I know that many owners of the KTM 990 send out their suspension to places like The Best KTM Motorcycle Suspension Possible: Super Plush Suspension Slavens Racing and others and they do a very good job of improving the stock suspension. The only problem that I see with doing this is your suspension will be a compromise. A well setup suspension for the desert will be terrible on a slow one track and the same goes for rocky terrain. I want the ability to tune my suspension for the terrain I'm going to be riding in and since work precludes any traveling this year the journey begins. These are the parts and special tools I'm using for the Job and I'm sure the first question most people will have is the cost. So here's a price list. Race Tech Suspension Bible: $23 Amazon Race tech Gold Valve Fork Kit G2-R Gold FMGV 2820G: $128.41 Amazon Super Plush Fork Springs spsf43-465--65: $144,95 KTM Twins G2 remote fork bleeder system: otf-ktm $69.95 KTM Twins Simrestacker software: $63 http://www.shimrestackor.com/index.htm Digital Micrometer Digital Caliper Ktm Hard equipment Fork cap removal tool: $24.99 KTM Twins Race tech Fork seal tool 48MM $63.28 Amazon Race Tech Fork Oil Level Tool $111.29 Amazon SKF Fork Seals: $67.50 Slaven racing Fork Bushings: $48 Slaven racing Fork oil as needed. Red Line 5w $9.95 a pint The forks haven't changed since 2003 so the manual you'll need for disassembly and assembly will be a 4860 MX multi Adjuster 2003. This is the manual that came on the CD for my 2011. The manual says to count the number of turns to the right of both the Rebound on the top of the fork and the compression adjuster at the bottom. What it doesn't tell you is you'll need to turn all four of the adjusters back to the left all the way to take the tension off of them. When it comes to disassembly of the compression holder at the bottom of the fork an impact wrench is the way to go. The other thing I found was that when it comes to disassembly my Rockwell vice worked great since it has rubber jaws! I did have to borrow the Queens little rubber cap remover from the kitchen to keep the cartridge tube from turning while unscrewing the sleeve. (Hope she doesn't miss it too much, LOL) Anyway if all you want to do is change out the seals and bushing you don't even have to mess with the cartridge. I'm ready to remove and measure all the stock shims so I can get a baseline from the restacker software and input all the data for the new valve and springs and see what it suggest. For those of you into dyno tuning www.valvinglogic.com provides an easy way to obtain accurate dyno data for the customized shim stack configuration the restacker software comes up with. Email your stack configuration to www.valvinglogic.com , they will install the stack in their suspension hardware and for about $60/stroke dyno test the stack and email the results back to you. No hardware shipping, no down time, no missed rides. Valving logic provides an easy method to obtain accurate dyno data for your suspension setup and something I may just do to prove to my pee brain just how well the restacker software really works. Well guys and girls that's where I am as of today and like I said in the beginning I'll be playing with this all year so if anyone is interested I'll update this thread as I go.
In. Just had the SPS treatment and very happy with it, but will obviously be looking to record optimum peronalized settings for the various types of rides I intend to make and loads I expect to carry. So this is all good stuff. I also dig the tidiness of your prep work and the [perhaps contradictory] way you didn't even feel the need to take your Kriega pack off the back of the bike to do the work! Thanks for taking the time to post. Michael P.S. Enjoyed your Flexx bars install piece too. I'll be doing mine in the next week or so.
I'll be watching this with interest. I did a little of my own experimentation, and I was/am quite happy with it (Link Here). If you're using the shim restacker software, I'd be interested to see how the shim stack I ended up with compares with what you end up with, and how it compares to stock and some other stacks I have records of. I keep the fork valving up to date on the google document I linked in that thread. What sort of fork feel/usage are you going for? I like a pretty stiff fork, with plenty of compression damping, and not much plushness, I like to feel what the terrain, and preserve suspension travel for the big hits, without the front end moving around too much on little bumps. Figuring out what you're looking for will help immensely, and it sounds like that's something you've already thought about.
Ooooohhh yeah... Just kinda assumed tie-downs were involved. Now that you mention it, I guess that explains the sack of fertilizer or wherever on there too.
Ductape. How did you mount your rigids with the high front guard? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Instagram@pvmoto
Cool, like I wrote work is going to take up this year so my suspension work/testing will be done on the weekends so please bare with me. I'm 6'2" and with all my gear on including my hydro pac filled weigh 200LBS. I run a tank bag that weighed in at 17LBS not including my Snake Slayer, ammo and Binochulars so lets round it up to 220 LBS. I'm going to be adding the Safari Tanks so I'll be testing and setting sag with the stock tanks full. The only time I ride on the street is to get fuel so I'm not going to concern myself with street behavior but rather the very rocky terrain with gulleys hidden by tall grass that I spend most of my time riding at. This environment produces very high velocities so this is where I'm going to start. Today I started making a little test coarse with some old 4X4 and 6X6 scrap post that I'm going use for the square edge bumps and as long as the drought continues I have a dry creek bed that has enough gulleys to test for bottoming. I've had your thread bookmarked for a few months now and it was one of the main deciding factors when I decided to do this myself, so thanks for that! The thing that sold me on the restacker software is that it's advertised by them (The bottom of every page) that posting/sharing of all their information online is legal and encouraged as long as they are given credit. So anyone that has a shim stack that they would like to see ran by the software just give me a shout and I'll need to know if you're using the stock valve or not (Spring would be nice too) since part of the equation are the area of the ports and one of the things I'm going to be measuring Saturday. Once again I'm no expert so I encourage everyone to not hesitate to chime in. The mount is Black Dog Cycle Works mount. You have to grind down the front of the mount in order for it to fit in the groove on the high fender and then you need longer bolts to make up for the mount thickness. If you don't have a grinder you could take the mount and fender down to your local mechanic or body shop and I' sure they could fit it for you. (the mount is hidden by the fender so neatness doesn't matter). Glad to help and man those bars really make a difference but I have had to relearn how to get the bike up on the centerstand, LOL. As for my Kriega tail bag that thing never comes off the bike. I have all my emergency gear in it and love the ease in which I can get stuff in and out of it. I bought some shaving kits (minus the shaving stuff) at Walmart and used them to create a first aid, electrical and flat tire kits with. Throw in the slime compressor, tire Irons, a couple of tubes and extra base layer clothing in another dry bag and I'm well prepared.
I want to try the ReStackor software. Does someone have the measurements for the stock KTM Adventure Fork valve bodies? I have all the other measurements/parameters. I'd have to pull a set of forks down to get these measurements. Has anyone on the forum used ReStackor for good, instead of evil? I have the specs for a lot of different KTM open chamber forks, like the Adventure, SE, SM, SMT, 690End, 500 EXC. I plan on trying to compare the damping curves vs. weight and spring on these. For example the 690End has a huge fork spring and a lot of compression damping, how would these specs work on an Adv? What if you scaled up the damping/spring on the 500 EXC to support the Adv? Edit> found it on Thumper Talk: http://www.thumpertalk.com/topic/792432-restackor/page-3 950 has the same valve dims as 990, 500 EXC, 690E, SE and lots of other OC forks.
I gave up on ReStackor software until winter. It just didn't work with freebie spread sheet programs and the Help documentation was very lacking. I'll try again with Micro-Sloppy-Wear.