Someone in CHCH to make fork spacers

[dangerous]

What I have done is cut the spring and this makes it stiffer and make a longer spacer and the pre-load can stay the same.

I have just had that done to my 355LC race bike... what an awesome mod, I rate it on a old shitter however Les, for you Id sugest new springs.

BTW: RT the guy that cut my springs, I believe exchanges work with you.

[Robert Taylor]

Actually Im sick of this shit Robert.
At NO point did I suggest cutting SPRINGS nor did I suggest the tubing be cut by hand or off square.
In what way is this "Heath Robinson??"

MY advice was a plagerisation of advice given to me by people who are actually building and RACING Sv650's both in the united states and the UK and have been doing so for several years.

I tell you what, run a readers poll.....

You post your cv

Ill post mine

Then let the readers decide

[Robert Taylor]

I have just had that done to my 355LC race bike... what an awesome mod, I rate it on a old shitter however Les, for you Id sugest new springs.

BTW: RT the guy that cut my springs, I believe exchanges work with you.

Correct, and he does a good job. Not everybody does a satisfactory job, that is one of my salient points.

[laRIKin]

It was never in dispute that it cant be done, what is in dispute is the very real quality problems that can and do occur.

No problem.

And with that and it is hard to tell someone the number 8 wire way of doing things, when you do not know their skills or knowledge.
And that is why I do not always like to answer fix-it posts.

But to me as a lay man it is a bit of a trial and see sort of thing anyway.
As two riders of the same weight and size on the same bike will/could like two different set ups.

And that is why I went on the light side of things and then ramped up the spring weight (settings?) and oil height/weight until I got the one "I" liked.
And I would hate to buy some springs and find out that were the wrong ones for me.

Because you do this all day every day you would have a better feel for this.
And to me I see the numbers and understand them to a point, but do not always appreciate the difference that it will make to the handling of the bike.

[Robert Taylor]

Thanks everybody for an interesting discussion. For sure my preferable option is to put some more suitable springs in there, and I must admit that I haven't even seriously researched that option re. price etc. I could fit them myself anyway. So, any suggestions for new springs for a potential "proper upgrade"? I was keen to try running some small spacers and a heavier oil at a slightly higher level to see how that would work. I have done this mod before to an XT600 that I had and it worked good with reduced dive under braking and firmer "low deflection" springing due to a smaller air volume.

I'm no scientist (but am an NZCE qualified engineer) but I'm definitely NOT interested in bodging something to an unsafe degree, especially since I'd be astride the machine in question! However, I do fully appreciate the qualified comments that have been put forward from people who appear to know a whole lot more about these things than me. Thank you. It's interesting your comments Robert re. these people fixing aircraft, 'cos that's exactly what I do for a living. I do generally prefer the "correct" solution, but you would possibly be surprised how much of an imperfect discipline aero engineering can actually be...

Thanks again everyone, and keep the comments coming!

Les, pm me for a menu of options, you will be surprised at the affordability.

Yes, the plane crash investigations on the Sky channels are scary. One of the Skyhawk crashes ( when we actually had a credible Air Force and an intent to show that we want to defend ourselves without freeloading off others ) was attributed to an oil pump rotor being installed back to front. The trick is to filter out as many ''Heath Robinson'' characters as possible. As I recall the minimum pass mark for Aircraft Engineering exams when I was in the RNZAF was 75%. Anything less and you were downgraded to a trade where you were less likely to hurt people.

[Les]

Les, pm me for a menu of options, you will be surprised at the affordability.

Yes, the plane crash investigations on the Sky channels are scary. One of the Skyhawk crashes ( when we actually had a credible Air Force and an intent to show that we want to defend ourselves without freeloading off others ) was attributed to an oil pump rotor being installed back to front. The trick is to filter out as many ''Heath Robinson'' characters as possible. As I recall the minimum pass mark for Aircraft Engineering exams when I was in the RNZAF was 75%. Anything less and you were downgraded to a trade where you were less likely to hurt people.

Thanks Robert I will be in touch soon. Looking fwd to seeing the options!

Re. the aircraft engineering issue. There's always going to be these balls ups and I've seen some things and I can't work out how they happened, ie. components mounted incorrectly as in your example. As you would know from being in the trade yourself, the human factors issue is always VERY real and it will always be there. I do believe that the "rough" approach has it's place and is most certainly required at some stage. Common sense ALWAYS has it's place alongside it, however. BTW I trained in civvy street (Air NZ) and our pass mark has always been 70%. It's always that 30% that we don't know...

[dangerous]

No problem.

And with that and it is hard to tell someone the number 8 wire way of doing things, when you do not know their skills or knowledge.
And that is why I do not always like to answer fix-it posts.

And in your case having seen the work you do on bikes it is well done and well thought through.

[Robert Taylor]

While we are both in rant mode I would like to suggest that a lot of the economic slide is to do with the increasing 'needs' of the average person. Apparently we all 'need' to have a cellphone, 'need' to eat takeaways, 'need' sky connection and a million other things our parents somehow frittered their meaningless existence away without.

Thats a very reasonable point. But there are economies performing better than ours, in part because the taxation regimes help people to help themselves. Sorry to be political, but Ive got the balls to say it rather than suppress it.

[Robert Taylor]

No problem.

And with that and it is hard to tell someone the number 8 wire way of doing things, when you do not know their skills or knowledge.
And that is why I do not always like to answer fix-it posts.

But to me as a lay man it is a bit of a trial and see sort of thing anyway.
As two riders of the same weight and size on the same bike will/could like two different set ups.

And that is why I went on the light side of things and then ramped up the spring weight (settings?) and oil height/weight until I got the one "I" liked.
And I would hate to buy some springs and find out that were the wrong ones for me.

Because you do this all day every day you would have a better feel for this.
And to me I see the numbers and understand them to a point, but do not always appreciate the difference that it will make to the handling of the bike.

Yes, you have made some very good points. Frosty has failed to grasp that I am ( candidly ) in contempt of simplistic posts that are devoid of detail, and could lead to bad decisions. That is why in this case I have stated all the whys and wherefores from my own knowledge and experience base, in this my chosen field.

This is not about ego, self importance or one upmanship, it is about setting out all the facts and alternatives. To that end the posts and arguments provided have been excellent. ( I am prepared to be wrong and if so will not resort to emotional expletives )

[laRIKin]

Blush
Dangerous how many beers do I owe you?

[Robert Taylor]

No problem.

And with that and it is hard to tell someone the number 8 wire way of doing things, when you do not know their skills or knowledge.
And that is why I do not always like to answer fix-it posts.

But to me as a lay man it is a bit of a trial and see sort of thing anyway.
As two riders of the same weight and size on the same bike will/could like two different set ups.

And that is why I went on the light side of things and then ramped up the spring weight (settings?) and oil height/weight until I got the one "I" liked.
And I would hate to buy some springs and find out that were the wrong ones for me.

Because you do this all day every day you would have a better feel for this.
And to me I see the numbers and understand them to a point, but do not always appreciate the difference that it will make to the handling of the bike.

BTW, we offer an exchange service on our springs. As another post has correctly pointed out everyone is different. If within a reasonable time frame the supplied spring(s) are ''not quite right'' we exchange at no further cost, except for local freight recoveries. I dont think any other suspension supplier in NZ does this?

[dangerous]

Blush
Dangerous how many beers do I owe you?

None... LOL you set me up with ya sis all them years ago

[Robert Taylor]

Thanks Robert I will be in touch soon. Looking fwd to seeing the options!

Re. the aircraft engineering issue. There's always going to be these balls ups and I've seen some things and I can't work out how they happened, ie. components mounted incorrectly as in your example. As you would know from being in the trade yourself, the human factors issue is always VERY real and it will always be there. I do believe that the "rough" approach has it's place and is most certainly required at some stage. Common sense ALWAYS has it's place alongside it, however. BTW I trained in civvy street (Air NZ) and our pass mark has always been 70%. It's always that 30% that we don't know...

Exactly, an even worse example is that the motor trades examination system has in past years required only a pass mark of 50%. So, you may accrue a mark of 47% which gets scaled to 50% so that the training institutions can show a certain percentage of training ''success'' through their system. So you fail 53% of the paper but still pass as a tradesman. This is no fairy tale, I was the examiner for Trade Cert and Advanced Trade Cert in Motorcycle Engineering for nigh on 10 years. Much to my disgust I evidenced this year in, year out.

[Pixie]

Thank you. It's interesting your comments Robert re. these people fixing aircraft, 'cos that's exactly what I do for a living. I do generally prefer the "correct" solution, but you would possibly be surprised how much of an imperfect discipline aero engineering can actually be...

Thanks again everyone, and keep the comments coming!

Uh oh,
I hear a can of worms being opened with an imported "as seen on TV"
can opener!