rebuild stock tlr forks or gsxr convertion

Hey Tubby!

I know the parts for the rebuild of the front forks (Racetech springs & gold valves, shims, seals, new oil, etc.) could be less than half that if purchased off eBay (I have seen the springs and gold kit for under $300 if you keep an eye out). I haven't rebuilt my forks, but there are good pictorials on the process and it is fairly straightforward if you want to give it a go. I plan on doing it next winter.

I have an S, so my rear end is different than your swinger, but I am seeing Showa shocks for cheap cheap. So cheap that you could do your own fork rebuild and have the Showa spaced and sprung all for under $700 maybe. And if you find you don't like the rear you can look into an Ohlins or Bitubo in the future. I have to figure if you are running the rotary damper that pretty much any rear end upgrade will make you feel like it was an upgrade. I am hoping to put my rear damper back together by tomorrow and I will pop you a picture. It's an S with the S swinger, so I still retain my stock spring, but hopefully I gave you some info and not just rambled. :laugh

If you've got $700 for rebuilding your old forks I'd go with the GSXR conversion. Cost me less than that to get an entire K4 front end. So for example...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-SUZUKI...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c3bb6dd7b&vxp=mtr


or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FREE-SHIPPI...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2587280f79&vxp=mtr


or you can get the various bits in separate deals.

There's more work involved in the K7 swap. Something like the K4 plus one of Sam's spacer kits is almost a straight drop-in.

It is a big improvement.


As far as the rear end goes, the Ohlins is obviously the luxury option but again, it makes a helluva difference. The showa is much cheaper and takes a little more engineering but you should still see the benefits. Lots of them about so also relatively cheap if you can get one in good nick.

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I can get the fork springs, valve, oil ect from the aus distributor of race tech for around the $400au.
but I'm a bit worried about doing it myself. from what I've read it doesn't look to hard to dismantle the forks but then I read about shim stacks and others saying that its a job left to the pros. and as my ass is on that thing i'd like to know its done right. might have to do a bit more research

As for the gixxr conversion, I'd still need to get new springs and valves for the gixxr forks.
I've looked at a few forks on ebay, but there is none available in Australia and to get them shipped for overseas is going to cost a fortune. Might have to keep looking.
also how do i find out what spring I need if I'm running gixxr forks? I'm about 100kg

Would something like this do the trick?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2003-Gsx..._Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d17eee972&_uhb=1

as with the shock. I run a small fabrication shop so tig welding is not a problem if I do go the showa route then change my mind.
What showa shock am i looking for? just want to see prices but I think I'll probably just go with the bitobu. but need to find where to get one.

I just want to get this thing right.
I don't mind spending the money. but I only want to spend it once

thanks for your help guys..

yeah I'm starting to think that's the smartest way to go.

emailed gp and traction for quote.

will do a LOT of research on doing the forks.

just need to fab up some sort of stand.

what are the tools needed?
The only tool I've really seen the the ring thingy with the bolts to hold the cartridge.

thanks for the help!!
and I'm sure there will be a lot more questions when it comes time to actually doing this job

Ok so I have some quotes, as well as word of warning from Traxxion Dynamics about how they don't normally sell there kits and that I need to find a good suspension shop to fit the valves.

Any truth to that?

Sooo, the valve kit is $200 and I need to re-shim the stock rebound piston, + 135 for springs.

then GP suspension 20mm fork piston re-valve kit $189, CNK6 COMP NEEDLES $50, springs $110

(are new comp needles needed? what are comp needles??)

then I got a quote from Australian distributor of race tech. $209 gold comp valves, $149 springs (in stock, in AUD, Cheaper shipping)


Now is there any difference in these 3 company's products?

I would rather buy race tech, only for the fact that theirs no conversion rate and next day shipping.

But still not sure if these 3 options are comparable in what is supplied in there kits.



Thanks for that link oldtlsdoug, I've seen that a while ago but got lost in the thousands of other posts i've read.

Doesn't look to difficult to fab up a few parts to make this job a little easier.


Whats the go with the rebound shim stack?
how much oil to use?
what weight?

I'm starting to go back to the idea of getting it done by a pro
maybe I should have a go at a fork service on my wr450 to see how comfortable I am with that.

Suspension just seems to have this aurora about it.
It cant be THAT hard.

Cheers guys.

The GP Suspension kit is rebound and compression. The Traxxion bits are also both. I installed the GP parts on a TLS and have a pictorial of the parts in the link below. The GP suspension guy was very helpful. I never installed the Traxxion bits, but they are also very helpful and make good quality stuff.
Race Tech Gold Valves are only the compression valving and then you are adding the spring, I also have that in the link above. The Gold valves are a huge improvement over stock. All three are excellent upgrades to the TLS/TLR fork and are worth the money.

The Comp needles are the compression needles are inside the compression adjuster at the bottom of the fork leg, GP suspension includes these as well. The idea is changing the profile of the compression needle gives you a better adjustment range. I installed these on one of my TLS fork sets and they were the shit, nice addition. A bit fiddly, you have to drill out a pin to get the compression adjuster out then install a new pin. Here is my highly techincal drawing of how it is done, and click the picture for a link to the GP Suspension stuff.

Thanks a lot guys, appreciate the responses.

Tlsdoug, I didn't even think about just doing the spring and changing oil.

Think for now I'm going to go this route.
I know its going to be a 1000 times better then it is now, and I can always do the valves later on down the track.


Atm with the forks as bad as they are the shock hasn't even had a look in.
Will go the bitubo, just need to get the $900 odd dollars to get one.

Also need to do the exhaust gaskets, weld clutch, and tps carb sync,

oh the joy

You need to buy fork seals and take a look at your bushings as well. When you change springs, take a look at how long the stockers are and the replacements. You can get the info from the manufacturer and the Suzuki manual gives you stock length. If the new ones are longer, you are set, if shorter, you need to make sure they send some material to build new ones or you get something yourself. I believe stock Hyabusa spacers are longer than TLR spacers, and have a separate spring seat so you can use it with just tubing. Here are the busa spacer numbers I put a set in a set of TLS forks I did for my daughter's SV650. So they worked fine with Race Tech 1.0 Kg/mm springs in a TLS and it should be fine for yours. Make sure you drill it through for the spring compressor if you use the spacer stock from a vendor.



And when I speak of preloading your fork springs:

"If you look at the 2 triangles I indicated on the photo. The spacer is sized such that the distance between the 2 triangles is free length of the spring minus 15 mm with the pre-load adjuster all the way out. This way you have some pre-load without any adjustment. Note that if you replace the spring you will need to measure this distance and replace the spacer if the spring is shorter or shorten the spacer if the spring is longer."