Race Tech Fork Springs

[670cc]

Thanks for all the inputs. Where is a good place to put the jack to lift the front? I have the oem centrestand.

Unfortunately I found no particularly good place for a jack under the NC other than using an assortment of odd lumber scraps under the oil pan to mate it up with the jack cradle.

Greg

 

[Beemerphile]

Thanks for all the inputs. Where is a good place to put the jack to lift the front? I have the oem centrestand.

Definitely NOT the oil filter. Place a short board (1x2 or so) across the front of the oil sump and jack from there.

 

[MZ5]

Thanks for all the inputs. Where is a good place to put the jack to lift the front? I have the oem centrestand.

I don't claim this is a good idea by which to raise the front end and leave it that way for a while, but putting the bike on the factory center stand and adding a bit of weight to the back end (or taking off the front wheel and forks) will lift the front end off the ground.
...if that helps you any...

 

[ray]

Actually the best place to jack up the front is the 2 Givi engine guards but I did not have 2 high enough jacks. Thus use MZ5's suggestion of bringing down the rear. Used a strap to pull down on the rack. Works really well

Stock spacer is 150mm. Stock preload is 18mm. Stock oil is 100mm.

 

[MZ5]

I know this is a bit older, but I'd like to highlight the good info that dduelin has linked to, below. In addition to using actual viscosity, rather than just 'weight,' I suggest using the 40C (or 100F, if your supplier uses SUS rather than cSt as their viscosity unit) viscosity for fork oil. That is much more realistic and reasonable for street bike forks. Race bikes, whether dirt or street, may want to think about/look at 100C/212F viscosity, but 40C/100F is much more suitable for street use, IMO. In fact, at least certain of the better tech reps from the companies who market fork oils will also tell you this.

Note that weight is a poor method to compare fork oil qualities. SAE weight does not work very well with very thin light oils. For instance some brands 5 or 7.5 weight oils have viscosity indexes higher ( thicker ) than other brand 10 weight fork oils. You can use weight for comparisons generally only by individual brand, such as Honda to Honda or Bel Ray to Bel Ray. Honda has at one time had three different "10" wt oils on the shelf with slightly different characteristics even in one brand. My ST1300 uses SS-8 and the NC700X uses SS-47 both of which are nominally "10 wt".

This table has some fork oils compared by centistoke and viscosity index:

Fork oil weights

 

[hozabah]

race tech instructions for damping rod holes

..... The rest of the settings were per the instruction sheet which included drilling the existing 2 holes in the damping rod to 5/16 inch and drilling 4 more 5/16 holes 90 degrees from the originals. I drilled 2 of the 4 holes 10 mm below the existing ones and the other 2 were 10mm above.......

I'm doing my GV's this weekend and ran into a concern with the instructions.....

if you follow the intructions and drill 2 holes 10mm below the 2 existing compression holes.... and 2 10mm holes above the existing ones...

you'll wind up only having 4 holes total! instead of six 5/16" holes as per the instructions..

why? because the oil plug that goes over the bottom of the damping rod will cover up those two holes you drilled 10mm below the existing ones

After I drilled the 2 original holes out to 5/16" I measured UP from the EDGE of the hole and drilled the 2 new ones and then centered two more on the opposite side of the rod. Drilling a 8 mm hole 10mm from the center of the existing hole would in a perfect world leave 2mm between holes.. 6mm seemed better to me


wonder how many folks did it per the instructions?

 

[ray]

I'm doing my GV's this weekend and ran into a concern with the instructions.....

if you follow the intructions and drill 2 holes 10mm below the 2 existing compression holes.... and 2 10mm holes above the existing ones...

you'll wind up only having 4 holes total! instead of six 5/16" holes as per the instructions..

why? because the oil plug that goes over the bottom of the damping rod will cover up those two holes you drilled 10mm below the existing ones

After I drilled the 2 original holes out to 5/16" I measured UP from the EDGE of the hole and drilled the 2 new ones and then centered two more on the opposite side of the rod. Drilling a 8 mm hole 10mm from the center of the existing hole would in a perfect world leave 2mm between holes.. 6mm seemed better to me


wonder how many folks did it per the instructions?

Yeah, followed the instructions. How did you find out that the bottom 2 holes will be covered up? Will want to confirm it the next time I open them up for servicing.

 

[670cc]

Yes, I followed the directions. They are likely generic directions for probably all their kits no matter what bike you are installing them on. The directions were the same as when I did my old EX250 Kaw. The point of drilling the holes is to allow free oil flow there at the bottom of the damper tube and allow the GVEs up top to do the damping control. Having two of the bottom holes blocked or partially blocked might have no effect, or worst case, cause the compression damping to be a little bit stiffer than intended. I'm not too worried about it. I suppose someone could ask RaceTech if it's of any consequence, and see what they say.

 

[hozabah]

Yeah, followed the instructions. How did you find out that the bottom 2 holes will be covered up? Will want to confirm it the next time I open them up for servicing.

I broke the entire fork down to flush out the sludge, which wasn't too bad.

After cleaning the oil plug and damping rod, I just happened to put the two together and noticed that the oil plug came just below the original compression hole

I'm not sure, but depending on where the other two new holes were drilled, it may partially cover them up also... not sure because I didn't do it per instructions. If that's the case, you might only have 3 compression holes.. the two original and two partials?

 

[ray]

I broke the entire fork down to flush out the sludge, which wasn't too bad.

After cleaning the oil plug and damping rod, I just happened to put the two together and noticed that the oil plug came just below the original compression hole

I'm not sure, but depending on where the other two new holes were drilled, it may partially cover them up also... not sure because I didn't do it per instructions. If that's the case, you might only have 3 compression holes.. the two original and two partials?

Thanks for the explanation. Seems likely that the bottom 2 new holes will be blocked then.

 

[hozabah]

Ray, what windscreen are you wearing in the picture in post #44?

do you like it? how long is it?

what's your height/inseam? how's the wind/buffeting?

The stock screen in the high position works better for me than the Honda touring screen.. but the one you have looks good to me

 

[ray]

Ray, what windscreen are you wearing in the picture in post #44?

do you like it? how long is it?

what's your height/inseam? how's the wind/buffeting?

The stock screen in the high position works better for me than the Honda touring screen.. but the one you have looks good to me

That was the Honda touring screen which has a lot of buffeting at the neck above 100kmh. I had since changed to my own taller custom 24" screen which puts the air at the top of my visor. Am 173cm with inseam of 30".

 

[ray]

Actually the best place to jack up the front is the 2 Givi engine guards but I did not have 2 high enough jacks. Thus use MZ5's suggestion of bringing down the rear. Used a strap to pull down on the rack. Works really well

I had made a jig to hold the sides of the Givi engine guard so that I can jack up the front. Works well anywhere with the centre stand