....and what will your son say about you 'owning' HIM with the 331?

 

LOL, Funny you should ask that question. He was asking me why, if I was buying the same bike, but used, would I be selling my pretty new bike to him for another bike that is the same year?? That made no sense to him... (smart boy!!)

Lets just say that after explaining the 331 and pumper upgrades and what they meant in terms of performance that he was none too happy and said something to the effect of: "Ah man... your going to smoke my out on the trails"................YEP...

 

Thanks johnnyz62 for showing how to do it with the forks still installed. Without ever having done it before I guess I err'd on the side of caution and removed them. But at least now folks have some photos to go by and will know what to expect when the dig in there. I had no idea what to expect going in, and personally I think that is 90% of the battle, for me at least. That's one of the reasons I post up photos of these mods, to help the next guy. If enough people reciprocate, every major mod will be covered nicely.

Cheers!

 

LOL!

 

A friend and I just did front and rear spring installs on our bikesand thought we'de post some things we found so that others can save some troubles.

Firstly, I went with 44 Moto-Pro springs for my front as I weigh 195 lbs. They fit perfect without mods and felt real sweet on the initial ride.

My buddy if 145 lbs so he softened the rear spring by using a 5.4 spring again from Moto-Pro. He wanted a lower seat height and softer suspension in the rearand decided against lowering links as it messes with suspension geometry and make ride sag and spring weight calcs more difficult... or so we believe. Once done, he got about 1-1/2 inch lower seat height and nice improvement in ride feel once sag etc. was set.

Front Fork Springs Install:
[ul][*]Handlebars should be removed to access the 30mm caps effectively[*]We had the bike on a bike stand and it didnt seem that the end caps would come of fully. Well, you need to apply some load to the front forks (ex. 2-3 hunks of 2x4 lumber under the front tire to put some load on it) and then the spring assemblywill come out enough to work with once the caps are fully unscrewed.[*]You grab the nut below the end cap with a 17mm wrench and hold while undoing the 30mm cap but when its finally detached you can lose the internals as they will drop down the fork if you let themgo - theycan easily befished out with a coat hanger modified for the job. We found that is was best to reach a 15mm wrench between the spring coils just below the 17mm nut and this way we could keep the internals from dropping while we hand turned the spring to remove thread it up for removal. Note - you will have to reach in with a pair of needle nose pliers or something to grab the internals when the spring is almost fully turned out as the spring coil gap tightens towards the end, and hold things in place until you can fully remove the stock spring.Fitting the new springis the reverse of removal. Also, for holding the internals with a 15mm wrench, thinner wrenches are better, ours was a bit thick and was a tight fit getting it in between the coil springs.[*]Total time approx. 45 minutes for both springseven with ourless than perfect technique.[/ul]
Rear Shock Spring Install:
[ul][*]Pretty straight forward, no tricks.[*]Remove side plastic panels from left side of bike[*]Remove tension from spring by turning the lock rings on top the spring assembly[*]Remove upper and lower shock bolts[*]Pull shock assembly out the left side[*]Replace the spring, reassemble and set sag.[*]30 minutes install time[/ul]
Thats all for now.

 

When ordering from Motopro - what size (diameter and length) fork springs are needed? The calculator on their website only specifies the spring rate.

Has anyone installed the valving kit? If so, what special tools were needed?

 

Call them up on the phone, they'll make sure you get the right parts.

 

i must say without all of you contributing to this post i would never have even thought of trying this myself. i've read this entire post so many times i had it memorized. i got the moto-pro .44kg fork springs(which are now $134 plus shipping) and did the swap all by myself. thanks to everyone who helped.

 

Sounds good Craig, had a chance to try them out yet?

 

no not yet. i may take it out tommorrow to get the rebound set for next week. i have that pine barrons dual sport ride.