THE TURNING POINT Spring rates- everything got easier after that. If you take one thing from this part two of our long term test, it’ s this... spring rates changed the whole bike. For my size( 6ft / 1.83m, 93kg), the stock springs were just a touch off in the areas that matter when you’ re riding properly in a race style; I’ m talking heavy braking, loading the chassis, and dealing with soft / heavy tracks.
FORK SPRINGS For the front end, the fork springs went up from 5.0N / mm to 5.2N / mm. The change mainly fixed excessive brake dive. On the stock springs, coming in hard, the front would drop into the stroke and there’ d be a lot of chassis movement right at the moment when you really want the bike calm and settled. Upping the fork spring rate to 5.2 N / mm gave the front end more hold-up on corner entry. The bike now stays more level under braking, the geometry stays consistent, and the front tyre just feels more trustworthy when you’ re starting to ask it the hard questions. It’ s not that the stock setup was bad, it’ s just that for my weight, the chassis moved around too much under a heavy braking load.
SHOCK SPRING This turned out to be the other part of the handling puzzle- I upped the spring rate from
58 to 60N / mm. With this stronger spring I could finally get correct race sag and static sag numbers without having to do silly things with preload adjuster. My rider sag is now 105mm(+ 3mm on OEM) and static sag is 36mm. The biggest change from this upgrade came in soft conditions( sand, wet, and ripped tracks) where, as stock, the bike would get heavy and sit too low at the back. I’ d compensate by cranking up the compression damping to keep it up at the back, but that made it harsh on acceleration and not as willing to hook up. Now, with the stiffer 60N / mm spring, the shock holds itself up naturally, so I don’ t have to fudge it with the damping. This has actually helped traction, because the shock can move and follow the ground instead of skipping. Corner exits now feel straighter, calmer, and more predictable. If part one of the test back in the October Vol. 2 edition had a hint of“ this is good but not quite right”, the spring changes are what have made it feel right.
‘ PREFERRED’ MODS Next up was working on the front-end feel. I fitted Xtrig clamps and PDHS bar mounts, and I’ ll be very honest here- this is not a“ the bike needs this” change... it’ s a feel preference that works for me. I like a bit more rigidity in the front end, and
38 KIWI RIDER