Bassman. I got a set of Progressive springs for mine and I'm pretty happy with the result. The old originals were just way too soft and the sag was heaps, plus I'm about 90kg and the rider they were intended for must have been about 60kg. The Progressive springs came with long, real heavy pvc tube for the spacers. You just cut them to the length you need to get the static sag right. Start long and measure, then cut a bit more off to suit. I totally changed my bike's handling for the better.

 

Right Dave. I prefer to have my sag set at 19-25 mm. The nice thing about the PVC pipe they give you to make spacers is that you can cut a slot lengthwise so you can insert or reomve the spacer without struggling with the top clip.

 

*Facepalm*

Dude never cut a motorcycle spring.

They have flat surface on both ends for a good reason.

If you need 1.2kg springs go and see www.sonicsprings.com they dont have a listing for the CBR1000F, however the ST1100 spring is available in a 1.2kg and is the same length.

Also here is a nifty trick for getting good results with fork oil. This came to me from a guy who did Superbike Racing in the 70's before they had adjustable suspension. If you are a barge *** like me use a mixture of 90% 10W Fork Oil and 10% Oil Stabiliser. Gets great results. If you weight less try 5% Oil Stabiliser.

This is one of the trick they used to do in the 70's when they went to different track and wanted to change compression and re-bound characteristics as oil stabiliser is thick like honey and as a bonus is good for stoping foaming as well as a few other ways it helps oil.

 

Trips,
Never say never. If you cut the end that is tightly wound the cut ends can be ground kind of flat. When building a flat tracker for Grundge out of a CR80 I had to shorten the forks. The forks were the cheap old damper rod type. I cut the soft end of the springs by the amount I needed to shorten them. I stuck the short piece under the damper rod and the rest in the normal position on top. Increased the rebound damping by silver soldering the stock damping hole and drilling a smaller hole.

Did it work? He won at the Elkhart County fair half mile in the minnie class that year. Da Kid would go on to beat Nicky Haden's sister on the same track a few years later.