KDXRIDER.NET

You could pull the forks out of the clamps about ¼ “ (less fork above top clamp). I had mine about ¾” above and had a noticeable and aggravating head shake. Lowering 3/8ths id the trick.

I had wondered if my 11/16th of an inch of fork rise would be a problem. I recall reading that someone had his up 3/4" but backed it off due to some unremembered-by-me problem.

So, now that I've adjusted sag to keep my front end from lifting, what's going to happen when I drop the forks in the TTs?

Assuming there is another avenue... how does one reduce pre-load in these forks (and by how much)? Is there a spacer or do I snip some spring?


Rick

AZRickD wrote:Is there a spacer or do I snip some spring?
Rick

Yes and yes you can. If you cut the spring down it will increase the rate by some.

KDXer wrote:

KDX200Kev wrote:I had my forks valved and shortened by FC and they work good now.

Would that not lose you fork travel ?? I know its a common mod for shorter riders but always wondered about the equal and opposite reaction ??

Cheers,
Isaac....

I only had a half an inch shortened on the forks. Considering the travel on the KX fork is .4 inches greater in travel than the KDX's this change made it almost the same travel as OEM.

Lowering the forks inceases the caster angle which stabilizes the front. I found after my conversion that the 7/8" all the way up was terrible. 5/8" helped and I ran it for a while. Went to 1/2" just to try and the headshake was gone and it felt very stable. It is a quick and logical tuning step.

Lowering the forks inceases the caster angle which stabilizes the front.

Ahhh. Stability vs agility.

That's why my bike feels quicker in the turns now. I suppose I'll have to make a bit of a trade off.

On balance, seems worth it.

Thanks,

Rick

I didn't bother to move the forks down. I did reduce a little bit of rear shock spring pre-load though.

I had been riding some fairly untechnical stuff recently and then last week got tangled up with some B and A riders who took me on a 50 mile hell ride through the desert. Everything was fine except on the longer technical hill climbs. The back end was bouncing around like crazy causing me to get off line. After completing one hill climb I decided to soften up the compression and rebound on the shock. I didn't have another problem.

I've also taken my fork clickers all the way soft as well.

As for that wobble at 75 mph... it seems to be less now, so I just press on both handle bars and let my arms do the dampening for the remainder.

Rick