FF: Forks Modified Steering Stem

greg brillus

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The easiest way to sort out between springs and shock absorber is once you have it all back together, just remove the front shocker and ride the bike at slowish speeds and hit the front brakes, and see how the front behaves. With the weaker springs you will bottom out quite easily.......Remembering that I have cut most all the springs I have installed, as without doing so the front end is topped out. This seemed more obvious to me when carrying out the entire mod on the Singles as they are much lighter than the twins........The action of the forks seemed too stiff for a bike 30 Kg's different in weight.
 

bmetcalf

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OK Thanks Bruce. I looked through my records but you must have had your springs quite some time as you are not in the latest spread sheet. If the springs were shiny then they are stainless steel and are the 36 lbs/inch ones. If dark steel then probably 45s which some people are finding too stiff. Let us have the feedback when you have had chance to test it out.
Our last PM was in April 2017 and the springs are the heavier ones, but I weigh 240#, so maybe OK.
 

greg brillus

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What springs are you using Chris.....?......I have never had to use packers on any springs, in fact I have always had to cut them down to stop the front end "Topping out"..........Cheers........Greg.
 

Chris Launders

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Hi Greg. I'm using 45lb springs, but as I said I weigh 280lb, I've not noticed it topping out but with the roads round here I need as much travel as I can manage, If I took the packers out I'd lose nearly 1-1/4" of travel, possibly more now I've done a few thousand miles and that would be nearly half.
I'm still getting down to touching the bump stop.
 

greg brillus

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Chris you might find the 45's might still be a bit light on. I'm sure on a couple of bikes I've done I used one of the Red davidd springs on one side and a weaker one on the other. My findings are that you need not too much pre-load, say about one inch per side using springs that suit the weight combination of the bike and rider. The twins will handle most all of the shock absorbers, but the singles need a very soft shocker or else it will feel too stiff in the front even with weak springs installed, as the shocker "masks" the springs.
 

Chris Launders

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Hi Greg.
I had occasion to ride it 60 miles the other week without any damper, the ride was not noticeably different, I will admit it was a bit livelier and was possibly going a little too far but nothing over the top, so I'm happy with it the way it is, I normally have the bearing conversion AVO damper fitted, set at minimum.
I've forgotten how many spring combinations I used when arriving at the 45s but Norman will tell you it was a considerable number.
 

timetraveller

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Here we are again. I've just received an order for another 20 of these items, some steel and some aluminium. If you want to get in on the back of this order then now is a good time to contact me, enw07@btinternet.com . To recap, the original production was 10, followed by 15, then 10, then 30, then 50 and most recently another 10. That makes 125 out there somewhere. There are options for using either the original Oilite bushes in the lower link or using the Greg Brillus mod of fitting ball races as replacement for the bushes. If you want to learn more then either read some or all of this link or email me for the fitting instructions and they will be sent to you as a PDF. Thank you.
 
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