Joined Apr 2005
68 Posts | 2+
ohio USA
I have taken everyones advice and decided to work with what i've got instead of replacing all three springs for heavier ones. So here goes, I started with the shock and noticed that the lock rings were at the very top. The bike would sag about 2 inches under it's own weight. I started turning until I got bored and locked it down, took the bike off the stand and bounced it a few times and now it sags about 1/2 inch under it's own weight. So...good enough! I moved to the front to increase preload, looked all over the sight for an hour and found a thread that answered my question. (How to set fork preload on '97 FE600E). Took everything apart and found 1 thick (1/8") and 1 thin (1/16") spacers under spring retainer. I figure the difference is from the factory to make the springs identical. I found some PVC and went to hackin'. I didn't want to do this twice so I cut 2 pieces each an inch long,yes an inch and put them in including the 2 factory ones. Put everything back together, bike off the stand and bounced it a few times. The front end before felt like one of those gas shocks that hold up a lift gate on a minivan, so I didn't think I could hurt anything. Now the bike sags in front about 1/2" instead of 3 or 4". I started it up and noticed that the rebound was much faster and could here it hit the top coming back(not hard though). So I clicked my rebounds three more clicks positive and it feels pretty good! The problem, however is I must drive 2.5 hours to know if what I did was stupid and that I just ruined a perfectly good suspension. If you remember my previous questions I've had a problem with the bike being too soft. So soft that you could run over a kids Big-wheel and not feel it. That was great if I was only going to ride on moderate trails, but the trails I ride are pretty violent, lots of pointed rocks, logs, and airborne some. I am completely convinced that If I didn't do something drastic to the suspension, that I would regret it. So 60 miles of trailriding is coming up on me quick, we ride in one week. Am I going to hate what I did? Should I be beat up? or should I just stick with something like needlepoint? Thanks, Volvonut
I am a LITTLE FLUFFY myself at 220 so I speak from experience. Search Race tech site for spring rates. If no Husaberg use KTM with *********** from that era.
