It all made sense on the way home tonight. This morning...? Pfffftt... I dunno.
Literally - I really didn't know what to expect, but I expected it to be HUGE. Fantastic.
My first ride on my rejuvenated forks, and I was expecting... perfection, I guess.
Where was the Magic Carpet Ride? Why could I feel the bumps like that? Is this what you get for A Whole Lotta Money? What was that strange feeling in the first turn I made?
I thought about it during the day, and felt disappointed, perhaps a little cheated. Then I started to rationalise, which made me feel a little better. The seals were brand new, it was cold this morning so the oil was more viscous, I'd only tested it on a short ride, most of that was motorway, blah blah blahdy blah.
Then I rode home, and suddenly realised something. An epiphany, if you like. The VFR was very composed - it was gliding along with no fuss, no bother, no fidgetyness.
You know those really stupid cars you see, with the chopped springs, no suspension travel, crappy damping, and they're all hoppy over every little undulation in the road? Well, the VFR didn't used to be quite that bad, but that's what it reminded me of, with it's stiffer springs but crap damping and worn out fork internals. Tiring.
Annoyingly jiggly ride.
But not any more.
Then I noticed other things....
That strange corner thingie: it was turning the bars into low speed corners.
And there was nothing much happening apart from cornering.
No lateral movement in the fork tubes meant no interference to the steering from mid-corner ripples. Compliant damping meant less pressure required on the inside bar, almost none in fact.
On with the brakes... less dive. Much less dive.
How can that be? It's the same springs, albeit with the preload now set to where it should be, not backed off to give a softer, less jiggly ride.
Ahhh... it's now all working as it should be. It doesn't feel amazing, because all it's doing is what it's supposed to.
No drama, no fuss, no fireworks, nothing much to notice except what's not there.
It's all so relaxing and pleasant. Almost... boring.
Good suspension is boooorrrrriiiinnnnnng!!!
Well... the "CKT Racetech" decals are kinda OK, but the rest? Pfffttt!!
Here was I, excited about my flashed-up new forks, disappointed because there's no excitement. Well duh...
Tech Stuff
I fitted some uprated springs many moons ago, as that was all I could afford. They're 0.95kg/mm linear rate, as compared to the stock 0.74 progressive rate springs.
CKT refurbished the forks with new seals (I thought I might as well, while it was in the workshop); new bushes (old ones had lost teflon and some of the bushing material); chucked out the old compression piston thingies (yeah, that's a technical term) as the ports were too small, so they didn't cope well with flowing oil when I rode over sharp bumps, and fitted some Racetech Gold Valves. This was mated to a rejigged shim stack so the damping was more betterer; then the whole lot was basted with some shiny new fork oil, presumably made from Swedish baby virgin fur seal whale penguins, and more slippery than Winston Peters. After casting some special arcane and esoteric incantations over the whole lot, they rewrapped it in the crappy bubble wrap I cadged from the furniture folks downstairs, and sent it all back to me quick smart, via the Botany Honda people, who I got to meet for the first time last week.
Thanks to Josh (parts dude at Botany Honda) and Robert Taylor at Crown Kiwi Technical.
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Originally Posted by Stampy
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