Hyperstrada Forks Question

There are several comments on spring rates, probably in multiple threads. General consensus seems to be that the stock fork springs are too light and have a lot of preload to compensate. I guess spacers would just add to that. If I had the funds right now, and wasn't riding regularly, I would get new springs for my weight and riding, new oil and a revalve (both legs, not one as in stock). Maybe this coming winter... of course, just new springs and oil would already do a lot.

Yeah I think maybe I should get the right springs for my weight and then worry about the oil heavier or lighter.

I am in the process of having the forks upgraded at Maxton suspension. My bike is a 2013 standard hight version. Apparently the forks are quite cheep units considering the price of the bike.

The right fork is doing all the work (similar to my old Monster 796), the left fork can't even be modified to receive the new Maxton cartridge. As such they are re-building the right leg as best they can.

Once I get the bike back, I could post my views of the mods if it helps.

HyperAl said:

I am in the process of having the forks upgraded at Maxton suspension. My bike is a 2013 standard hight version. Apparently the forks are quite cheep units considering the price of the bike.

The right fork is doing all the work (similar to my old Monster 796), the left fork can't even be modified to receive the new Maxton cartridge. As such they are re-building the right leg as best they can.

Once I get the bike back, I could post my views of the mods if it helps.

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They might not be the best, but one fork is NOT doing all the work.

I think what he means is that there is no damping in the left leg.

BlueSwede said:

I think what he means is that there is no damping in the left leg.

Click to expand...

You might be right, it could be just a casual statement - but if he's redoing his suspension he'd better have a good idea of what each fork is doing.

To quote zippy's post in the suspension thread: "Here's a fact: There are absolutely ZERO damping related parts in that LH fork assembly. It is exactly as I posted, and I saw those innards with my own eyes. There's a compression (main) spring, the rebound ("top out") spring and preload assembly, and a plastic spacer. The RH has a two-way damping assembly, the small round thing to the right of center in my pic. "

in short: One fork deals with compression, the other rebound.

The other thought is that, if the shop told him that one fork does nothing, they might end up working on only one fork thus duplicating the other's function. That can't turn out well.

The last thought is that it's just misinformation for others reading the thread.

appliance821 said:

You might be right, it could be just a casual statement - but if he's redoing his suspension he'd better have a good idea of what each fork is doing.

To quote zippy's post in the suspension thread: "Here's a fact: There are absolutely ZERO damping related parts in that LH fork assembly. It is exactly as I posted, and I saw those innards with my own eyes. There's a compression (main) spring, the rebound ("top out") spring and preload assembly, and a plastic spacer. The RH has a two-way damping assembly, the small round thing to the right of center in my pic. "

in short: One fork deals with compression, the other rebound.

The other thought is that, if the shop told him that one fork does nothing, they might end up working on only one fork thus duplicating the other's function. That can't turn out well.

The last thought is that it's just misinformation for others reading the thread.

Click to expand...

WTF? All damping is in the RH fork, period. I saw the internals with my own eyes, have you done the same?

A pair of stiffer springs and less preload is the very least that should be done to the stock forks. I don't know what they were smoking back in Borgo Panigale, but this was a serious mistake. Our $5000 KTM 390 Duke came with better forks!

zippy49 said:

WTF? All damping is in the RH fork, period. I saw the internals with my own eyes, have you done the same?

A pair of stiffer springs and less preload is the very least that should be done to the stock forks. I don't know what they were smoking back in Borgo Panigale, but this was a serious mistake. Our $5000 KTM 390 Duke came with better forks!

Click to expand...

No offense intended. It's a a design that seems to have originated with Yamaha and they use it on a number of machines including their most sophisticated motogp based bikes:

"For stable damping characteristics and more efficient adjustment, the front forks have separated damping functions, with the compression damping handled by the left fork, and the rebound damping handled by the right fork. "

By separating the functions it seems you can adjust one without directly affecting the other. But, yeah - our bikes have no adjustments so the purpose seems moot.

But the fork is not doing nothing - that's all I'm saying here, and if someone is working on their suspension, that might be an important fact.

Yeah - and ktm owns wp - they're smart people.

Lots of passion about the fine details of the suspension on the hyperstada. I have just collected my bike today and it seems to work better now.

I don't want to get into any arguments about what the left leg is doing but the work Maxton have just done for me has been worth while. I will need to get a few more miles under my belt before I can provide a decent review so give me a week or so.

The viscosity of the fluid in the LH fork makes zero difference, as there are no damping parts in there. Increasing the viscosity in the RH fork just makes the too-harsh compression damping worse. When RT did mine, they used 5W with a modified Z1000 gold valve. This was the best $500 I've ever spent on a bike.

RT has it right...first of all, the spring rate has to be correct for your weight and riding style. Everything else comes after that.