Decided to get some work done in the "cave". With a nearly new set of 2009 forks, I decided to change the springs with progressives, then put those forks on Junior, my 1994 bike.
Then with more forks from the pile, I selected a good left and right (that had good seals) to replace those springs with 0.85's for another bike.
Well, to my surprise, I found different springs in the 2009 and the set of older forks. Anyone know if the middle spring is factory or a replacement? It is the one from the 2009 set.
The back spring is a 0.85. Middle one and spacer came out of the 2009 forks. The front one, which looks like a typical crappy spring, came out of an older pre 2000 fork.
Any ideas on the middle spring? OEM or a replacement?

PS: I have not removed the springs from Suzi to see if a 2009 has the middle spring as the stock spring. I will do that soon for 0.85's. Plan to replace them while on the bike. Since she is new, the fork oil should be good so I won't have to dump it out. I can use a fork on the bench to determine the right spacer length. I'll just have to be very clean when I do it on the bike and not drip fork oil on her.

My setup for replacing springs. Using a junk triple in a vise is a great way to hold a fork without scratching or denting it. I used a neodymium magnet on a long bolt to get the washer and spring out of the fork. Worked really well!

Change the oil anyway.  Factory is always questionable quantity and quality. 

OK, but what about the springs? That is my question.

It's difficult to tell whether the middle spring is equivelent to stock or not. I notice that the coil spacing is a little wider than the aftermarket spring, but closer than the stock spring. Coil thickness is inbetween as well.

Generally, fewer coils (wider spacing,) and thicker coils means stiffer spring. If you throw a calliper on the coil wire, measure the number of coils, and overall length, you could probably plug those numbers into a calculator to get an idea of how stiff the spring is without actually measuring it.

I guess we really won't know until I open up Suzi. She is stock 2009 so I'd know what stock 2009 springs are and whether the middle one is stock. I wonder if they went to a better spring in recent years?

The pre-load on the middle one was about an inch and a half above the top of the fork. The crappy spring was level with the top of the fork but had a 1.5" aluminum spacer added. I remember when we replaced Trey's springs, they were crappy with preload equal to the top of the fork tube. That's actually about what is suggested in the instructions for the Sonic springs and what was done for the progressive springs I bought off the board.

Keep in mind that when you screw in the fork caps you add about 3/4" of preload.

Quote from: burning1 on September 01, 2011, 06:37:43 PM
Keep in mind that when you screw in the fork caps you add about 3/4" of preload.

I am aware of that. I was mentioning the differences I saw in what was taken out. Still curious if the middle springs are OEM or after market and if they changed the springs in later years. That's really my question. As said, other things were comments on what I found in the different shocks when I removed the springs.

I got a couple of forks with 90% likelihood of containing OEM forks that I'm bringing over to your house in a couple days to swap springs to new Progressives. Be a good time to find out how they compare if you can wait!

Don't know what the middle spring is (I assume the top one is one of ours?) but you can get it's approximate rate using this calculator:
http://www.reliablespring.co.uk/calculator.htm

You can ignore the "compressed length" field.
Since the final number is in N/m divide by 9800 to get kg/mm

Or you can mail it to me and we'll measure it for you. 

Sorry, not your spring. Top one is a Sonic 0.85 spring.

Quote from: adidasguy on September 02, 2011, 10:21:41 AM
Sorry, not your spring. Top one is a Sonic 0.85 spring.

That's us...

Now we know who makes them for Sonic 
Oh, you are mentioned on Sonic the site! 
(Then you know I placed 2 orders with you)

OK - questions answered.
At some point Suzuki went to better springs. Suzi is a factory original. Took out the springs and put in 0.85's. Her OEM springs were the ones in the middle.
So there you have it - Suzuki went to better springs somewhere along the production line. Still, 0.85's are better than the new OEM's. However, there is no comparison to the old OEM's, as you can see in the photo.