So I woke up this morning resolved to at least sort out my rear shock valving. I removed the rear shock from the bike last night just in case the Racetech dealer needed it to check anything on the parts I wanted to buy.

I turned up at Shock Treatment (the dealer) without an appointment or anything and unfortunately the guy who does the valving was away today. When told the guy there what I wanted he went off and did a search for the parts he needed. Turns out the KLX has one of 2 different rear shocks, so he needed to inspect my shock to make sure I bought the right stuff - so I am glad I had removed it last night.

Turns out that although my bike is a 2010 KLX250S the shock is actually the same as the US KLX250SF - which I believe is the Motard edition of the bike. So the parts that I need is the SMGV 4401NV kit. The guy pointed out that the kit instructions came with a SINGLE USE code for getting the recommended valving shim configurations I need.

Just to fill you in, the instructions have tables with the various shim configurations for Low Speed, Mid Speed, and High Speed on the compression valving, and then for Low Speed and High Speed on the rebound valving. But to know what setup you need for yourself you need to use the Racetech website's "Digital Valving Search" function. In there you select your bike type (Dirt, Street, or ATV), Brand, Model, and Year. Then you fill in your registration details along with your weight and the Single Use codes for the valving. Then you fill in some details like your fuel tank size, the type of riding you do, your skill level, and your "Stiffness" preference. It will then spit out your recommended valving.

Given I only intended doing the shock today I only entered the shock single-use code and was disappointed to see that, because of the variants of the shock available for my bike, I need to call up Racetech or my authorised dealer. Because the guy that handles the valving configurations wasn't in today though, they couldn't help. So I'll have to wait till Monday to chat to him about what configurations I need. Bummer.

On the plus side, the instructions are pretty detailed and easy to follow - between them and the Racetech Motorcycle Suspension Bible with its detailed step-by-step guide (with photo's) I reckon I will be able to do the job myself. The online valving guide also gives you recommendations on the shock oil, Nitrogen Pressure, spring rate, shaft nut torque, the amount of preload and sag you should aim for, and the clicker settings to start with.

OK, so I can't do the shock then - no problem, as I have the fork bits too so I figured I'd work on them instead. So I opened the kit and read through the instructions (like a good boy) then went online to the "Digital Valving Search" and plugged in my details again. But obviously I took too many IDIOT pills this morning as I accidentally left the weight radio selector on "LBS" instead of changing it to "KG's"... so when I got to the last screen and reviewed the info it didn't really make sense ... I KNOW for a fact that the 0.43kg/mm spring is WAY too soft for me, so I started looking for why it had recommended that to me. And then I saw my mistake with the weight units Did I mention that the code given is a SINGLE USE only code? Damnit! So now I am going to have to wait until Monday to ask what the shim configurations I need for the fork are too.

So my take-away from today is that it looks like doing the valving yourself is a do-able task, but don't be as absent minded as me when entering the information into the Ractech site and if your bike has variations then leave the revalving to a day that the tuner is available to assist.

It would have been a whole lot quicker and easier to just take the bike to the tuner and have them work their magic, but the whole point of me keeping the bike is to learn how to do this stuff myself. So now I am just going to have to wait another week before I can sort the bike out. One of the more frustrating things is that because I have taken the shock out and released the pressure in the blabber I can't even ride the bike around town to run-in the new top-end.

 

Congratulations on persisting to do it yourself! That's the way you'll learn.

Ride on
Brewster

 

Good lessons are not always easy to learn.
Looking forward to hearing how it turns out. I wasn't confident enough to do my forks and haven't touched the shock yet. I do plan to do the shock this coming winter.

 

Yeah, when you get everything sorted out on the Gold Valve kit, you should be really happy with the setup. Here's the link where I did mine some time ago. I like the alternate shim stack optionss they give you on either side of the optimum recommended setup. On the fork, I did go back in and soften it up just a bit.


https://www.kawasakiforums.com/forum...r-shock-31416/