Soft front forks

[JR67]

Quick question: did anyone experiment with only adding a longer preload spacer to the front forks and up the fluid weight to 10W and perhaps raising the fluid level a bit? I have had reasonable good results with doing just that on a Guzzi Quota.

I am aware of all the possible options and that the stock springs are too soft like 0.71 kg/mm and need to be 0.88 for my weight(210) but I am always curious about cheap fixes that are ok-ish for now :)

I raised the forks a bit to account for a higher front tire (110/90 instead of 110/80) and found that with braking on my potholed street I could bump the dust seal against the lower triple clamp. Not good. Dropped the forks back down of course.
I read the how to posts about fork spring replacement but would like to hear from the people that just used what's already in there.

[K1300S]

those are not cheap fixes for wrong spring rate.  preload, spring rate and dampening(shock oil wt) are three different elements of suspension.

preload - does not make a spring stiffer.  it just adjusts initial height.

spring rate - this is what changes the nature of handling.  changes the load/impact handling of the suspension.

damper - (oil wt) this only changes the RATE at which impacts are absorbed and released.  it does not affect the effective spring rate.

three different elements of keeping the tire connected to the road.

changing springs IS the easy, cheap fix.......

[JR67]

Thanks very much guys for the info.
I am fairly well versed in the theory of suspension but always rode with what I had. Alternating between my 'suspension is in the tires' Guzzi LeMans and the bouncy castle Quota 1000. So with me adding spacers and heavier fluid to the Quota, it went from me being able to lock the front wheel at any speed to not being able to lock the front at all anymore, because frankly the Grimeca calipers were crap and faded often. Ride quality after that was good enough for me. So that was a quick fix and great results for under $20.

With the LT I realize the springs are too soft, but there is no high speed riding around here and because of the poor state the roads are in, soft is not necessarily bad. So ride height must be fixed first. Hence the preload spacer question. I was wondering what spacers alone would do, or if I would completely waste my time. Sound like the latter by what Johnny is writing....
Thing is here in Canada stuff is hard to find, shipping almost never free and the US dollar is high compared to our local sheckels.

[JR67]

Ok so I punched the Racetech spring number into Ebay and funny thing is that the spring size is used in 121 different models ranging from Harley's to Honda's and Kawasaki's..... So I got my homework cut out for me, checking what model bike has a heavier spring than the 0.71kg/mm than the LT has stock. Racetech has the stock spring rates listed on their site. Hoping that I find something that I can purchase locally, perhaps even from the motorcycle wrecker around the corner...... I know you will disagree hahaha
To be continued.

[JR67]

Awesome! Thanks
You Da King

[JR67]

So I am just following up on my own post here.
What I did this eve was to read up on how to open up the forks to reach the pre-load spacers and found a link on K11OG.
http://www.k11og.org/tech/k11tech_springs_install.shtml
They recommend having 3 people for the job......yeah, right.

Long story short, the quick route is:
1) lock the front brake with a few wraps of electrical tape around the lever and grip
2) undo the two allen bolts of the handlebar tupperware and move it out of the way a bit
3) get your 30mm socket out and remove the fork caps, no need to loosen the fork clamp bolts
4) put the bike on the side stand with a piece of wood under the foot to level it a bit
5) put a garage jack under the other side of the engine and raise the bike up until the front wheel is a thou off the ground
6) grab a hacksaw and make a thingy out of a 1.25" piece of PVC pipe
7) insert a 4mm bolt with a piece of string into the damper rod
8) use the PVC thingy and a 2 foot C-clamp to compress the spring
9) drop the jack, pull up on the string and fish the little retainers out
10) lift the perforated top disc and voila there is the pre-load spacer.

I added 20mm worth of stainless washers on top of the spring(why 20mm? 'cause it sounded like a good idea), inserted the pre-load spacer and went through step 1-10 in reverse order. Did the same for the other side of course. A quick test ride showed that I gained some ride height and won't bottom out as easily as before. (see the tiewrap on the fork leg). I'll do some proper braking over potholes later to verify. So far a quick fix to raise the soft forks. I might fish out the washers later and cut some longer pre-load spacers if I am happy enough with the results. For now I am only interested in being able to brake hard without bottoming out and locking the front wheel on bumpy roads. If I achieve that with more pre-load then I am happy for now.

[JR67]

Short update; my ghetto upgrade of the front forks by adding preload with 20mm of washers and using the original spacer(95mm), worked out well so far. I assume there is still 7.5 weight fluid in there.
Ramming the bike with 30-40mph over speed bumps a few times, while full on the front brakes, bottomed the forks out and locked the front wheel shortly(I still have some reflexes :mbird ), confirming the listed max front fork travel is indeed around 5.3" (135mm).
Jumping the speed bumps with out braking and hard braking over regular potholes happens without a 'clunk' so I guess more time in the seat at higher speeds will tell me if I will upgrade to 0.9kg/mm springs or stick with the stock ones.

[JR67]

As per my previous pics :)