fork springs

[nedwood]

Changing fork oil today, measured my springs, in the manual it says 1119mm. but mine are both exactly 1124mm. i could understand them being shorter but longer ??. its on a 99` fazer 600. any ideas ??.

[Bimbam]

This is from the manual i have.

[fazersharp]

Try doing less wheelies

[Graham53]

I confer with bimbam
I think you need to re check your fork measurements or manual or both 

[nedwood]

Rechecked my spring length and they are both at 324mm so according to the manual they are 5mm over limit. What recommendations would you lads give regarding replacement, go for std or different type of spring. I`m only a light weight jockey at 10.4 stone soaking wet. What suppliers have you used?. Thanks. .

[Jules-C]

319mm is the minimum length with the standard length 323mm so it looks like yours are exactly as they left the factory.

[nedwood]

Oh thats good news ! cheers Jules, you have just saved me 88 quid been looking at some Hagon replacements so can use my spare cash now on some new brake lines !. thanks for your quick reply pal - off to the garage to put my forks back together.

[tommyardin]

There was a change in spring length on the 2002-2003 foxeye FZS600 (not sure if it applied to the 2000)
On the 2002-2003  Foxeye model the damper rods are shorter so the spring are longer to make up for the short fall in damper rod length. This did come as a suprise to me as I have just done a complete for upgrade on my 2003. I did a full post on the topic, I will try to find it and post a link in here.

[nedwood]

Thats interesting Tommy. My Fazer is a 99` model so i dont know if the spring change would apply to mine but anyway it would be interesting to see your complete post on it, cheers mate.

[tommyardin]

Could not find the actual post (Or to lazy to look for many minutes)
So Cut and pasted from my computer as I save it as a word document.
Here's a little tip nothing to do with suspension, if you have a longish post that you want to put up on FOC-U, rather than typing directly into the Quote or Reply box ,type it into a Word document and when finished copy and paste it into the Quote or Reply field/box on FOC-U, if it all goes tits up as if often can and you lose all that you have typed you still have a copy in a Word document of what you typed. 


Hi Guys,
I have been working on my suspension of late and have done a few significant modifications to both the front and rear ends.
 
The Rear Modifications:
Firstly I purchased a new Nitron rear shocker, it was built with the correct spring and settings for my riding weight and riding style.
Whilst replacing the shocker I stripped out the linkage and cleaned all the needle bearings and repacked with grease, I was surprised as there was still quite a bit of the original grease still in the bearings, they were showing no sigh of wear   :-)
 
For the front forks I purchased a pair of YSS Cartridge Emulators from Wemoto.com.
(YSS Model PD310 for the 2002-2003 FZS 600 Fazer)
To facilitate the operating of the Emulators the Damper Rods need to have more holes drilled through them to overcome the damping effect of them. YSS recommend that 6 X 8mm holes be drilled in them to achieve this.
I went a slightly different route because the damper rods on the 2002-2003 FZS 600 are shorter (190mm) than the earlier Boxeye model (210mm), I was concerned about encroaching on the upper chambers of the forks when the forks are on full compression by drilling the 3 X Double (6) 8 mm holes. 3 X 8 = 24mm, plus 2 X 10 mm minimum spaces between holes = 44mm extension up the damper rods.
(using the centre of the original damper hole as a datum point)
 
 
I opted for 2 X Double (4) 10mm holes with one 15mm spacebetween them = 35mm, also to give me a little more lea way I used a fine chain saw file to lower the original 5mm damper hole centre by another 3mm, before drilling the 10 mm holes. 2 X 10mm = 20mm, plus 1 X 15mm space = 35mm, and as I had lowered my starting point by 3 mm, the extension up the damper rods is now 32mm as opposed to 44mm.
 
The general settings for the YSS Emulators is two full turns (For lighter (?) togged rider) in on the Emulator adjusting screw from initial emulator spring contact with the valve, I set mine to 3 full turns as I am 88-89 Kilos togged ready to ride (14 Stones).
This setting I am fairly happy with although 3.5 turns might have been better coupled with 15 weight Silkoleen Pro Fork oil.
Whilst doing this work I replaced the original Yamaha progressive fork springs with Ohlins 8.5 N/mm linear springs, again suited to my weight. 
 
The Outcome:
Firstly I am really pleased with the overall improvement with the bikes handling, I have heard terms like ‘The bike feels more planted’ and ‘I feel more confident cornering now’ and that ‘The bike turns in better now’ and to be honest I think the terms that have been used are accurate.
 
There is a twisty bumpy lane near me (1/3rd mile Rat Run) that has quite a few holes and uneven surface areas (Not fair to call them Potholes) but it’s a lane that I ride at about 35 - 40 MPH because it shakes the crap out of me and because I know that the bumps and pits are coming up I tend to brace myself ready for them (Wrong, I know) and the bumps travel up the forks and give me stick in wrists, elbows and shoulders and generally p----s me off.
I found myself riding down said lane the other day at about 50 mph thinking to my self could go faster,
Of course I was still feeling the bumps, but, they are not jarring anymore and the bike feels much more stable.
Since then I have taken the bike out on the infamous A272 in Hampshire (Petersfield to Winchester) a sweeping road that is great for biking, (Be warned speed cameras are a regular feature along its length) 
 I have noticed that powering hard out of corners the forks tend to feel as if they topping a bit, so I may need to replace some of the fork oil with a higher viscosity oil, to stiffen/slow up the rebound as bit. This should also help with the compression damping and might mean I have no need to adjust the emulator setting by another ½  a turn.

[tommyardin]

Thats interesting Tommy. My Fazer is a 99` model so i dont know if the spring change would apply to mine but anyway it would be interesting to see your complete post on it, cheers mate.

Does your bike have the Pre-Load adjusters on the top of the fork legs. I don't think that the 1999 FZS600 did have then, but by asking that question it will let you know if the forks have been replaced/upgraded to the later set with the factory Pre-Load adjusters. If it has not got them (which I suspect it will not) then the longer damper rods in the bottom of you forks would mean the slightly shorter springs will be fitted. I will just pop up the shed and measure the Yamaha original progressives that I replaced with the Ohlins Linears.

Bloody Heck it's cold outside, right the original progressives out of the FZS600 2002-2003 Foxeye are between 318mm and 319mm long, that is coupled with the damper rod length of 190mm.

[tommyardin]

But saying all that above it might just be that all the FZS 600 models use the same spring, because in the stack in each leg there is a longish metal tubular spacer and a solid metal disk that sits on top of the spring and maybe it just the spacer length that makes up the difference between the models.

Bottom to top order:
Spring then spacer the falat steel disk then the fork leg top that screws into the leg stanchion

[nedwood]

Thank  you Tommy for taking the time to post all your advice, it`s nice to know there are really good, genuine and helpful people on this site and again a big thank you to all you other fellas that gave me helpful info, cheers.

[tommyardin]

There are a lot of guys on here that have a shed load of knowledge and experience when it comes to working on and sorting out Fazers all models.
 
There are also a couple of members that are particularly knowledgeable with regard to the suspension setup, upgrading and customising and I have made use of their skills and knowledge.
 
 One member in particular was messaging me with advice and help and also with links to sites where I could purchase the bits for the suspension work I was doing on the bike, I will not name him because I don’t want to cause Kebab19 any embarrassment.  

[daviee]

i take it the emulators are the same  from 98 to 2003 ?

[tommyardin]

i take it the emulators are the same  from 98 to 2003 ?

I would imagine so, because the deciding factor is the inside fork leg diameter, and my understanding is the fork diameters have remained the same on the FZS 600 right through the range, although there are other difference in the forks IE: shorter Damper Rods on the later models 2002-2003, Maybe different spring lengths, and the addition of Pre-Load adjusters on the later models (Not sure what changes apply to the 2000 model as I understand there to be difference on this model from the earlier)

[daviee]

cheers mate