Planning for future mods, I emailed Maxton to see what they could do to sort the forks & how much. This is the spec sheet they sent me:
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 £405.00 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.
Pretty much everything they mention above rings true to me and I know many people are happy with Maxton's service. I just can't seriously splash almost £700 sorting these forks out - that's almost half the price of the bike :eek I would doubt K-tech would be much cheaper (who knows, they might be even more expensive...) Might have to be plan B, C or D instead...
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 £405.00 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.
Pretty much everything they mention above rings true to me and I know many people are happy with Maxton's service. I just can't seriously splash almost £700 sorting these forks out - that's almost half the price of the bike :eek I would doubt K-tech would be much cheaper (who knows, they might be even more expensive...) Might have to be plan B, C or D instead...
- B - Race tech damping internals & do it myself - about £200 to sort rebound, probably the same again to do the compression valving.
- C - R6 5SL forks - about £300 for forks, front mudguard, heavier fork springs & 5SL axle.
- D - R1 front-end - not that keen as I previously found it harder to insure, also £500+ to fully sort out. Having said that, I'd rather pay £700 for a 2008 R1 front-end than Maxton's 'full monty'...