Hey Kev. Yup. As you've found, the bolt turns easily at the mo, but it won't when you stop the cartridge from moving..... but you'l sort it, I'm sure.
I emailed ktech ages ago and got this back
For your forks I would recommend one of our 20SSK piston kits, these comprise of complete new compression and rebound piston assemblies with our own design CNC machined piston's, this piston kit is designed for road and track day use to enhance the damping efficiency of the standard fork and give greater confidence to the rider. The cost of the piston kit is £191.66 + VAT.
Depending on the weight of the rider and the O.E. fitment we also offer optional rate fork springs to suit rider weight and the discipline the bike is being used for. The price of these optional rate replacement fork springs are £70.84 per pair + VAT.
To fit all of the above we charge £100.00 + VAT this includes a complete strip and rebuild of the forks including new oil but does not include any service parts needed such as seals or bushes. These would be inspected when are forks were dismantled and replaced and charged for accordingly."
Maxton said this:
The forks on the Fazer 1000 are a very good pair of forks for general road use but do have problems. The springs are too soft which can cause the forks to bottom out under heavy breaking, this depends on your rider weight and again how hard you ride the bike, the big problem is they do not have enough rebound damping, which makes the forks spring back very quickly when you let go of the brake or accelerate, this causes the bike to run wide out of corners and makes the bike difficult to turn in to a corner. The forks also have too much compression damping which makes the bike kick off small bumps in the road. This problem can make the ride uncomfortable. We modify the forks fitting harder springs to suit the type of riding you do and also your rider weight, we also revalve the cartridges increasing the rebound damping and reducing the compression damping. We replace the existing hydraulic bump stops with spring bump stops, which eliminates the severe patter that occurs when the forks bottom out, this also gives the rider more; feel mid-corner when pushing the front end. The fork conversion costs £315.00 plus worn parts: Seals £25 and Bushes £25. (ALL PRICES EXCLUSIVE OF V.A.T).
We have also found a problem with the internal damper cartridge wearing out on Fazer 1000 forks. We have had forks that have only done 5000 miles with worn cartridge tubes. Unfortunately Yamaha will not sell just the cartridge tube, you have to buy the complete damping assembly, which is very expensive. We machine new cartridge tubes (only as part of a Maxton conversion) manufactured from hydraulic steel tube, which will never wear out. The replacement cartridge tubes cost £100.00 plus V.A.T per pair. If the tubes are not replaced there will be never be any damping in the worn area of the cartridge tube."
Charming eh? Both very non-cheap upgrades. You pays yer money and takes your choice...
Note that bit about the lack of rebound damping - this is why I went to 10 weight fork oil. It's more controlled entering a bend and to compensate for the strong compression, I backed that right off to about 2 clicks. Not perfect by any means, but better than standard. And free!
The worrying bit is what Maxton say about worn tubes. I really don't know what to say about that because K-Tech don't mention it.
I emailed ktech ages ago and got this back
For your forks I would recommend one of our 20SSK piston kits, these comprise of complete new compression and rebound piston assemblies with our own design CNC machined piston's, this piston kit is designed for road and track day use to enhance the damping efficiency of the standard fork and give greater confidence to the rider. The cost of the piston kit is £191.66 + VAT.
Depending on the weight of the rider and the O.E. fitment we also offer optional rate fork springs to suit rider weight and the discipline the bike is being used for. The price of these optional rate replacement fork springs are £70.84 per pair + VAT.
To fit all of the above we charge £100.00 + VAT this includes a complete strip and rebuild of the forks including new oil but does not include any service parts needed such as seals or bushes. These would be inspected when are forks were dismantled and replaced and charged for accordingly."
Maxton said this:
The forks on the Fazer 1000 are a very good pair of forks for general road use but do have problems. The springs are too soft which can cause the forks to bottom out under heavy breaking, this depends on your rider weight and again how hard you ride the bike, the big problem is they do not have enough rebound damping, which makes the forks spring back very quickly when you let go of the brake or accelerate, this causes the bike to run wide out of corners and makes the bike difficult to turn in to a corner. The forks also have too much compression damping which makes the bike kick off small bumps in the road. This problem can make the ride uncomfortable. We modify the forks fitting harder springs to suit the type of riding you do and also your rider weight, we also revalve the cartridges increasing the rebound damping and reducing the compression damping. We replace the existing hydraulic bump stops with spring bump stops, which eliminates the severe patter that occurs when the forks bottom out, this also gives the rider more; feel mid-corner when pushing the front end. The fork conversion costs £315.00 plus worn parts: Seals £25 and Bushes £25. (ALL PRICES EXCLUSIVE OF V.A.T).
We have also found a problem with the internal damper cartridge wearing out on Fazer 1000 forks. We have had forks that have only done 5000 miles with worn cartridge tubes. Unfortunately Yamaha will not sell just the cartridge tube, you have to buy the complete damping assembly, which is very expensive. We machine new cartridge tubes (only as part of a Maxton conversion) manufactured from hydraulic steel tube, which will never wear out. The replacement cartridge tubes cost £100.00 plus V.A.T per pair. If the tubes are not replaced there will be never be any damping in the worn area of the cartridge tube."
Charming eh? Both very non-cheap upgrades. You pays yer money and takes your choice...
Note that bit about the lack of rebound damping - this is why I went to 10 weight fork oil. It's more controlled entering a bend and to compensate for the strong compression, I backed that right off to about 2 clicks. Not perfect by any means, but better than standard. And free!
The worrying bit is what Maxton say about worn tubes. I really don't know what to say about that because K-Tech don't mention it.
![[Image: 125377.png]](http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-uk/125377.png)