Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original

Suspension - Hi Speed Comp vs Comp vs Springs

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Sharc:
I'll re-check the SAG tonight cuz it looks a little weird. Darryl at ACME (great guy) said to set the static at 1 - 1.25 and forget the race sag.
Here's the specs:

0.43 Fork springs, 10mm preload, oil level 100mm, Maxima 5 wt.
5.8Kg shock spring, 150psi nitro, medium shock oil.
Static Sag - 1 1/16, race sag - 3 9/16

Shock Upper - 9, Lower 10

Fork Upper - 12, lower 13

It feels soft in back in the whoops, stiff in front in the rocks, and both front and rear feel harsh in the middle on high impacts - much more in the front than the back...

MIKECALDERA:
100mm from the top is too muchfor your bike and you, 110-120mm should work. Can you ask "how many cc's does that equal in your forks?" usually 4-5 inches depending on stiffness.

175lbs of nitrogen not 150lbs...oh boy. Get 175 in there right away. 150 is soft. Preload can help but get 175 and see the difference.
I do both rear and front myself and its always better than anybody else.

Next time do it yourself. It will be cheaper and better.

Mike

mikesmith:
"Next time do it yourself. It will be cheaper and better."

You revalve your self or just rebuild?If you do your own revalve how about a write up/how to,that would be good to know.

MIKECALDERA:
I  have a pdf but its 12 megs compressed because of the pics in it. Send email to me and ill send it to you. Mikecaldera@optonline.net I don't touch the valves because it's perfect with correct oil/air ratio. I tried to upload the pdf here but it won't let me even upload 1 meg. Anyway when you see hou I did it you'll see its really easy and not worth 300 bucks with shipping to send it out.

Rick:
Guess I'm getting in a little late, but thought I should chime in as well.

Daryl at ACME has access to the suspension dyno's at Kawasaki, which I don't think others here can match.  He has also tuned for almost every fast off road rider in America, and has been making the KX500 go fast for as long as a lot of us have been riding.  In a nut shell, the guy has forgotten more about tunning a KX than most of us will ever know.

I, too, have spent a lot of time in the desert revalving both my own shocks and forks, but when it was time to race with the big dogs, Daryl got the nod for the go fast tuning.

Here are my thoughts:  Daryl does like the lighter springs in the front than I prefer, so you, too, might be happier with the .46 springs.  He also likes the rear a little stiffer than I prefer, and like Paul, I run a 5.4.  However, leave your oil level at 100mm in the front.

I suspect the solution to your problems are in the clickers.  Your fork compression looks pretty good, so start with your fork rebound.  Only make one change at a time, and do all of your tuning on a section of trail with which you are familiar and can ride fast.  Your shock compression looks to be too little, while your rebound is too much, but this is going to depend a lot upon your riding position.  If you ride over the bars, you're probably transfering too much weight to the front of the bike.  Drop the shock compression a couple of clicks, and increase the rebound for starters.

If all else fails, call Daryl and give him details on where it does not work, on what type of terrain, and at what speed.  

Good Luck

Rick

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