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Fork Spring vs. Fork Oil

Discussion in 'Tech' started by rcarson15, Mar 25, 2017.

  1. rcarson15

    rcarson15 Well-Known Member

    Hey guys, so I have been debating getting heavier springs in my SV forks (supposedly setup for ~ 180lbs and I weigh ~220 fully geared). It was brought to my attention to maybe look into getting heavier fork oil rather than getting heavier springs. Can't say I ever thought about it, but would that be a possible solution? Thoughts?
     
  2. Chango

    Chango Something clever!

    That seems like an odd suggestion. The heavier springs keep the suspension in the optimum range of the stroke, the oil just slows the speed of compression/rebound. You really need to have both springs and oil correct for optimum performance.
     
    François likes this.
  3. regularguy

    regularguy Always Krispy

    What is in there now, stock forks, emulators, or cartridges?
     
  4. tzrider

    tzrider CZrider

    Heavy oil will give you more compression damping which isn't very useful for what you're trying to achieve. Or rather creates way more drawbacks than gains.

    It's either stiffer springs or more oil in the forks that will help you...
     
  5. TurboBlew

    TurboBlew Registers Abusers

    i would also check that you have enough fork travel. A friend had slid his fork tubes up too far in the triples and suffered from overloading the front tire going into turn 5 at barber. Ironically 2 sets of eyeballs missed this.
     
  6. beathiswon

    beathiswon Well-Known Member

    There is a lot of bad info that circulates around sportbike/racing chit chats. Heavy oil can, in some cases, improve a little, some suspensions (usually the stock generic hardware) that are not setup properly for a rider. This is just a cheap band-aid solution that has nothing to do with proper spring rate. Spring rates are a funny thing and despite there being many spring rate charts available, can be different for different riders of the same weight/skills depending on their style and not to mention getting the valving setup to match the rider. Best to talk to a pro tuner and get it done right the first time other than throwing money into guesswork. You can also try to learn suspension tuning on your own but be prepared for lots and lots of work and experience. Not meant to discourage you, some people like the tinkering but suspension and chassis setup is the most difficult thing to get right being part science, part voodoo.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2017

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