| Author | Message | ||
     Aschem |
Any estimate on how many miles before fork springs need to be replaced on an XB with 43mm forks? | ||
| Froggy |
I've never heard of them wearing out. If someone is replacing them, it is usually for a different rate or crash repair. | ||
| Shoggin |
Theres no service interval for fork springs, and I've never heard of a set wearing out. But I'd highly recommend getting the right set for your fully geared and loaded weight, and your riding style. | ||
| Aschem |
Thanks, i thought I read in he service manual something about spring height and if shorter than recommended, then replace. Appreciate the fast replies. | ||
| Skipbarberman |
Fork Springs are coil springs, and by design, don't wear out, per se. They are heat treated and based on metallurgical design, will not wear out unless they come in contact with something and wear out or fail based on abrasion or fracture. Generally, coils can't be over or hyper-extended like a leaf, as they coil bind or stack, physically protecting them from type of failure. If you were racing at the highest levels, perhaps you could tell the difference. Or, measuring spring rate with an instrument on the same set of coil springs over a LONG period of time. As for riding on them in forks, 99% of the riders would never pick up on a 1 pound difference. As stated by Froggy, different spring rates or progressive rates, are typically the only reason to change them. Another old trick is to remove some of the coils (hack saw) for various reasons I won't go into here, and while that might change the free spring height, it won't change the rate. Hope this helps. | ||
| Shoggin |
Removing coils from a coils spring does change the free height of course. It also definitely raises the spring rate. Think about untwisting a coil until it's straight (a torsion bar). The shorter it is, the harder it will be to twist. If you want to lower the forks and keep the spring rate stock, use a different height spacer tube and plan on addressing the rear suspension or deal with rake changes that will make the steering drastically quicker and more unstable (to some, that's a good thing). Remember a Buell already has one of the tightest angles already!  And a note on cutting them with a hacksaw: Fork springs almost always have closed coils top and bottom. If you were to chop some off, that leaves an very weak open coil that has to over compress before contacting the rest of the stack. Pre-load isn't enough to do it. That means, what used to be a predictably slow spring rate increase, now starts at a much lower rate that increases drastically higher than stock very quickly. On a sportbike fork that sees a couple inches of travel only, thats a big deal. Like anything handling, opinions vary for whats "good" and "bad". Only your personal confidence level and lap times really count  | ||
| Skipbarberman |
Yeah, what he said. | ||
| Shoggin |
Sorry I got wordy... I'm a suspension dork   | ||
| Skipbarberman |
Me too, but you did a better job. | ||
| Mhlunsford |
I would recommend checking the fork oil level and valve adjustment unless you know the spring rate is wrong for you weight. |
