Well I finally got my fork cap in the other day and buttoned up my bike.
I was wondering how others set up their progressive springs becuase mine seem WAY stiff atm.  I put 15wt fork oil in at the recommended height of the prog springs instructions of 5.5 inchs from the top of the forks without springs in and used schedule 40 1/2 inch end caps that are right at 1inch long for spacers.

While testing them out they just seem really really stiff.  At one point I was rolling along at a low speed and grabbed a decent chunk of front brake to see how much the front would go down and to my surprise the rear wheel came up about a foot.  Thats right, I have officially done a stoppie on a GS500.
I tried it again just to make sure I wasn't imagining things and sure enough the rear wheel came up with the front barely sagging down.

How have others done their springs?  Would going back to 10wt fork oil make a huge difference?  Could I take out the 1 inch end caps? It seems like the fork cap itself would still compress the spring a tad to keep it from having free play.

YIKES take out the cap spacer...YIKES cap=poor poor man's progressive springs.

that should help it out alot....YIKES progressives and spacer geez I bet you felt every litle bump in the road

that's the way that forks are souppsed to feel.

Quote from: daviputhat's the way that forks are souppsed to feel.

Are you serious? I'm in the same situation after my progressive install with 1" pvc caps. The front is really stiff and there is close to no play. Bumpy roads make my jaw sore.

Should I take out the pvc caps?

you can take the pvc caps out. I'd recomend buying about a foot of pvc and cutting them to 3/4"   1/2"   and try different ones till they feel right to you.  mine are about 40 mm  and i am runnign 20wt oil.  then again I got some ass riding on those forks.

try a 10w oil, progressives get stiffer the more they compress. straight weights stay constant.


the lighter weight folk can use a lighter weight oil, we more rotund carbon units tend to need stuff like 30w

I think I found my main issue while reading over an older post.  I put the 15wt oil 5.5 inch from the top of the fork tube... but the fork was fully extended, not compressed!!!!  
Guess I'll be draining some forks again tommorrow morning and seeing what it feels like when I do it right.