Ok, i just got my .90's from Max and im going to try to install them Sunday. Is this a pretty basic job? Any tips or tricks the would be good to know? What oil level has everybody been using?
Good, that's the only bike I know anything about. Pretty straightforward job, take the forks off the bike, and have at it. Pull the old springs out, if they're a different length than the new ones cut a spacer so that the total spring/spacer length is the same as before. That will get your sag in the ballpark and you can fine tune from there. I used 30w oil, no emulators or Axxion valves. AFA oil level, all the smart/fast guys seem to use 120-130mm. I tried that, didn't like it. Something in the 100-110mm range works better for me.
Rich, what didn't you like about the lower fork oil level? I got the SV together. It pulls so hard....I'm skeered now!
Seemed like it dove too much/too fast when I hit the brakes. Part of that may be lousy technique, I tend to just nuke the brakes instead of feeding them in.
What to measure oil level with. Like a dumb ass i tore everything apart dumped all the old oil out and when i went to ad the new oil, i have nothing to measure the oil level with. What you guys use?
A ruler works pretty good, one of those 6" plastic ones. Just look into the tube as you slowly put the ruler in, you'll see when it touchs the oil. Measure the level with the springs out, forks collapsed.
I have one of those handy dandy fork oil measuring tools. I love it. By the way Rich, I hate to ask but I'm feeling kinda lazy. Can I replace for fork springs with the forks on the bike and get a decent oil height setting? All I'm changing is the springs. I have .85 R6 springs in there now ( I wanted to be sure what I needed) I'm going with .90 Race-Tech. I feel that I can get a good measurement. Your thoughts? If anyone wonders about the R6 springs....I had a set lying around. They are much shorter than the SV springs and I was worried about them packing up, but they didn't or I didn't notice. I think I would have noticed. It seems a bit funny how technical some people get and when you clown around with your set up, you find you can get away with some pretty weird stuff.
[Geek mode] Let's assume that the inner diameter of the SV's forks in 38mm, and that the rake is 26 degrees. Half of 38 is 19 and the sine of 26 is .438. 19mm times .438 is 8.33mm. That's the most you could be off from the "true" value, quite a big difference.[/Geek mode] If you were careful about taking your measurement in the center you'd probably be ok, but I always do it wth the forks off, less chance for error.
now becareful with the fork oil. Some come in metric measurements and some are us standards and some are both. Be careful. You may want to balance the springs too, but that might knock you out of D-SB, because I will protest.
You guys are too much fun. Rich you forgot to divide by 2. (4.165mm) from true. (8.33mm) would be from one extreme to the other, it would be half that to the center of the fork.
Nope, I divided the inner diameter (38) by 2 to get 19. I did screw up though by using sine instead of tangent. Tan of 26 is .4877 so the right answer is 19x.4877=9.267. Even worse than I thought!!!
I actually need to replace those since I went down to NPR and 'visited' the swamp. Just how do you get that god forbidden stank out of the leathers......
