My racebike came with a set of RVF400 upside down forks on it. They are leaking (the bike came with new seals) so I need to rebuild them. Since I'm going to have them partially apart anyway, does anyone have recommendations for the setup of these on an NSR?
Thanks! _________________ Craig
MC21 SP Rothmans
MC21 R fake Rothmans - track bike
MC21 SE R9N
Mine are standard apart from lighter fork oil, I have 7.5 weight instead of 10 weight fork oil I cant remeber the height but I think it was the standard recomended height.
Forks are 5mm through the yolks* (measured from top of yolk to top of fork cap)
I know a lot of people go for a revalve because the rvf is a heavier bike, but the percieved wisdom is that the grey import bikes are a bit undersprung for most westerners anyway. I guessed the increase in rider weight would balance out the decrease in bike weight, I weigh 12 stone........honest
To be fair its still a little on the firm side and my front suspension data logger (okay its a cable tie) tells me I'm not using the full travel but its not far off.
I changed the seals in my RVF400 forks the other week so if you come across any snags during the job i should be able to help you, Craig.
I re-filled mine with Ohlins 1310-01 oil. It apparently works better from cold and is more 'slippery' than rival fork oils, so i'm told anyway (its dear though). I measured 300ml per leg when i drained them to start with. Now, i found figures online that reckoned the standard fill capacity is 445ml per leg, but the fork had been performing fine on 300ml per leg so i re-filled again to that. Evidence of 300ml being a good fill level is that my suspension data logger (cable tie like Paul g's) shows i use about 80% of the fork's travel on the brakes at the moment. As i get faster i might end up braking harder and getting close to bottoming them out - at which time i'll try reducing the air gap in the forks by putting more oil in them to stiffen the forks up at the end of their stroke.
Other than that mine are standard - i'm still using the wire circlip things that stop the handle bars slipping down the forks. I found that the RVF triple clamps bring the front wheel closer into the bike than the standard NSR fork so i ended up with clearance problems with my engine! I was running the 300kit with standard plugs and caps originally and my racing wet tyres have a higher profile than my drys so under heavy braking the front tyre was touching the front plug cap! I've since started using an RS250 plug and cap (also very dear) on the front cylinder only which is much lower profile and no longer gets close enough to make contact with the tyre.
Besides that you just need to be setting the static sag. There'll be an article online describing how to do it im sure. Infact i'd imagine there'll be a youtube video on it! _________________ After years of moaning about immigrants now i am one...
The standard set up is 445cc or 74mm air gap of 10 weight oil.
I think the free length of the rvf fork is maybe a couple of mm shorter than the nsr and the offset is about the same.
I think the clearance problem Hermit had is more down to the head, barrell spark plug combination than the fork offset. I'm told this can happen on a standard nsr with the rear/front head conversion if a standard plug is used.
The RVF yolks are wider set and will foul the rad cap so you need to reduce the steering lock.
Definetely worth playing with oil heights and weight and even softer springs though before you go for a revalve. I wonder how much of the improvement people feel after a revalve is as much down to the fact the forks/shock just needed a service and oil change in the first place?
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