Premium Member 2and3cylinders Posted March 29, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted March 29, 2020 I tried to stay in touch with him too due to his health issues for such a young guy but alas he's not responded for quite a while. If you do talk to him, tell him Bret says hi. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) More research yesterday: the first and second pictures show the assembled stock compression cartridge. The spacer is shown above(and to the left of, sorry) the cart in an attempt to visually illustrate how much preload is on the spring when it’s assembled. I measured this to be around 20mm Stock cart is fully extended, but not under any spring pressure K-tech spring, spacer, spring collar, and cap assy upper. Lower part of pic is stock spring, collar, and cap assy. Illustrating the visual difference between how the stock fork WAS assembled and how long it was, VS K-tech length of install and why I’m back in here in the first place. (carts are not shown for clarity) After getting a clean glass container for the oil, I dumped it and drained the fork. Reassembled it dry with K-tech spring and then installed the spring retainer and cap. Pulled up lightly to simulate installed position and measured the gap where the spacer should be. Added 15mm to that length, measured and cut the K-tech spacer. It worked out to be exactly half. The black caps on both ends of the spacer have a slight lip on each of them that adds roughly 5mm total to the length of the spacer. So now it measures 55mm total. family time interrupted rest of work. Will bleed and set oil level, reassemble this fork and tear down the LH side to set it up similarly. more to come. thanks for all the feedback. -Skip Edited March 30, 2020 by skipperT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Wow! That spring is way longer... wonder if you were sent the wrong springs. '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member 2and3cylinders Posted March 31, 2020 Premium Member Share Posted March 31, 2020 Ho, terrible thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 I wondered that too, but the shipper included the stub of cardboard with the springs which showed the part number and spring weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 4 hours ago, skipperT said: I wondered that too, but the shipper included the stub of cardboard with the springs which showed the part number and spring weight. Have put the forks back together yet? Did cutting the spacer do the trick? Also, have you reached out to Ktech to get their advice? '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 6 hours ago, duhs10 said: Have put the forks back together yet? Did cutting the spacer do the trick? Also, have you reached out to Ktech to get their advice? Have not contacted K-tech. I feel like I shouldn’t, honestly, because the cartridges clearly say to be installed by specialist only. Exhausting everything I can on my own first.... -S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) So yesterday was a bit of a mess - turns out 55mm was not the accurate measurement I was hoping it would be... I cut the spacer, reassembled the fork and installed on the bike, and discovered I was missing about 20mm of travel. Meaning, I could pull the lower fork tube down to full extension 20mm from its resting position. So I messed up when measuring. I should have pulled the inner damping rod up FULLY and taken a measurement as opposed to bringing it up gently to a stop. Knowing that I probably needed a longer spacer, I pulled the other fork apart. After draining and cleaning, began by trimming the K-tech stock spacer (originally 115mm IIRC) and test fitting with no oil. To make a long story short, I wound up at 90mm in length total (including the black caps mentioned earlier). This resulted in almost full extension of the lower fork tube with zero preload. -continued- Edited April 1, 2020 by skipperT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) So forks were back on the bike today, set total Sag to 40-41 mm with 5.5 turns of preload needed. So that’s a big improvement over before, which was approx 28mm total sag with zero preload. i rechecked the sag in the rear as well. The shock must have really broken in over the last 800-1000 km or so. Sag was 65-70mm! So increased preload 3-4 turns getting me closer to 45-50mm of total sag in the rear. Probably looser than it should be, however I maxed out the preload available to me on the lower end of the shock. Need to remove the shock for access to the upper preload collar to get it more in the zone and I ran out of time. Test ride today was only the commute to work and back. But feels much better. At least I don’t feel as if the front end is being bounced around over bumps as before. Need to spend some more time tweaking but it’s a definite improvement. -Skip Edited April 1, 2020 by skipperT 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted April 1, 2020 Supporting Member Share Posted April 1, 2020 9 hours ago, skipperT said: Need to spend some more time tweaking but it’s a definite improvement. Glad to hear that you are finally at a workable starting point. Let the tweaking begin.😎👍 1 1 ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member piotrek Posted April 1, 2020 Supporting Member Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) Hey @skipperT, sounds like a bit of an adventure. FWIW, people upgrading springs on Andreani carts end up cutting spacers (compensate for longer springs) and playing with oil viscosity in the C-leg to adapt them for street use. Oil levels will make a difference too. Reports are positive in general. Looks like things are starting to come together for you. 👍 Edited April 1, 2020 by piotrek 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted April 2, 2020 Author Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) 21 hours ago, piotrek said: Hey @skipperT, sounds like a bit of an adventure. FWIW, people upgrading springs on Andreani carts end up cutting spacers (compensate for longer springs) and playing with oil viscosity in the C-leg to adapt them for street use. Oil levels will make a difference too. Reports are positive in general. Looks like things are starting to come together for you. 👍 Hey @piotrek thanks for the words. trimming spacers has made the biggest improvement, I only wish K-tech had mentioned that in the install instructions in the first place! I’m running a light Spectro shock oil with a low cst in the C leg instead of the recommended 5w, level set to 140mm. Seems pretty good now, tweaking is ongoing! Glad I tore the forks back apart! -Skip Edited April 2, 2020 by skipperT 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 9 hours ago, skipperT said: Hey @piotrek thanks for the words. trimming spacers has made the biggest improvement, I only wish K-tech had mentioned that in the install instructions in the first place! I’m running a light Spectro shock oil with a low cst in the C leg instead of the recommended 5w, level set to 140mm. Seems pretty good now, tweaking is ongoing! Glad I tore the forks back apart! -Skip Makes me wonder if I should have done that to the Ktech's when I had them. '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 I dips me lid to those crazy-brave souls who do this work themselves! Way back, probably around September 2019 BC (Before Corona) I posted some notes and a large number of pix discussing the installation in my GT of K-Tech suspension, front and back, with excellent results. Try as I might I cannot now locate these posts, but I'd like to access the pix in particular as there's discussion on ANOther Forum that I now (reluctantly) infest, and I'd like to add my two cents worth. TIA if someone can give me link. Best to all in these trying times... 1 1 Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 @wordsmith is this the thread you were thinking of? 1 '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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