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Installing Racetech Gold Valves


HispanicSlammer

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Phillip at So Pro has done several things for me lately. Www.sopro.bz it helps that he is only 7 miles from my house too.

I normally send my penskes to Traxxxion dynamics tho. Thermosman did ohlins for me in the past too, he's really great but busy.

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Phillip at So Pro has done several things for me lately. Www.sopro.bz it helps that he is only 7 miles from my house too.

I normally send my penskes to Traxxxion dynamics tho. Thermosman did ohlins for me in the past too, he's really great but busy.

Thanks.

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  • 7 months later...

So...

I got some RT fork springs, and want to put them in, but the directions they provided are only for re-installation, and seem quite generic.

My question regards the length of the new spacer. I got 6 spacers, and a long stainless tube, but no information on how long the spacer is supposed to be. The website says 15mm preload, which I assume relates to the preload adjuster on the top of the fork tube. Does this installation not require changing the spacer tube?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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The RaceTech products are a bit on the generic side, in that they are selling a spring of a certain length, rate and diameter that could fit a wide range of bikes with varying lengths of forks. You will need to do some calculations. If you've got the same RT instructions as me, the VFR fork has a type D fork cap.

Put the springs and flat washers washers into the forks when fully extended, make sure the washers are sitting flat on top of the springs. Now measure down the inside from the top of the fork legs to the top of the washers, with the fork fully extended. Lets call that length A mm.

Next grab your fork caps, and screw the preload adjuster to its minimum position (fully out). With the fork cap screwed onto the damper rod in its usual position with the locknut in place, hold the cupped washer against the underside of the locknut as it sits when assembled, and measure from the underside of the lip of the cap (the bit that bears on the very top edge of the fork tube) to the underside of the cupped washer. Lets call that length B mm.

If you subtract A-B you will have the distance from the top of the uncompressed spring to the underside of the cupped washer, so with no preload that is the length of the spacer. But RT says you need 15mm of preload, so you need to add another 15mm to that length.

I'm making the numbers up, but say length A (top of extended fork to top of washers on spring) is 200mm, and length B (from top of cap to underside of cupped washer) is 50mm, then the spacer to cut would be 200 - 50 + 15 = 165mm.

If one of the spacers that you have is within say 0-5mm longer than the calculated length I would try those, otherwise grab a hacksaw and cut the supplied tube to the right length. Try hard to make the cut square to the tube, and finish any ragged edges with a file, then clean off any swarf so you don't contaminate the fork innards.

Once you have the fork assembled back into the bike you'll be able to check the sag numbers, you're looking for something like 25-35mm. If you can't get into this range with the available adjustment in the preload adjuster, you might need to make a longer or shorter spacer, but at least you can swap out spacers with the forks in the bike.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey Slammer... can't see any of the marvelous photos you used to be able to see in your tutorial (first post in this thread).

This happened to loads of my tutorials on ClubVFRSpain due to Imageshack deciding to change their policy from free hosting to pay or we'll wipe your pics... and they wiped them before I had time to do something about it.

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  • 3 years later...

Great topic!

 

Could someone-maybe someone who has the shim calculator program- please tell me how this valving (suggested by the online valve calculator from Race Tech):


(3).15x17
.10x17
.10x15
.10x13
.15x11
.15x9

 

Compares to the ch33 valving:

(3).15x17

.10x15

.10x13

.10x12

.10x11

.10x10

.10x9

 

I've contacted Race Tech but all they said was "we no longer use the standard chart- use this and we'll find you something else if you don't like it".

 

Thanks a lot!

 

 

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If you're asking how the new shim stack on the top compares to the old C33 stack on the bottom, the answer is they are fairly the same.

Slightly stiffer bottom shims will slightly change how and when the shims bend, but they are not that much different.

They might give a bit more flow on high speed bumps from my reading.

But if you're doing compression valves, you need to do rebound as well.

 

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I think the most significant difference between those two is the extra 0.1 x 17 shim, this will make the shim stack slightly stiffer but not by much as a 0.1mm shim is less than 1/3rd the stiffness of a 0.15mm shim. 

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@VFROZ and @Terry

 

Thank you both!

 

I plan on doing the rh17 stack for the rebound, using the stock valves and the (hopefully enough will remain) spare shims from the Race Tech kit and OEM compression valve.

 

Springs will be 0.9 kg/mm

 

Bikes is VTR 1000F- I hope this doesn't offend anyone as this is the VFR forum, but to my understanding apart from the low speed rebound adjuster and the VTR being 20kg lighter the front end is identical to the 5th gen VFR 800.

 

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I’ve followed this discussion when it was first posted a number of years ago. Since then many of us have come and gone as have their VFRs. I sold my first 98 but kept a second but have quit trying to make it something it’s not. I’ve left the brake system alone, tried Fox Twinclicker adjustable shock (for sale, like new in the box), Penske shock now, GoldValve install- too much trouble to set up to one’s liking. 

Jamie Daugherty, Daughertymotorsport, makes a great upgrade for our VFR- a fork cartridge upgrade kit. Installation is a lot easier then trying to decipher the Gold Valve instructions and the results are worth the price. Jamie will send the correct weight springs and answer most questions. He also has custom made shocks and does custom machine work. 

 

10DEA9B6-20E1-4418-924D-B0818089C1E6.thumb.jpeg.de7cd8263f022cf7ad741558f89fe62a.jpeg

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
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The springs are typically 35mm OD so you need tubing that is close to that; make sure you use the washer between the spring and the spacer otherwise the spring will chew up the spacer. The fork tubes are 41mm OD and (my guess) about 1 mm wall thickness so they would be close to 39mm ID. At 35mm the spacer would fit with 2mm clearance all round.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks!

 

It didn't cross my mind that the spacers have about the same diameter as the springs (though I've rebuild a few forks before 🙈 )

 

But in the end I just left the spacer as it was, because the new springs (k-tech) were only 4-6mm longer than stock. I haven't yet mounted the forks on the bike but hopefully it won't need any less preload...

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