Trials Bike Build/conversion?

[BikePilot]

On the forks yes, the trials forks are very soft and bouncy. They will bottom quite easily, but remember trials is generally very low speed so you don't ordinarily need much bottoming resistance. Same for the rear suspension. There is certainly some damping, but they are more springy than say the stock forks on the KTM or a typical dirt or street motorcycle. I'm not sure that its more preload really, but it might be. Mostly it feels like there is less damping (rebound and compression) than normal.

The RX135 looks like a fine starting point. Strip all the bodywork off, put on longer shocks and forks, fabricate a high-mount exhaust and fit trials tires and I'm sure you'll be able to have lots of fun on it.

For reference as far as bottoming, I was riding a section (for practice) a couple of weeks ago that had a drop off a rock to flat dirt that was probably about chest-high I'd guess. This was enough that both ends of the suspension bottomed out on the landing (no doubt in part due to my poor form). I'd guess that the suspension on the trials bike is a little softer than the stock suspension on a kawasaki KX80 motocross bike (kid's bike) in terms of spring rate and has quite a lot less rebound damping.