Race Tech Spring Install

Hellgate · Jan 22, 2008

Well another step in dialing in the FZ was completed...the wife called this afternoon and said a box showed up...hummm...gotta be springs! No hookie from work today however, and to wait.

From day one I felt the front end of the bike was under sprung. During semi-hard braking I had the fork bottom out and in normal braking it felt like too soft. I weigh 175 lbs and I like to ride two up with my wife, that was the whole point of getting the FZ vs. a true sport bike.

I first went to my local Cycle Gear shop. They have been very helpful in guiding me into the right products and they are super fast on delivery, one to two days. Yeah I pay a bit more but the advise is worth it to me. They called Race Tech and asked about springs for the 07 FZ6 as none of their catalogues listed an RT spring for the 07. The dude at RT said to pull the stock spring measure it and they would make one up for me. So I pull spring, measure, CG calls RT with dimentions...CG calls me and says RT is going to sell the springs to them for retail so the cost to me would me close to $175! CG tells me to call RT directly. I do and they send the 04 to 06 spring which now includes the 07, p/n: FRSP S3732.

I decided to go with the .90 weight spring. I saw that DefyInertia installed the .95 and he is 170 lbs and tracks his bike so .90 seemed okay. The RT web site had me at .859, so I rounded up.

The install was pretty easy and took about 2 hours.

The photo is the stock spring and spacer, top, and RT spring and spacer, bottom.

DefyInertia · Jan 22, 2008

Cool...what weight oil did you put back in - or did you just yank the old springs out while leaving the stock oil in - and did you get to ride the bike yet???

The two-up benefits of this mod are not to be underestimated :thumbup:

reiobard · Jan 22, 2008

very cool, did you get to go on a test ride? how much better is it?

Hellgate · Jan 22, 2008

DefyInertia's post on his install was very, very helpful. I was floored that Yamaha doesn't have an oil drain screw in the slider and I really didn't want to take the front end apart. I went to Sears and bought a syphon/pump for $4.95. My plan was to pump the oil out of the leg instead of removing the leg and pouring the oil out. Well at 55 degrees the heavy fork oil wasn't pumping well at all. However I used the old syphon the gas out of the gas tank trick and got the oil flowing out. The tricky part was getting the hose into the lower chamber of the fork. I used a cleaning rod from my gun cleaning kit to guide the hose into the bottom of the leg. Needless to say it took some time to drain, but it did. While the first leg was draining I cut the spacers, 7 1/4 inches, DefyInertia used 7 3/8's so I went with a bit less.

So here is where I went Homer...I decide to speed up the process by draining the second leg while I install the first spring...I remove the second fork cap and...the bike lowers down and the forks a totally compressed. Oops. The bike is on the center stand so no worries.

I get the second leg draining and get ready to install the first spring. I drop in the spring and crap! There ain't no room in the fork leg for the spacer Bubba! No worries I grab the triple clamp lift the bike up and try to cram the fork cap and spacer into place. I hear splashing sound. Crap! The oil from the second left is now draining on the garage floor. So the brain kicks in, I grab a paint bucket and shove it under the header. Problem solved. Screw the syphon, I hook the hose up to the Mity Vac and pump out the rest of the oil. Geeez!

I used 400 ml of 15 wt oil. I only drained about 360 ml of stock oil out so 400 sounded good. DefyInertia used 450.

The weather is crap so I won't be able to ride until Friday or the weekend so I'll let y'all know how it works. From the simple hold the brake and pump test it is much better.

Pete

DefyInertia · Jan 22, 2008

Sounds like quite an adventure! Glad it all worked out. I've heard of others using the syphon method as well.

My spacers have since been cut down to 6 and 3/4 inches which gives me sag of ~30mm with all my gear on and my front end dropped about 20mm from flush. What kind of sag are you getting from your setup? Did you drop your forks in the triples at all?

Hellgate · Jan 22, 2008

DefyInertia said:
Sounds like quite an adventure! Glad it all worked out. I've heard of others using the syphon method as well.

My spacers have since been cut down to 6 and 3/4 inches which gives me sag of ~30mm with all my gear on and my front end dropped about 20mm from flush. What kind of sag are you getting from your setup? Did you drop your forks in the triples at all?

Not much sag, I need to measure it still. By eyeballing I'd guess 15 to 20 mm. My fork legs are at the stock setting. I was thinking of sliding them up about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch. What do you think?

Good to hear about cutting the spacers too. I have a feeling I may end up doing the same. I need to ride it a bit and see.

Pete

DefyInertia · Jan 22, 2008

Hellgate said:
Not much sag, I need to measure it still. By eyeballing I'd guess 15 to 20 mm. My fork legs are at the stock setting. I was thinking of sliding them up about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch. What do you think?

Good to hear about cutting the spacers too. I have a feeling I may end up doing the same. I need to ride it a bit and see.

Pete

1/4 to 1/2 would be fine...mine are at 20mm which is a touch over 3/4 inch...keep in mind this will affect your sag as well.

15 to 20mm of sag is pretty low...for the street you probably want between 30 to 35mm but it's not like you're doing something really dangerous by running 15mm. Just ride the bike and make small adjustments untill you're in a reasonable range and like the way the bike feels. :thumbup:

reiobard · Jan 23, 2008

Hellgate said:
DefyInertia's post on his install was very, very helpful. I was floored that Yamaha doesn't have an oil drain screw in the slider and I really didn't want to take the front end apart. I went to Sears and bought a syphon/pump for $4.95. My plan was to pump the oil out of the leg instead of removing the leg and pouring the oil out. Well at 55 degrees the heavy fork oil wasn't pumping well at all. However I used the old syphon the gas out of the gas tank trick and got the oil flowing out. The tricky part was getting the hose into the lower chamber of the fork. I used a cleaning rod from my gun cleaning kit to guide the hose into the bottom of the leg. Needless to say it took some time to drain, but it did. While the first leg was draining I cut the spacers, 7 1/4 inches, DefyInertia used 7 3/8's so I went with a bit less.

So here is where I went Homer...I decide to speed up the process by draining the second leg while I install the first spring...I remove the second fork cap and...the bike lowers down and the forks a totally compressed. Oops. The bike is on the center stand so no worries.

I get the second leg draining and get ready to install the first spring. I drop in the spring and crap! There ain't no room in the fork leg for the spacer Bubba! No worries I grab the triple clamp lift the bike up and try to cram the fork cap and spacer into place. I hear splashing sound. Crap! The oil from the second left is now draining on the garage floor. So the brain kicks in, I grab a paint bucket and shove it under the header. Problem solved. Screw the syphon, I hook the hose up to the Mity Vac and pump out the rest of the oil. Geeez!

I used 400 ml of 15 wt oil. I only drained about 360 ml of stock oil out so 400 sounded good. DefyInertia used 450.

The weather is crap so I won't be able to ride until Friday or the weekend so I'll let y'all know how it works. From the simple hold the brake and pump test it is much better.

Pete

definately sounds like an adventure, i look forward to the review on the oil swap and spring install.

madmanmaigret · Jan 23, 2008

DefyInertia said:
Sounds like quite an adventure! Glad it all worked out. I've heard of others using the syphon method as well.

My spacers have since been cut down to 6 and 3/4 inches which gives me sag of ~30mm with all my gear on and my front end dropped about 20mm from flush. What kind of sag are you getting from your setup? Did you drop your forks in the triples at all?

kind of off topic but would just dropping the forks in the triple be beneficial at all or counter-productive? I saw how they sat in there and thought about it to see what it looked like (little lower). but then i thought i might endo more easily seeing how the weight would shift. any ideas?

DefyInertia · Jan 23, 2008

madmanmaigret said:
kind of off topic but would just dropping the forks in the triple be beneficial at all or counter-productive? I saw how they sat in there and thought about it to see what it looked like (little lower). but then i thought i might endo more easily seeing how the weight would shift. any ideas?

Certianly not counter-productive but there are other considerations to be made.

Our bike does not like to turn or hold a tight line while leaned over at speed. Dropping the front improves initial turn-in and makes mid-corner adjustments easier. It also puts more weight on the front.

At one point I had mine dropped about 1.5 inches and the endo thing was an issue for sure. I've found my current setting of 20mm to be just about perfect; I can late brake past liter bikes all day without completely losing the rear end.

madmanmaigret · Jan 23, 2008

thanks defy! free mods are for me!

DefyInertia · Jan 23, 2008

I'd be hesitant to drop the front with the stock springs and oil...the dive will only get worse.

Hellgate · Jan 23, 2008

DefyInertia said:
I'd be hesitant to drop the front with the stock springs and oil...the dive will only get worse.

Agreed. One of the reasons to drop the front end with the new springs is because is not longer dives as deep during braking. The result is less rake (the more dive, the more rake, more rake quicker steering). If you slide it up without the heavier springs the rake may become too steep. You can try it and see. There is no one solution. You have to play with it and see what works for you.

When I was racing after I had installed springs, longer spacers and heavier oil, the typical drop was a 1/2 inch. This was for my RDs, RZs and XZs, all smaller bikes.

It also really depands on what you want to do with your bike. If it is for commuting and touring, I'd say leave it stock. For sport riding and tracks, slide it up a bit if it has upgraded springs.

madmanmaigret · Jan 23, 2008

ahhhhhh, that is what i was originally gettin at. I dont ride hard or get too much lean in my turns (i still stick my foot out on sharp turns like i am on a dirt bike) but i was thinking just asthetically (sp) it would look better lower in the front.

Hellgate · Jan 23, 2008

madmanmaigret said:
ahhhhhh, that is what i was originally gettin at. I dont ride hard or get too much lean in my turns (i still stick my foot out on sharp turns like i am on a dirt bike) but i was thinking just asthetically (sp) it would look better lower in the front.

Now that is funny! Can I hi-jack my own thread??? When I was roadracing a flat track guy showed up to race one day. The flag dropped, we hit it and he got the hole shot on me but I had the inside line. As we set up for the turn the idiot stuck his foot out, being a flat tracker it came natural. His foot was in my line. Well I didn't mean to, but I ran his foot over! That learned him good not to stick his feet out!

Boneman · Jan 23, 2008

madmanmaigret said:
ahhhhhh, ...(i still stick my foot out on sharp turns like i am on a dirt bike).

Please tell me you're joking about this... Yikes dude. You NEVER want to be taking your foot off the pegs in turns on ashphalt!!! Good way to loose a leg and/or your bike!

DefyInertia · Jan 23, 2008

^^^ unless you're rockin' a supermoto and sliding is your forte

madmanmaigret · Jan 23, 2008

it is only really when i make a sharp turn going slow, like turning to back into my parking spot at work. I dont put my foot down i just stick it out to help balance and in case i start to go down.

i have been trying really hard to break myself of this habit.

on a positive note i have gotten much better at counter-steering.

Boneman · Jan 23, 2008

DefyInertia said:
^^^ unless you're rockin' a supermoto and sliding is your forte

Very true. I saw some Supermoto on TV the other week...man that looks like a blast!

DefyInertia · Jan 23, 2008

yeah, madman. I've actually caught my fully loaded FZ6 with my foot before at 3 or 5 MPH...just enough push back with my leg to keep her upright. Being 6'3" sucks for the track and for comfort but really kicks ass when it comes to slow speed moves and the like.

So how about them RT springs? lol

Race Tech Spring Install

Moto Demi-God

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Samurai FZ Soldier

Moto Demi-God

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Moto Demi-God

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Samurai FZ Soldier

Mad like crazy not angry

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Mad like crazy not angry

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Moto Demi-God

Mad like crazy not angry

Moto Demi-God

Instructor

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Mad like crazy not angry

Instructor

Former '04 FZ6 Rider

Similar threads