I had these sitting on my desk for the better part of 10 months before I had installed them. Reason being: I thought I had to completely disassemble the forks to get at the dampner rods: wrong. Laziness got the better of me and I had a rainy day to figure it out. After finding out all I had to do was to loosen the fixing bolt at the bottom of the forks and merely tip them over, out they came.
Impressions: When doing the usual parking lot "squish" things seem maybe a bit firmer than usual, you have no idea till you go out and take a ride. First thing you'll notice is when you just go down the road: the forks seem more compliant, more supple over smaller bumps, even if all you changed was installing the valves like I did. Then when you feel like it, aim for something a little bigger, like a small pothole: the suspension soaks it up. Before the install, I would do the anticipatory teeth clench and muscle tense, no such drama now.
Under braking, you'll certainly notice less dive to the point where the brakes actually feel more solid because the forces are being placed to stop the bike, not squish down the front end. Ditto for shifting gears and line changes, they make the front end feel more planted. These certainly will not make your bike handle like it has an Ohlins SBK front end or even a GSXR but I can assure you the change is worthwhile and the cost at a fraction of a front end swap. You still have to use oil viscosity to alter rebound, but the valves are a step in the right direction.
Installation quirks: RT wants you to expand the holes in the dampner rod with a 5/8th bit. Thing is, they were damn near that size already, really was no point. Since I didn't have the instructions at the time, I spent the better part of a day searching through the SV site which shares the same forks (for the most part). Read on.
Since most of the suggestions were not to drill another set of holes above because it affects the rebound circuit, I opted to drill out the upper holes (of four) to 7/16th (like most of the SV guys) and left the bottom ones stock and it worked out fine. On compression with no springs installed, there was no resistance whatsoever compressing the stanchions while still posessing rebound pulling up on the tubes. Also, there is no rebound circuit like the SV rods, so nothing to braze shut either.
I pre-adjusted the emulators to 2.5 turns (they're shipped at 2 turns) and 100mm oil height (stock Suzuki) versus the 120mm height that RT suggests. I used 15 wt oil. Springs are cut down stockers a la NC Rick from Max Zuki. My weight with gear is 155-160, sag is set at 30mm front/25 mm rear with a GSXR1100 rear shock. I'd say I'm an aggressive back road rider. So far, I don't think I have to go back in to fish them out and readjust.
Hope this helps someone.
-Randy
Topic: Race Tech Gold Valves: yes they're worth it. (Read 2177 times)