Softing up the front suspension

Most of the bikes I have owned seem to be very harsh on the fire roads and rocky trails I ride. A friend of mine had dialed his WR's suspension in and I wanted to duplicate his efforts. I basically took all the shims out of the front forks compression piston which are taken out via the bottom of the forks. Some will poo poo this, but if it feels good it must be right.



Shims Removed

For the guys that like to hammer it this mod may not work for you but if you like to run down the rocky trails
at modest speeds and are willing to slow down for the big stuff, this mod works great and costs vertually nothing.

We have to credit John Brooks of Southwest Suspension for suggesting this mod...http://swsuspension.com/

How hard is it to pull all that out from the bottom of the forks? Do you need to do anything else first, like loosen the top side? Will the springs try to come flying out of there? I want to soften mine up and increase my sag since I only weigh 140#.

zone47 wrote:

How hard is it to pull all that out from the bottom of the forks? Do you need to do anything else first, like loosen the top side? Will the springs try to come flying out of there? I want to soften mine up and increase my sag since I only weigh 140#.

Looks like John Brooks will have to fill you in on the details.












I am on my Droid right now. When I get to a computer I will give the details unless John chimes in first.

You have to remove the forks. Flip them upside down. Remove the little rubber plug, if it is still there, it keeps the dirt and muck out of that area. Clean out any debris that is down inside the area because once you remove the fitting that holds the shim stack any debris in that area can fall down into the internals of the fork. Now comes the slightly difficult part. We used an electric impact driver with the proper hex key socket on the end (don't know the size). You need a second set of hands to compress the forks some to put pressure on the piece you are removing. Use the impact or some other means to turn the fitting. Once it breaks loose release the pressure and let the fork extend otherwise you are going to see old faithful in your garage. Now remove the shims as outlined above and reassemble. Also now would be a good time to replace your fork fluid. Mine was extremely dirty after 8,000 miles. If you do change the fork fluid you have to put some in and burp the fork by compressing it and releasing to get the fluid in the fork.

dwsmith wrote:

You have to remove the forks. Flip them upside down. Remove the little rubber plug, if it is still there, it keeps the dirt and muck out of that area. Clean out any debris that is down inside the area because once you remove the fitting that holds the shim stack any debris in that area can fall down into the internals of the fork. Now comes the slightly difficult part. We used an electric impact driver with the proper hex key socket on the end (don't know the size). You need a second set of hands to compress the forks some to put pressure on the piece you are removing. Use the impact or some other means to turn the fitting. Once it breaks loose release the pressure and let the fork extend otherwise you are going to see old faithful in your garage. Now remove the shims as outlined above and reassemble. Also now would be a good time to replace your fork fluid. Mine was extremely dirty after 8,000 miles. If you do change the fork fluid you have to put some in and burp the fork by compressing it and releasing to get the fluid in the fork.

Ahh Ha!! Reminds me of maintenance on my old IT175 years ago. Thanks for the detailed info. I think what I'll do is put another 1,000 miles on it and then change things out. I only have 900 miles as is. I'll have to research and see what oil is the best to use.

I was all hot get some gold valves...but this little mod did the trick for me.