FZR250 bucket suspension

**speedpro** · 8th February 2008, 12:17

Little help and advice please. I’m putting together a FZR250 (3LN) chassis as a bucket. The front forks have about 150mm travel which is lots more than another bucket I rode in the weekend that handled superbly. Question is, should I restrict the travel to say about 75mm whilst I have the forks in pieces and, apart from fitting emulators, is there any other mods that would be worth doing? I was thinking of fitting say a 75mm spacer over the top-out spring and cutting a similar amount from the main spring preload spacer. I’m running 3LN wheels front and rear, 2.75” and 3.5” with a single large disc off the earlier model with a late model 4 pot calliper and slicks both ends.

Any thoughts on the rear shock would be appreciated as well. Stock currently but with the major weight reduction not right I would think.

**F5 Dave** · 8th February 2008, 16:50

I would have thought 90mm would be about right, it is a bigger bike, might need a touch more travel. Also look very carefully at the bottoming cones. Shorter travel is going to end up there. Some mod by drilling 1/2 way to reduce the effect till later. Some fit bottoming springs. But there are other alternatives.

Typically yams are very softly sprung. Yours will be considerably lighter than stock though so will have to trial fork travel.

**Slingshot** · 8th February 2008, 16:57

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Typically yams are very softly sprung. Yours will be considerably lighter than stock though so will have to trial fork travel.

I'm not sure that stuffing the forks with yams is appropriate, they'll rot pretty quickly which will probably give you too much travel.

**F5 Dave** · 8th February 2008, 17:01

I was being fa-sea-fish.

Yams are out of season.

Maybe parsnip?

**diesel pig** · 8th February 2008, 22:09

I agreed with F5, 90mm would be better. Early RS125 have 90mm fork travel and they are the sweetest handling small bike I have ridden. A other thing to keep in mind is removing coils from a spring rises the spring rate, making the spring firmer.

**speedpro** · 13th February 2008, 21:44

Progress at last, straight triple clamps, straight forks assembled with the more desireable damper rods, springs and spacers. A wheel that fits and matches the rear one with a decent size disc and RS125 brake master cylinder and caliper. Specs - 2.75 X 17 FZR wheel, 320mm disc, and RS brakes.

Motor in next.

**Ivan** · 13th February 2008, 22:16

I spots me a RS125 in your picture under blanky

**F5 Dave** · 14th February 2008, 08:28

& a KX . . .

**Ivan** · 14th February 2008, 17:32

Not under the Blanky tho

**F5 Dave** · 15th February 2008, 08:41

no kidding, the RS has stayed a night or so in my lockup, but I thought the KX was interesting. Time to become an MX dad huh Mike?

**speedpro** · 15th February 2008, 19:27

We're working on it. PW50 to KX80. Had 2 little plays at the beach and he's changing gears nicely and riding in the power. Need to find a nice grassy paddock to play in for a bit more practice and then off to the forest. I need to sort something to follow him around.

**Buddha#81:Me** · 15th February 2008, 20:10

Originally Posted by speedpro

We're working on it. PW50 to KX80. Had 2 little plays at the beach and he's changing gears nicely and riding in the power. Need to find a nice grassy paddock to play in for a bit more practice and then off to the forest. I need to sort something to follow him around.

This sould keep up with the little buggar http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-140620232.htm

**speedpro** · 3rd March 2008, 19:25

Progress is being made. Motor is transplanted and all connected - throttle, clutch, chain, and ignition. Rear tyre is fitted and just pricing up new (probably) Bridgestone slick for the front. Will probably run with the steel rear subframe to start but it's definitely being replaced with something lighter. The pipe isn't properly mounted yet but it's close. As soon as RT gives me a price I'm ordering emulators for it. Some sort of fuel container is the only bit left to sort out that I'm not sure what I'll do yet..