SuzukiSavage.com - Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe

Ruttly Serious Thumper Offline Thumpers Rule Posts: 5099 Manteca , CA Gender:	Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe Reply #15 - 06/29/16 at 12:10:50 It's very easy pump it in with a caulking gun till it comes out other end, put bars in a vise and push tip of tube tight to end of bars and pump it full , if using bar end mirrors leave enough space for them , also found bars don't bend as easy if you take a spill !
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Gary_in_NJ

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Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe
Reply #16 - 06/29/16 at 13:12:40

Armen wrote on 06/29/16 at 11:46:05:
So, in it's current incarnation, what weight oil, what quantity or level?
And current settings on the Emulators?
thanks,

15wt BelRay Fork Oil (Fork oil weights are all over the place from manufacturer to manufacturer)
140mm air gap
2-3/4 Turns out on the blue spring
Preload as required to get the desired sag

But with that said, my setting are not what you will use. Your bike weight/configuration, rider weight, spring type and rate and riding style/preferences will determine YOUR final setting. If you want the best ride and performance, you're gonna have to play with the settings a bit. It's well worth the effort.

For a baseline I would use:

15wt Fork Oil (I've always used Bel Ray)
2-1/2 Turns on the GVE w/Blue Spring
140mm Air Gap (spring out, GVE in, fork retracted)

An adjustable fork cap makes setting preload/sag so much easier, and it just looks right.

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« Last Edit: 06/30/16 at 06:24:47 by Gary_in_NJ »

A life-time student of motorcycling.
LS650 Cafe, DRZ400SM, FZ6N, SV650S, CB900C, Ducati ST2, CB550F-SS
My LS650=> http://suzukisavage.com/yabb2.2/Attachments/Left.JPG

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Armen Serious Thumper Offline Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey Posts: 1452	Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe Reply #17 - 06/29/16 at 13:22:42 Thanks muchly for the info. It'll provide a good starting point. Got the pre-load adjustable caps. Cheap and easy on Ebay, and lighter than stock At 140 lbs, I might be doing lighter fork oil. Now that I've stripped so much crapola off the bike, it's easy to work on. Really appreciate your efforts. thanks, -Armen
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe Reply #18 - 06/29/16 at 15:30:17 With 140 pounds of you, some mods, some weight reduction on the bike and you'll be making some pretty fun zero to sixty times..
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Gary_in_NJ

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Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe
Reply #19 - 06/30/16 at 06:24:19

Armen wrote on 06/29/16 at 13:22:42:
At 140 lbs, I might be doing lighter fork oil.

You body weight doesn't have a significant effect for this element. In forks with GVE's, the weight of the fork oil controls the rate of rebound damping. If you need to slow rebound use a heavier weight oil (by the same manufacturer as there is no consistency between manufacturers). Do the opposite to quicken rebound.

Damping is the interplay between the spring and the valving. The spring handles the vast majority of weight transfer, but the damping (rebound and compression) takes that mechanical movement and controls its speed (by converting it into heat).

Compression (adjusted by the nut in the GVE) is the rate at which the fork compresses like when you hit a bump or grab a hand-full of brakes. Rebound is the time it takes for the spring to return to (or seek) it's home point.

The amount of rebound in the forks determines the "plushness" of the forks. At one end of the spectrum you can have forks that have a plush ride, but handling will suffer - the forks will lack feedback to the rider making the bike feel vague or as I like to say, spooky. At the opposite end of the spectrum you can have a suspension that is rough riding and it will feel "darty".

I'd start off with 15wt oil. If the forks feel "floaty" like a 1970's Cadillac then you'll want to increase the viscosity. Even if the forks feel plush, but are darty, you will need to use a lower viscosity.

15wt works well in most applications and is a good baseline.

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A life-time student of motorcycling.
LS650 Cafe, DRZ400SM, FZ6N, SV650S, CB900C, Ducati ST2, CB550F-SS
My LS650=> http://suzukisavage.com/yabb2.2/Attachments/Left.JPG

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Gary_in_NJ Serious Thumper Offline LS650 Cafe Racer Posts: 2633 Amongst the Twisty Roads	Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe Reply #20 - 06/30/16 at 06:37:06 Here's a graph I found on Sport Rider
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Armen Serious Thumper Offline Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey Posts: 1452	Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe Reply #21 - 06/30/16 at 07:23:07 Thanks. The last bike I out Emulators in, i started with 15W as per their instructions, and ended up going lighter. 10w, I think.
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Gary_in_NJ

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Re: Thoughts on my RYCA Cafe
Reply #22 - 07/01/16 at 06:16:26

I've been thinking about the tuning aspect of the cafe style forks. I gave it enough thought to write up a simple "how to" on tuning the forks. This can be found in my fork thread in the tech section. It has been written for someone that knows they they want to make changes, but doesn't know what to change or why it needs to be changed.

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A life-time student of motorcycling.
LS650 Cafe, DRZ400SM, FZ6N, SV650S, CB900C, Ducati ST2, CB550F-SS
My LS650=> http://suzukisavage.com/yabb2.2/Attachments/Left.JPG

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