QUOTE(Stink-Foot @ Tue 18th Apr 2006, 10:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Well I finally got all the Race Tech stuff necessary for a front fork revalving and spent an afternoon rebuilding the forks. My '95 3VD has now 0.85 kg/mm linear front springs and Gold Valves shimmed according to RT's recommendations. The instructions were pretty general and I doubt they've field tested a rare beast like the TDM very thoroughly. After pulling the damper assembly apart installing the gold valves was pretty straightforward.
I took photos along the way. I'm sorry they are huge but I don't know how to compress them without loosing too much of the quality.
Gold Valves and shims This is just about all there was in the Gold Valve package (instructions and stickers aren't shown). The paper is a printed copy of the Digital Valving Search results.
Here are the the Gold Valves. Notice the hole you have to drill through them. Mine was 1.3mm.
After removing the allen bolt at the bottom of the forks the damper assembly should come out. The compression valve is at the bottom of the damper assembly but I removed the rebound piston (together with the damper rod) too to clean everything thoroughly. The compression piston and damper rod sleeve were fastened with Loctite to the damper tube so I had to use heat to get them off.
Here's the original compression piston. There are no bending shims, just the valve and a thick shim that acts as a oneway valve. The damping is created only by the original valve.
The Gold Valve uses a shim stack to control the damping. The Gold Valve sits on top of the shim stack, then there's a larger shim held down by a spring that acts as a oneway valve. Here's the complete compression piston with Gold Valves, and an another picture.
I used 15W fork oil just as RT recommended. The first impressions of the suspension were mixed. It was absolutely brilliant when hitting large bumps, I could easily ride over a speed bump without slowing down at all, the front just glides over them with no shocks at the bars whatsoever. But it was a lot harsher than original when going over small holes or cracks in the road. Maybe I wasn't pushing it hard enough, I've only ridden a few hundread km's this spring and the engine is still being broken in after a rebuild. But still it seems too stiff and I don't feel confident at all when hitting rough tarmac while leaned over. I think it's mostly becouse of too much rebound damping, the Gold Valves don't affect the rebound but the 15W oil does. Even with the external adjusters all the way out it seems too stiff.
Adjusting the damn things is a pain, You have to pull the forks completely apart just to adjust them. I think I'll try the easy way first and change to 10W oil. It should soften the rebound damping and hopefully compression too.
I took photos along the way. I'm sorry they are huge but I don't know how to compress them without loosing too much of the quality.
Gold Valves and shims This is just about all there was in the Gold Valve package (instructions and stickers aren't shown). The paper is a printed copy of the Digital Valving Search results.
Here are the the Gold Valves. Notice the hole you have to drill through them. Mine was 1.3mm.
After removing the allen bolt at the bottom of the forks the damper assembly should come out. The compression valve is at the bottom of the damper assembly but I removed the rebound piston (together with the damper rod) too to clean everything thoroughly. The compression piston and damper rod sleeve were fastened with Loctite to the damper tube so I had to use heat to get them off.
Here's the original compression piston. There are no bending shims, just the valve and a thick shim that acts as a oneway valve. The damping is created only by the original valve.
The Gold Valve uses a shim stack to control the damping. The Gold Valve sits on top of the shim stack, then there's a larger shim held down by a spring that acts as a oneway valve. Here's the complete compression piston with Gold Valves, and an another picture.
I used 15W fork oil just as RT recommended. The first impressions of the suspension were mixed. It was absolutely brilliant when hitting large bumps, I could easily ride over a speed bump without slowing down at all, the front just glides over them with no shocks at the bars whatsoever. But it was a lot harsher than original when going over small holes or cracks in the road. Maybe I wasn't pushing it hard enough, I've only ridden a few hundread km's this spring and the engine is still being broken in after a rebuild. But still it seems too stiff and I don't feel confident at all when hitting rough tarmac while leaned over. I think it's mostly becouse of too much rebound damping, the Gold Valves don't affect the rebound but the 15W oil does. Even with the external adjusters all the way out it seems too stiff.
Adjusting the damn things is a pain, You have to pull the forks completely apart just to adjust them. I think I'll try the easy way first and change to 10W oil. It should soften the rebound damping and hopefully compression too.
