progressive fork springs, spacers, oil

I am preparing to put some new progressive fork springs in and wanted to check with anyone that has put them in and see if the progressive recommended 1.5" spacer is correct or if people have found that something else works better. Also is there any change to the amount of fork oil or is the stock number still good.

PS. This is for my xj650j average load on the bike is around 350 lbs mostly just cruising.

 

That all depends on the length of the spring. The manufacturer most likley did their homework and thats what you need.
Generally you will want about 1 to 1.5 inches of preload on the springs. That would mean you need whaterver length spacer to give that. Easy way to meassure- put the bike on the center stand and a jack to lift the front wheel off the ground so there is no weight on it. Put the new spring in and measure from the top of the spring to the bottom of the threads where the fork cap goes. The spacer you need will be 1 to 1.5 inches longer . The ammount of oil will stay the same.

 

yup I knew about the preload and how to measure it. Just seeing if anyone had done it and knew the numbers so I could make sure I had everything I needed for the spacers before I started taking it apart.

thanks for letting me know on the oil

 

If you need a longer spacer, PVC pipe works well and its cheap.
If you have to cut new spacers be sure to cut then nice and square or the springs will rub the fork tubes and squeak.

 

I'm a big guy ~260lbs, so with me on my 650 I wanted a little more pre-load. Pretty sure my spacers are about 4" long (been a long time since I was in there).
For oil, I usually just use 15wt fork oil - 20wt is a bit thick, and 10w30 motor oil didn't seem to work well for me -- it worked but I wanted a bit stiffer.

 

I used spacers in my 750 Seca that were a little longer than Progressive recommends, about 3/4 inch extra if I remember right. I used the stock amount of 20W fork oil. Seems to work really well for me.

I cut the spacers out of PVC and then machined them in a small lathe to get them exactly the same length and perfectly square on both ends.

 

I ended up cutting about 3/4 of an inch off the stock spacers to get the recommended 1-1.5" preload and went with 20W fork oil which seems good but haven't had the chance for any long rides yet. I do have a little noise if i really jump on the front end.

 

For a spacer I picked up a couple lengths of 1-inch O.D. steel pipe. I believe I put 1.5-2 inches of preload on my forks, equating to about 150-200lbs total preload on the front. This is handy seeing as how my front end supports a Windjammer. I noticed with this much preload I have to keep my rear progressive suspension at the tightest or second tightest setting to maintain a balanced ride.

Hope this helps!

 

I threw a 1-3/4" spacer in my stock springs in the front this year. The shocks are a lot nicer for absorbing bumps, but i do0 get a lot of dive when using front brake. I'm sure my antidive does nothing lol.

Still a huge improvement over last year!

 

My version of springs, spacer, oil ..with new Ikon shocks set to 1st spring preload and 2nd damping, I weigh about 70kg and so far carry light loads. ....progressive springs, 85mm preload, 295ml of 10w oil. Tried the 20w oil at first and 65mm preload but the current set up is much better, way better than tired old stock.

 

Annoyed that I didn't know anything about the spacer before i bought the springs. Progressive says 1.5 inch spacer.

as far as material, has any one had any problems with PVC or anything else? does any one have a photo of the spacer they used?

 

a lot of people use pvc. I chopped a bit off the end of my stock metal spacers and it rides nice.

 

I went out to my local home improvement store and bought some steel pipe to use as spacers. The pre-cut short lengths work great. I have my suspension set with about 75lbs pre-load per fork.

This may be a bit much, but I tend to ride aggressively in the summer and use a fairing in winter, so the extra tension gives the bike a stiffer feel that I enjoy.

 

pvc works great, its what progressive sends along with some of their springs.

i just re-used the stock spacers on my 750 as reccomended, and 15wt fork oil.

works great.

 

pre-cut pieces of PVC worked great! thanks guys!

 

Schedule 40 PVC - - not irrigation thin junk.