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OK guys;i need a BARE ASS ANSWER here ON FORKS,but before you answer i want you to really,really think about it first..Question OF THE DAY ---- do you guys really think that the INVERTED FORKS really make that much of DIFFERENCE vs a GOOD pair of well tuned conventionals (connies). (not track use,woods only-tight stuff,rocks roots,you know: THE NASTY STUFF !)because; i talked to DREW over at WER about this subject and he told me he could take a good pair of connies and do the VOO-DOO he does so well and make them SING in the NASTY STUFF.....for a whole lot less than you can put inverteds on your bike....(just saying; till you go out and spend all the TIME and MONEY to find all the right parts you need to complete the task and not to mention you are still going to need a good TUNER to set them up for your riding style .......but if you are on the MX track; thats whole different type of riding style that requires allot more suspension than if you riding in the woods; lets face it guys were not hitting 30 foot table top and triples in the woods....not to mention the over hang on the inverteds don't like ROCKS to much . i know a guy who dropped his BRAND NEW KTM (2 days old and $7800 latter) in a ROCK GARDEN and damaged the one lower fork tube (CA-CHING !!!) i'm not saying that it wouldn't happen with connies,but you stand a better chance !! ALL I'M ASKING IS - DO YOU GUYS REALLY THINK ITS WORTH THE TIME AND MONEY; and if you say YES; than i will ask you if you ever ridden a bike with connies that were professionally set up for your weight and the style of riding you do ?????.................thanks for reading

HEY FOOTS; NICE BIKE!!!!!!.....whats the forks off of ???

Personnaly, I do believe the inverted forks works better at least for ME.
1: got rid of that nasty underhang, nice in deep ruts and rocks
2: rebound AND compression setting, easier to fine tune
3: stronger/firmier front end, don't twist as much or deflect on roots and such, basically I find them more forgiving when I screw up.
4: BLING factor (I actually couldn't care less about that)

Granted MAYBE some of that is psychologic, but in the end: I am faster cuz I'm more confident in my front end.

On my conventional fork, I had gold valve and the spring were setup for a rider a tad heavier than me but worked good in the woods and the type / style of riding for a while, BUT after getting more familliar with the bike I wanted more cuz I like to push myself as much as I can and ride on the edge on my ability, the inverted fork works better for me.

As for dumping the bike, I have done it a few times and never had, or heard of anybody having an issue with damaged fork tube (on USD).
Pricewise there was a thread not long ago in the fork conversion section about the cost of USD.
If you're patient, you CAN get a complete setup for as much as you would spend on conventional revalve, re spring and tune up by a pro.
There's a lot of info here to help you setup you conventional or USD. Just take some time and patience.
Of course if you go the easy route by paying a pro to do it, might be a bit faster, but you'll still have to spend some time (IMHO) to tune them where you like them.
By doing the conversion myself, I did learn a lot more about the whole supension and it was a fun project too, just a matter of personnal choice.

In the end I believe it's all a matter of choice:
What's your riding style
What's your type of terrain
How much time do you want to spend on a conversion
How much money do you want to put in your conventional versus USD
Do you enjoy working on your bike...
The list goes on...

This were my 0.002 cents

Wilf
BTW: too

The 'tone' of your thread is clear, your bias obvious, it's quite plain that you have already made up your mind about it. Still, the correct answer is:


Yes.

I could assume that any Druid over at WER might have the idea that the W.E.R damper (dampener for ski) 'sings' too.



Re: 'you are still going to need a good TUNER to set them up for your riding style'

That sums up most of the problem with what was said.

You might click over to the USD section of this board (a better place for such a question anyway). The answer to your question can be found there a number of times.


USD stuff

Note: Put a <space> between your text and your BBCode tags if you intend that the graphic be shown.

The issue is more of a gerth and underhang thing instead of USD vs. Connies....

Your choice for USD are almost limitless.... for connies you are very limited to your choices as the stock forks are all but useless IMHO.

BTW...you are more than welcome to run whatever suits you. If you want your forks to 'sing' go for it.

I've modified my bike to suit me....not you.

I would expect you to do the same.

Well...the opposite, actually............

Inda is right on - the con forks on a DRZ, for example, have a larger diameter and little underhang - Properly setup, they could work very well on just about anything, IMO. But the wimpy KDX forks flex and have a huge underhang. I don't care what you do to the insides, KDX conventionals will still flex and catch on rocks and roots. It's just a matter of limitations beyond rider skill.

I'm in no hurry to put USD's on

When Carvr first put his on, he made 'em sound like they were the cats ass!

But the longer I ride with him the more he complains about something is not right with 'em

I finally got my connies sprung better for my weight and I'm much more happy with them.

Far as the underhang, my foot pegs get stuck long before my forklegs ever do

Another thing, it's kinda nice having an odometer

I have found that my USD from a '95 KX125 required just a little tuning and I've forgotten all about them. I did send them to my favorite shop and they were gone through and cleaned up and so on.

I do recall not being able to get the connies to work for me.

Could the stock conventionals be made to work as well as a set of USD? I doubt it.

Could the stock conventionals be made to work as well as the set of USD on my bike? Probably, but not by ME.

I don't want to ride around thinking about my forks and oil and shim stacks and such. My (probably) ill tuned USD work way better than the connies did.

I know, this doesn't really answer your question.

IMO the short answer is NO

I think conventionals for the tight nasty woods work great. Flex is great in this type of terrain. There is the underhang issue, but I have never felt that this has caused me to crash or slow down. They might catch a rock or root from time to time, but no big deal.

I had conventionals on my '98 KTM200 and USD's on my 2000 KTM200. The tuned conventionals worked awesome in the woods and the USD's were better in open fast terrain.

Different strokes for different folks. Or different forks for different folks, or something like that.

I think Jeff Fredette has proven the connies can work. But why go to all the trouble when USD are easy to set up and are probably cheaper in the end?

Proof is always in the pudding; I crashed a whole lot less with USD set-up. If you are a trail rider, don't race, don't push, then why waste money on suspension?

You think about how you are going to use the bike and be honest with yourself on your skill level and how frequent you ride. Then do what makes sense to you.

That's right Ski!

Not everyone is pressing the fold. I do from time to time so I like having a capable suspension. But if you are a casual rider... it's really not needed. What you should do is at least get the right rate of springs for your weight.

I can say that I caught the underhang on my conventional forks many times in Hare Scramble races. One time I caught on a rock so hard I almost went over the bars. Another time the underhang hit a rock hard enough that I thought for sure that the Aluminum casting on the fork must have cracked. Later I found out I couldn't take the base valve out, because the aluminum threads were crushed . You can still use your odometer and your KDX front wheel, if you have your axle machined and a bushing made to fit the Kx forks. I Did. The KX forks also flex less. You don't even know how much your conventional forks flex until you ride a bike that has USD forks, such as a KDX with USD forks.

In tight and slow conditions the conventionals work pretty good. I have front and rear suspension on my KDX done by MX-tech for woods riding and it's great...until you catch the underhang. On a ride near Sycamore it literally took a few of us to tear the forks out of a slot that I got them caught in. I've hit a 50ft jump with the "connies" and even though you notice them flex on landing, they work alright too.

Now my Showas on the other hand...almost stock but I put lighter springs in and those babys are awesome!

I am loving my conventionals. I sent put in a pair of .38's from Mr. Fredette and then sent them to Factory Connection for the tune. I think they're the cat's PJ's for eastern tight and slimy. I could be wrong, but I think that I have heard it here, that putting a damper on will really not do much for connies because of the inherent flex. I don't have a damper and have often kicked the idea around, but I tinks it may not do much for me and maybe I really don't need for the gnar anyway.
No?

DREW knows his stuff. I do not like the under hang, but when my stockers were set up properly, they worked VERY WELL. But they FLEX no matter what. The USD Forks are better period. I have ran over stuff that the stockers would have thrown me