Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original
KX forks
1989kawasaki:
--- Quote from: jkindt on October 30, 2011, 01:38:32 PM ---What is involved in revalving? Is this something I can do myself? How do I know what it needs? I have never actually bothered changing anything, just change the oil and bleed the air. Of course I have never had a bike that I thought was worth setting up properly....
--- End quote ---
you should just send the forks away to a suspension shop cause revalving with all the shim stacks sounds too complicated to me.
Polar-Bus:
--- Quote from: jkindt on October 30, 2011, 01:38:32 PM ---What is involved in revalving? Is this something I can do myself? How do I know what it needs? I have never actually bothered changing anything, just change the oil and bleed the air. Of course I have never had a bike that I thought was worth setting up properly....
--- End quote ---
You really need to justify spending your hard earned money. I'm willing to bet the stock OEM '89 forks after a fluid change and possibly a set of springs to match your weight will suffice for the intended use of a casual weekend KX500. You go spending hundreds of dollars on a upgraded front end (a revalve at minimum is going to cost you $300) . You need to honestly ask yourself am I going to truly feel a positive difference ? If you were competitively racing your 500 now the money spent becomes more justifiable. In my 30 years of being around young dirt bikers the #1 mistake I observe is people that spend huge money on bling and performance when they are only novice weekend riders... (I am NOT implying you are a novice weekend rider, i'm simply throwing out some opinioniated observations ). Just think before you spend...
jkindt:
Totally agree. I wouldn't know the difference. I am not a racer, never been, never will be. I wasn't even looking for such a big bike until this deal came along. I do want to clean it up and set it up for me, but it won't be my main bike at this point. I am still looking for a deal on a KX250 that would be my main ride. This would be my 'I got a bigger bike than you' bike to pull out now and then to show off on.
1989kawasaki:
--- Quote from: Polar-Bus on October 30, 2011, 10:35:27 PM ---
--- Quote from: jkindt on October 30, 2011, 01:38:32 PM ---What is involved in revalving? Is this something I can do myself? How do I know what it needs? I have never actually bothered changing anything, just change the oil and bleed the air. Of course I have never had a bike that I thought was worth setting up properly....
--- End quote ---
You really need to justify spending your hard earned money. I'm willing to bet the stock OEM '89 forks after a fluid change and possibly a set of springs to match your weight will suffice for the intended use of a casual weekend KX500. You go spending hundreds of dollars on a upgraded front end (a revalve at minimum is going to cost you $300) . You need to honestly ask yourself am I going to truly feel a positive difference ? If you were competitively racing your 500 now the money spent becomes more justifiable. In my 30 years of being around young dirt bikers the #1 mistake I observe is people that spend huge money on bling and performance when they are only novice weekend riders... (I am NOT implying you are a novice weekend rider, i'm simply throwing out some opinioniated observations ). Just think before you spend...
--- End quote ---
thats true.
jkindt:
So I have spent some time comparing parts diagrams between the KX500 and KX125 between the various late '80s and early '90s bikes. It appears I may not be out of luck with these forks after all. I thought I was getting 91-93 KX500 forks, instead I got 91-93 KX125 forks. I will have to respring them anyways, so that's not a big deal. I thought I could just bolt the forks on and use my old brakes and front wheel. It now seems that even if it had been the KX500 forks, I still need the newer brakes because they bolt up to the fork differently than the '89 conventional forks. The only thing I can see different is that I will end up with solid handlebar mounts instead of rubber mounted ones. I have the bike down to just a frame with forks, so I will pull the forks and see if the USD forks fit my frame and if my wheel bolts up. lt will be easier to get a new brake caliper than another set of forks. AND I can brag about genuine Pro Circuit forks on my bike!!! :lol:
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version