Hello, more questions about my (almost finished!) project.

Well, I got my rebuilt '87 ("streetfighter?") 600 running and riding today. Put about 1.5 miles on it around the block several times. Short of a few easily fixable problems, the big thing I noticed that didn't quite seem right was my fork travel.

I have ~7-8psi of air in the front forks, with the recommended (12.5? don't have my manual sitting with me, but it's the recommended) amount of fluid (Dex auto tranny fluid).

When standing next to the bike, hands on the bars, and giving a good push or two down, I can get a solid 3 or more inches of travel. Is that much travel normal? I double checked my PSI, and know I'm not leaking any fluid anywhere. When rebuilding my forks, the springs measured on the lower end of recommended length, but still within recommendation).

Maybe it's supposed to be like that, dunno. Anyway, what kind of travel should I be getting when just standing next to the bike, and pushing down on the front forks?

Thanks all!
-Matt

 

with the front brake on, i could send the bottom of the front fairing down to about an inch away from the top of the front fender. take a zip tie if you have one and zip it around one of the fork legs. bottom the zip tie to the dust seal. now push down on the handlebars and see where the zip tie ends up. measure from the top of the dust seal to the bottom of the zip tie and that is how much travel you have.

you may just be experiencing what it is like to be on a set of fresh forks.

 

Good idea to measure travel.

But, what should the travel be? I should be able to put some miles on it tomorrow and see if anything changes or what not.

Thanks!
-Matt

 

i'd have to check what the travel is, but under moderate braking, you should get around 3 inches. under hard braking, you should be very close to the bottom of the front fairing, but not touching. this is with no air pressure added to the fork. another thing to look out for is if you brake hard and you hear a *thunk*. that's a pretty good indication that your springs are gone even if within spec. either the fairing touched the fender or the forks bottomed out.

like i said, put a zip tie around a fork leg and see where it ends up. if it gets pretty close between the fairing and fender, then i would say your springs are not stiff enough. more air will not help as you run the risk of blowing those seals. you will either need to get new springs or heavier (stiffer)springs.

as for air pressure, on the top of my fuel tank i have a factory sticker that says no more than 6psi max in the forks. i ran my forks at 0psi and opted for stiffer springs and emulators. this was a good setup for myself.