I just had new springs (RaceTech 0.8kg), new fork oil (15W) and new tires (Perilli Sport Demon) put on. Before I had stock spring/fork oil/Maxxis Promaxxis tires.
Before I got my bike back yesterday, I was expecting a lot. Night and day difference? Rides like a new bike? Well, not really, more like "noticeable difference". I weigh 170 (without gear) and have a gentle, fluid riding style. The stock front spring, although a little soft, didn't bother me that much. With the new set up, the dive is noticeably less, the front end is more firm (as expected), the whole bike feels less "loose". I did some parking lot practice (figure-8 and hard stops) during the day, and went for a 5 hour night ride in the hills. If I had to put a number on this, I'd say, feels like 25% improvement with the new set up. Still rides like a GS, which was pretty good in the first place.
Edit:
I might add that I ride fairly conservatively on streets so it's probably well within the limits of either set up. Someone pushing harder may notice the difference more than I did.
I'm sorry to hear you had such a small change. When I did changed to .90, 15w and a kat shock the difference was astronomical. From hardly ridable to riding like it was on rails. However, I weigh 190 with gear, my rear shock had blown out and I like to ride my bike pretty hard on occasion. I don't feel a difference only when I ride hard, I could feel the difference even when turning the bike a little bit.
Well, I'd say 25% improvement is a worthwhile change; front end felt more stable in higher speed cornering in the hills. It's just that my '01 GS worked pretty well for me in the first place. With gear I'm about 185, so our weight aren't that different. If your GS was "hardly rideable", with a blown shock, then what you described and experienced was more like a repair rather than an upgrade?
I've been searching the wiki for Info on how to make this upgrade. And the best springs for my set up. I was thinking about going progressive nut the website giving on the wiki sucked and I couldn't find the part number. So then I thought about going sonic linear springs, but I feel I need a stiffer spring than 1.0 kg/ mm but I don't know for sure, I weigh 250, or roughly 120 kg. I read somewhere that the resistance on the linear springs increases exponentially but that baffled me, if they are linear they can't be exponential. I already have a kat shock in the rear adjusted to the 4th preload position. Any advice from you guys. Or a better explanation of the linear springs?
Linear spring's rate is just "linear" – does not change through out its range of travel. Progressive spring's rate is "progressive", or "exponential", soft initially, and gets progressively/ exponentially stiffer as it compresses. From what I've read, linear springs are better for a more specific weight range (like if it's just you riding your bike), while progressive springs are a compromise, used to deal with a big range of different weight (like what the mfr would put on to deal with customers of vastly different weight).
For a 250 lb rider (without gear), street use, Race Tech spring rate calculator recommends 0.9mm/kg fork springs.
Link to Race Tech spring rate calculator:
http://old.racetech.com/evalving/SpringRateCalculation/dirtspring.asp?brand=Suzuki&yr=01-03&ml=GS500&formuse=form1&SpringType=Fork
By the way, I see Sonic Springs mentioned a lot here on gstwin.com and svrider.com, but when I asked about people's opinion of Sonic Springs (why it's always cheaper than Race Tech springs) in local (SF Bay Area) motorcycle forums, I was surprised to learn that a lot of people (including some well known local motorcycle suspension shop guys) never heard of Sonic Springs. I didn't realize Sonic Springs is a much smaller and much less known outfit, while Race Tech is a widely known company in the suspension component business.
thank you, that just means I need to check my sources more when doing research, haha. I appreciate the help, now if I can find a decent schematic on install, the wiki one didnt seem to work for me all that well.
Sonicsprings.com (http://www.sonicsprings.com/catalog/calculate_spring_rate.php) has a calculator. I think someone from the company posts here from time to time as well. Don't remember his name though.
With the new tires and front end upgrade, and a couple of hours of focused parking lot practice doing tight circles, fig-8s, and hard stops, I've been riding my GS a lot more aggressively for the last few days. The down side of riding the GS aggressively is that you begin to wish for more power... This makes me want to upgrade the tires/suspension on my SV and ride the SV more.
Quote from: Gary856 on February 03, 2010, 05:59:54 PM
With the new tires and front end upgrade, and a couple of hours of focused parking lot practice doing tight circles, fig-8s, and hard stops, I've been riding my GS a lot more aggressively for the last few days. The down side of riding the GS aggressively is that you begin to wish for more power... This makes me want to upgrade the tires/suspension on my SV and ride the SV more.
+1
+10
+100 :cry:
:icon_mrgreen: