GS1000 Fork Springs - upgrade for 550?

[salty_monk]

Would GS1000 fork springs make a suitable upgrade to a GS550 or are the springs different diameter's or something critcial?

The 1000 ones are approx 420mm free length.

I wonder if they used the same springs on all models hence the "air assist" on the 1000 or if the heavier bikes used a heavier weight spring & would thus make a cheap upgrade on one of the lighter models.

Dan

[SqDancerLynn1]

I would bet they are different 550 probably has 35 mm forks GS1000
37 mm

[salty_monk]

I wondered that too but the spring is so much smaller that the fork tube I figured they could just use the same spec...

Does anyone have a stock 550 one (or progressive) that they can measure up for me?

Dan

[Nessism]

Salty Dan -
Not sure about the spring interchangeability but if you want to stiffen up the front end on your bike it's pretty easy by cutting off a couple of inches of coils and replacing the lost stack height with a PVC spacer. I've done this on several different bikes over the years and it works great. Not recommended on bikes that origionally had air forks, like some GS bikes, since the base spring rate is pretty low and you would have to remove too many coils to get the spring rate up where you want it. Should work fine on a 550 though. Let me know if you need help.

[salty_monk]

Figured that would be the other option.. might need to borrow your grinder!! (smiley smiley here)

Huh... where's the smiley's gone?