Greg, as nifty as that tool is you can use even a 3/8" electric impact while the springs are in to loosen the bolts: no wrestling. Little late now but thought I would put it out there.
Installation is reverse of removal. And if you already have the springs out and you have impact: use a wooden broomhandle. Works just as well.
Also, poor man's .90kg springs: cut off the tighter portion of the progressive coils, also known as the NC Rick mod. Add PVC spacers for preload as necessary. Try this before dumping $200 into springs since you'll be shit-canning your old springs anyway.
When you install your gold valves: do not hog out the holes to their suggested numbers, instead go to 1/2" (I think they want 3/8, it's been a LONG time since I did this.) and open up all the holes, not just the bottom and don't drill any additional. It completely eliminates the circuit at all oil heights forcing the DR to give all the work to the gold valves. I did not drill any additional holes since I hogged out the others.
I did this because I was afraid of weakening the DR even further with the hole size they suggested. This worked just fine.
This is my setup and how I do forks.
-Randy
Yeah, my Ace Hardware tool is cute. I don't have an impact driver (either electric or air powered) so this will have to do.
I did the Race Tech Gold Valve Emulator modification on a set of Kawasaki EX-250 forks about 7 years ago. I can't remember the specifics of things like the holes in the Damper Rods but I got very good results, performance/handling, from the modification. I do think I remember being concerned about the size of the holes I had to drill in the Damper Rods.
For the Kawasaki EX-250 I put in .70 kg/mm Sonic Springs. The Bandit 400 is a bit heavier than the EX-250 so I'm going with .85 kg/mm Race Tech springs on it.
As to the price of new springs, I don't mind spending the money on the Bandit. The way I see the Bandit is this: If there was a brand new Suzuki 4-cylinder 400cc sport bike sitting on the showroom floor in a dealership today, I would buy it. No question. And it would probably cost close to $10,000. But there's no such thing in the U.S. so I'm left with no choice but to reach back in history to get what I want. In the end this Bandit, even with all the things I'm doing to it, will be much cheaper than purchasing a brand new 4-cylinder 400cc sport bike (if such a thing existed in the U.S.).
I do have to admit that I really enjoy tinkering with machinery, so having to refurbish and modify an older motorcycle is fine with me.