Honda Hornet Fork spring removal help please!

[HenryDorsetCase]

Dammit.

My new rear shock (Ohlins, yeah babY) went in no problem at all.

I have my bike hung from the garage rafters. I loosened the top yoke pinch bolt, and very carefully unscrewed the blue caps on the top of the fork legs. because there is no weight on the front of the bike they undid nicely. the caps have moved up so they are free of the yoke but someting is stopping them come out. Arrrrgh. Because I have broken a lot of stuff in my life, I dont want to get medieval on its ass.

I want to pull the fork springs and replace them, initially leaving everything else in place. but till the caps come off I am screwed.

anyone done this. Have I overlooked something? grrrr.

[Pussy]

Try pushing the wheel up ( ie compress the forks) with the cap loosened right off

[Kickaha]

O-ring inside the fork cap sticking on the inside of the leg?

[HenryDorsetCase]

sorted: the "proper way" is to take the forks off, and undo the bolt up the guts which allows the damper cartridge to slide out, and then undo it on the bench then swap the springs and reassemble.

but apparently i can use one of my pushbike spanners (17mm, skinny), to undo the damper rod from the cap, then the cap will come off, then the spring can come out.

Plan b is to take the forks out, send them to Robert Taylor and say "please fit cartridge emulators and the springs you just sold me".

Reading Hornet forums yesterday, that will give the best bang per buck of any mod to the bike, even more than the shock.

dialing now......

[Zapf]

sorted: the "proper way" is to take the forks off, and undo the bolt up the guts which allows the damper cartridge to slide out, and then undo it on the bench then swap the springs and reassemble.

but apparently i can use one of my pushbike spanners (17mm, skinny), to undo the damper rod from the cap, then the cap will come off, then the spring can come out.

Plan b is to take the forks out, send them to Robert Taylor and say "please fit cartridge emulators and the springs you just sold me".

Reading Hornet forums yesterday, that will give the best bang per buck of any mod to the bike, even more than the shock.

dialing now......

Have you got the shock? Now I haven't done the forks so I compair, but after getting forks (standard) and ohlines shock dialed in the bike handles awesome. And I didn't really feel the need for the forks to be done. Even Shaun said they felt good.

[HenryDorsetCase]

got the shock in.

issue with the fork is it is too heavily sprung for my weight.

lighter rates springs will help small bump compliance, and should allow the damping circuit to work betterer.

thats the plan, anyways. stay tuned.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Oh yeah, talking to Robert Taylor yesterday "I have a months work ahead of me, please dont send me anything at present..."

[HenryDorsetCase]

Success!

thanks all of you for your help, esp Rua who gave me a CD manual: beer for that man.!.

I probably should have dropped the forks, but this bike is basically brand new (2500km on the clock) and I thought it would be easier to do it this way. Once I got the blue cap off, there was a bit of faffing about to get the other bits out, but not much drama. Fork oil still reddish!

interesting: new forksprings free length 285mm, stockers are 300mm.

fully extended height from black wiper seal to underside of bottom triple clamp, 145 mm.

static weight of bike (same measurement) 135mm
static sag with rider: 105mm

I have to do the compression damping setup again, and preload, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

also, I was going to pull the forks up thru the clamps by 10mm, but will wait and see first.

Hope its fine on Saturday, I really do.