. May be they are just a weird lot and think they need to have their bikes set up right?
 
I've heard tuners say and I agree its somewhat of a flawed measurement due to the stiction of the fork and the light weight of the bikes. Road/track bikes are a different animal, much heavier so stiction is no issue.
 
Brent,

Ever play around with the chamber spring in a CC fork? I have to think that it impacts the total spring rate somewhat, even a little, should be basically additive considering the PFP piston travel/rod displacement. Guys with the new Zokes say they can feel the fork ride higher with just more spring preload. I'm wondering if I could get away with the stock .42s in the '12 if this is the case. 180 lbs in my shorts.
 
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