Been thinking- fork swap

[rgranger]

Oh yeah, I am adventurous, but I turn out more like Mr. Magoo, I fix one thing and break two So this is not something that the gold valve or other magic parts from racetech would help?

[GMP]

Problem is the piston has so much free bleed it bypasses the effect of the adjuster, thats why it feels the same especially moving the damper rod by hand. Some guys I know have filled the hole with JB Weld so its like a Husky Zoke and started over with the stack. I did my brothers Husky and it ended up with less shims than the GG to feel right.

[Keg]

Just a little update on fork swaps. I 'believe' that 2011 48mm Showas fit straight into the Sachs 48mm triple clamps. You just need a Honda axle, crush tube, custom bearings and spacers.

[BrentMartell]

Glenn are you refering to the little hole on the piston? Did you just fill this hole and leave all else the same or did you also remove the spring activated blow off. I am not sure if I got the terms right. My forks are not running that blow off valve/spring anymore. My dealer removed it and installed spacers and built a stack. That is the base to which I began my experimenting.


RG- I do not believe there is any US manufactures who have pistons made for the 45. RT does not show a piston. My local suspension guy contacted them as well with no new info for up and coming pistons.

[GMP]

Brent,

Yes, the small bleed hole. I left it as I was able to get a decent result for my rock focused setup, but your results may vary. If your still not happy try blocking it. Thats how the Husky forks are, otherwise the same piston setup.

I built a mid valve stack, but use the spring behind the stack so I have some float, around 1.4mm. Works good in rocks that way and keeps the front end up a little more in the bigger stuff. If I rode mostly fast sand I'd tighten it up even more. I know from a couple fast HS races I did this fall it could be stiffer, but I need it tolerable in the real nasty stuff. Maybe your too tight? Easy to go too far with MVs.

[BrentMartell]

I have .030 free float if I remember correctly. You could be right though. Man it has been since just after the Texas qualifier I had the forks apart. I just dealt with it and rode the bike. I was more focused on Finland than worrying about forks. They actually worked pretty well. Just not as refined as I would like.

[Tlineman]

[QUOTE=BrentMartell;77918]You are not alone. Fortunately ppl feel like the GG and feel it is worth the effort to buy. Unfortunately there are not enough suspension experts that have had worked on them with the 45' and most will not tell you what they are doing to make them work better.

A few of us were not getting the help we needed and said screw it, I'll do it myself. I was forced into it, I didn't want to do it. In many ways I am happy I did because now I know considerably more, which may not be saying much. been done with it. QUOTE]

You nailed it here. I'm in the same boat. I got tired of driving 3 hours to my tuner, and getting him to play with these things. The truth be told is that I don't think that anyone really knows a fix. My tuner does have different pistons for these 45's. I've got them install in my base valves and apparently they are the same dimensionally as the MV piston.

One things I am getting done here is I've sent my damper rod away to get recoated with a T3 anodized type of coating. The Damper rods stock has little to nothing for a coating and a quick wipe with a scoth brite pad removed what little was left. I believe that this was causing some severe oil fouling issues with the fork.

About 4 of us here in Kamloops are doing the same thing. Its interesting to note that we pulled apart a set of 45's off and 10 250F and the damper rods already had a gold anodized coating on them. It seems that Marzocchi made a change and cheaped out for us with the 11's.

The free bleed hole does have my attention though. Its only a 1mm hole so I find it quite hard to believe that it could make that much of a difference by blocking it. I'm gonna try it though.

BTW thanks to Widebear for organizing the T3 anodizing for those of us here in Kam. To bad he got banned from the site as he has a lot of good info to share..........

[MrBlah]

he's able to post on TT in the exotic forum

how much is the recoat going to cost?

[BrentMartell]

I would like to know the cost as well. This is exactly what I said the first time I had my forks apart and my oil looked like 5000 mile engine oil. I was nasty. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about. I suspect the rods were not coated and if they were it was gone within the first 100 miles.

I did ride the bike yesterday and had a chance to compare it to a Honda 450R. The Honda soaked up all the big hits and did OK in the rocks. Mine soaked up the rocks and used more of the suspension but did not feel as linear. My bike takes the bigger hits OK but it just feels edgy and unrefined. I think it is time to bring the shock up to the level of the forks at the same moving the forks up a couple of levels. I am pretty sure I will be sending it all to EE and starting over. I know what I want, just not sure of how to get there.

[GMP]

Brent,

There is also the consideration that you are comparing a CC fork with an OC fork. If your a real fast guy hitting stuff hard the CC fork should be better because the oil is kept under pressure and dampning more consistant. Not saying this is the answer but certainly is a factor. If you were keeping the bike perhaps the fork swap would be a better option at your level and speed.