fork rebuilding

I love how n00bs on a forum have more experting than literally being told by a suspension specialist what’s best practice. And fwiw, I’d consider myself a n00b

Baggy is a professional racer, iron butt hyper mile rider, engineer, cocksman of epic proportions and expert on all things two wheels. Except for all the stuff he gets wrong on engine tuning. Ignore that…and all that “BBS buffer” stuff. Final drive choices? Might be questionable too. The Streetfighter V4 is apparently a pig that can’t turn, but he cracked that mystery. I think his bike runs despite what he does to it.

SuperDomestique said:

I love how n00bs on a forum have more experting than literally being told by a suspension specialist what’s best practice. And fwiw, I’d consider myself a n00b

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Nope I'm just channeling Dan Kyle. He went to the bother of splaining all this stuff to me in spite of the fact I only ever really bought seals and fluid from him.

bp_SFV4 said:

Baggy is a professional racer, iron butt hyper mile rider, engineer, cocksman of epic proportions and expert on all things two wheels. Except for all the stuff he gets wrong on engine tuning. Ignore that…and all that “BBS buffer” stuff. Final drive choices? Might be questionable too. The Streetfighter V4 is apparently a pig that can’t turn, but he cracked that mystery. I think his bike runs despite what he does to it.

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You do make me laugh. We'll be in Colorado in mid July. I'm about 1000 miles from Cortez. We'll zigzag the state and then head north into Wyoming. 350-400 miles a day. Pretty much all twisty. You should join us and I'll show you how slow and ill handling the clown car is. I can spend my days clearing off on you and you can spend the days wondering how that old fossil can carry that much speed all day. We'll head north probably and end up at glacier and then drop down towards the salmon river gorge. If you join us in Cortez then you can try to hang until say Cody then turn east and use 14A and 14 and 13 to go to the Blackhills (all good). Most of the west has been repaved good pavement everywhere. I never professionally raced motorcycles never was good enough. Club raced. 15 inches taint to tip. I am serious about this. My friends (2) will either be riding a 1098 SF, 1198 Superbike or a 23 V4 SF or ? in some combination.

Those last two posts are very informative--thank you both- I don't pop wheelies-so--no no worries there!

So-to update--I've got the left fork done and back on the bike. Then removed the right fork--got it done in 1 hour! Much easier because I now know to NOT drive the spring nut all the way down to snug up against the upper spring perch. That happened as I tried to remove the top cap. This made things difficult, that nut was hard to remove due to spring pressure against it. This time I just loosened the spring nut to be a few threads below the top cap and spun off. Easy peasy.

By the way, I wrapped a thin bit of safety wire to the central threaded rod and fed it up through the spring to be able to hold the rod up when dropping in spacer and spring. Worked a charm. Then I gripped the smooth lower shaft portion gently with needle nose pliers (through the spring), removed the wire, dropped on the upper spring seat, started the nut and BAM, the assembly was complete. I spun the 19mm spring nut down a bit, hand-screwed the upper cap down to the end of its travel, then tightened the spring nut up against it. Easy peasy again.

350ml of dark, dirty fluid came out. Not as dirty as the left side, and about 50ml more in the right-side fork--due to the leaky left side.

So I replaced with 350ml of clean Liquid Moly 10W. Even matching the fluid amount, I had to suck out maybe 20-30ml to get to 220mm air gap.

Tomorrow the bike goes back together and test rode.

bp_SFV4--you mentioned putting the suspension in manual mode and trying the extreme values to verify correct function of compression/rebound.
Please educate me--I'm under the impression that my 1199S Panigale ONLY offers manual mode--albeit it electronic DES settings done via the dash menu. It's not an active suspension.

Am I missing something here?

Thank you ALL--happy new year almost--
Greg

BTW SF if you're going to take the forks off you should change the bushings. $54 each plus tax and shipping. Will be transformative to the handling.

greggiacona said:

bp_SFV4--you mentioned putting the suspension in manual mode and trying the extreme values to verify correct function of compression/rebound.
Please educate me--I'm under the impression that my 1199S Panigale ONLY offers manual mode--albeit it electronic DES settings done via the dash menu. It's not an active suspension.

Am I missing something here?

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Actually I didn't realize it was manual only, and that you merely make adjustments via the dash. I had a 1199, but it was a base but you are correct, it's not semi-active.

baggerman said:

BTW SF if you're going to take the forks off you should change the bushings. $54 each plus tax and shipping. Will be transformative to the handling.

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I doubt they're worn that much but will inspect. What are you getting for $54 each?

SKF bushings are $39 for a set, per fork.

bp_SFV4 said:

Actually I didn't realize it was manual only, and that you merely make adjustments via the dash. I had a 1199, but it was a base but you are correct, it's not semi-active.

I doubt they're worn that much but will inspect. What are you getting for $54 each?

SKF bushings are $39 for a set, per fork.

FORK BUSHINGS KIT, 2 PIECES - 1 INNER & 1 OUTER, OHLINS 43 MM - InnTeck USA

New SKF Fork Bushings kit, composed of: – 1 outer bushing, Teflon inside (43 x 47 x 15mm) – 1 inner bushing, Teflon outside (00 x 00 x 00mm) Fork bushing for motorcycle. SKF PTFE composite fork bushings are the maintenance-free solution in demanding applications such as front fork motorcycle...

innteck-usa.com

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The head bushings not the fork bushings was what I referring to at $54. Ohlins fork bushings seem to have pretty good life. But if you need to change them they're red loctited in. Heat them up and watch for the white smoke then you can knock them out. There's a set of cartridge damping pistons around here somewhere if I find them I'll post a picture. They'll be representative but the compression one is the old style which is more conventional. The new design is significantly better (more supple on harsh pavement) but the ones I have are all installed. Your forks should have the new style not sure about the 1199 forks.

Are you replacing the head busing with an aftermarket part or something?

Happy new year. I'm replacing it with the Panigale part. The Pani head bushing gives you 24.5 degree rake 100mm trail. The ones in the streetfighter give you 26.5 degrees rake 102 mm trail. Ignore the specs they be lying. Moving the head in 2 degrees will feel like you just took 2 pounds off the front wheel. You can change these with the front frame on the bike. The service manual calls out to heat the head to 200 F to knock the bushings out and install using a press. But you can also (which is what I did) freeze the bushing (my freezer is set at -5 F) then heat the head back up to about 180 F so you can just push the bushings in. Similar to what you do to replace a valve guide. I could have pressed them back in (as my bike is disassembled) but my riding buddy bought a 23 so I thot I'd test it out.

greggiacona said:

Tomorrow the bike goes back together and test rode.

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So how did it ride with the new springs? I'm in the middle of rebuilding my 1199R w/ the same Ohlins electronic forks (FG9251). I'm also big and changing out the springs to 11.5, so curious how the new springs are.

For future reference I contacted Ohlins regarding the air gap for these forks and they said:

All Öhlins Road & Track forks use our 01309-01 oil. FG 925 has a 220mm air gap, 12 clicks comp, 14 clicks reb, 10Nm springs @ 6 turns preload.

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I also asked Mike @ Kyle racing and he said 220mm air gap for these electronic forks seem correct. I had also measured when I took them apart and it was near 220mm w/ spring and spacer out. So 220mm is what I will be going with as well.

Hey- the bike feels great now! I’m 250lbs with gear. I’ve got 11-rated springs in there now. 220mm air gap as well. I think I put ~300ml of fluid in there.

My new issue is strange erratic hi-temp dash readings while cruising slowly. I’ve now got trace that issue. May be bad water pump, thermostat or water temp sensor- ??

Greg

Awesome!! Glad the fork springs feel good. Can't wait to get mine back together and try it. Hopefully your new hi-temp issue is something simple.