upgraded shocks and springs

[shinzon1]

yeah. kinda blows but rather safe than sorry.

[shinzon1]

when i replace my fork springs with new ones do i just put a spacer tube in place of the original upper spring? The upper spring is relatively soft atleast compared to the longer lower spring.

[ChicagoBob]

Just use what holds the front end up and gives you the stiffness you prefer. If you buy Progressive springs, they'll probably be long enough by themselves, though most guys use some kind of preload spacer, made from washers, steel tube or pvc pipe. On my 550, I needed only a few flat washers, to add about 1/2 inch.

[shinzon1]

i'm planning on using some sonic straight rate springs with some racetech emulators. my problem is the springs are only like 14 inches long. the lower spring by itself is about 18.5 inches. plus the 6.5 inch upper spring. granted the emulator will give me some more length but the spacer will have to be like ten inches long if i don't use the very soft upper spring.

[salty_monk]

Replace it with PVC pipe. Otherwise you'll have a dual rate spring with very soft start...

On a 550 I worked on I simply removed the soft spring and replaced it with spacer. Worked great.

[shinzon1]

ok. i will. it just seemed like a very long spacer. most of the ones i've read about that put spacers in are only about 3 inches long give or take not 10 inches.

[salty_monk]

As long as the spring you use has enough compression to allow full fork travel then it doesn't matter how much spacer you have in there.

Preload takes away from the available spring compression.
With. 14" straight rate spring I suspect the available compression has to be at least 7" probably more.
Sonic should have those figures.

[shinzon1]

do you know how much fork travel there should be?

[salty_monk]

Do you want me to ride it for you as well??

Probably 5" I would think however it's impossible to know for sure as it appears you don't have stock forks fitted if yours are 37mm..

If you have the springs removed you can measure it

[shinzon1]

that would be nice. take some of the guess work out of it.
every piece of information I can find says the 79 750 L had 37mm. while all the others had 35mm. Z1 shows the L series having 37mm forks. I do appreciate all the help though!