Some fork oil mods (and other cheap things)

[AZRickD]

I have my suspenders in the the shop for some R&R.

Since Arizona is nearly pure rocks (you guys with roots have it easy), and I'm the slowest C-Rider in my class, I'd like to soften things up a bit without LTR-ing it just yet.

I have a question.

1) Given that the standard oil level for the forks is 110mm, and the recommended oil weight is SAE 7.5 --

2) What would be a good weight of oil (front and rear) and perhaps a reduced oil level to make the suspension soak up the rocks better?

Assume 190# (210 geared up).

Thanks,

Rick

 

[fullthrottle]

this might not help but im aboout 150 and am usin 2.5wt at 130mm from top still firm but excellent over rocks etc for my weight. mabye try 5wt wt oil at 120-130-mm

 

[AZRickD]

I'll tell the shop guys.

I wish I knew what was in there now. I can't locate the guy who sold it to me (he did it himself). He tended to go with the manual, though.

 

[eff]

Do you have Marzocchi's or WP's?

I use Spectro 7.5wt @ 110mm in my Zokes and they feel great.

 

[JoshP]

I'm assuming you have a post 01' USD style on there. I know alot whom ride 2.5 or 5 wgt to get a soft feel on the forks and it also allows the fork to move smoother through the stroke. If you have the older conv. stick with 7.5 or up since they work like crap with a lower weight.

 

[AZRickD]

I just noticed that I didn't post my bike info...

2005 EC250. Ohlins in the rear, Zokes in front. I have the clickers ALL THE WAY soft.

I find them to work just fine in most conditions but I want more cush over the rocks.

I told them to go with 120mm and 5wt. If it's too soft I can always click it up. I do my suspension twice a year, so I only have to "suffer" with a bad decision for the first half of race season. Keep in mind that I am one of the slower C-riders (mid-pack, but near the bottom of mid-pack), so, although the suspension as it sits works well if I go fast(er), I don't tend to go very fast.

 

[AZRickD]

I just got them back. I'll start to put everything back together tonite and tomorrow morning when the temps get below 100F.

Something tells me I'm missing one or two of those shims that cover the bearing O-ring. I'm sure it's somewhere in my garage or the junk box of the shop. Maybe a call to Ace Hardware will scare up some.

 

[AZRickD]

AceHardware had shims with the proper I.D. with a little less O.D. They're also about 50% thicker than the stock shims. I'll see if there is enough slop to accommodate the extra width. Maybe I'll heat them up and pound them flat(ter).

 

[GMP]

Rick,

The biggest problem with the Zoke valving is lack of rebound, especially high speed rebound. Its not a compression issue as the fork has a ton of free bleed with stock valving and the HS stack is not bad. The initial speed of the fork rebound is very fast and feels like a compression lock to a lot of guys who are not very experienced in evaluation. All 2.5 wt will do is make it worse, oil affects rebound a lot more than compression. My forks are actually valved stiffer on compression, mid-valve, and rebound and feel great in the rocks. Without revalving the rebound stack, all you can do is try and crank the clicker way in. This is in no way a fix but will give you a feel for going in the right direction. I'd go to 4-5 clicks out on rebound.

 

[stay_upright]

Interesting - I was about to put up a new post after riding in rocks this weekend hitting smaller high speed rocks my 05 300 EC feels like the suspension is not soft enough off the bottom yet I changed both compression shim stacks so that they are (at a guess) 50% more flexible. The feeling I get is that the the rim has hit the rock and I worry about pinch punctures a lot. The re-shimming helped a great deal a huge improvement for me but I have always felt like I had a lack of rebound damping - My friends notice it as well. - Do you have any recommended shim stacks to improve the rebound? I am a mid-class rider. (clubman in the UK) though I like my suspension soft (see above).

 

[AZRickD]

S_Up,

Where are your clickers now that you've re-valved?

Will the LTR mod help with these issues (minor for me).

 

[stay_upright]

I think compression is about mid-way and rebound fully in (more).

 

[stay_upright]

I should add I've not found the clickers to have a big effect for the sort of thing I was concerned about that was hitting big obsticles slow (say a tree root sticking out 1 foot high) or small objects fast (2-4 inch rocks at 30 mph + ) I obviously tried all the clicker settings before re-valving and the re-valve made a big difference.

I recorded the shim settings of you have time to try it - since I did not have a shim kit I just removed and re-ordered the shims so you don't need to buy any. I made larger gaps between the bigger diameter shims and reduced their number so that they could flow a lot more oil a lot easier. Initially I was aiming to get it too soft so that I had great ability over the type of obsticles above but would bottom out too much however it worked great and with standard oil height rarely bottoms out in enduro and never very hard so woudl seem about perfect.