Funny. The few times I've been riding with other people this summer, I had a few invites to try their "high class" bikes: Husky, KTM, KX250F, etc. I declined, for fear that I would not want to ride my KLX anymore... I am still at the stage of improving my skills, so I feel the KLX is perfect for me now (and may be for the long term too).

These discussions here are making me considering the revalve eventually. But for now, I am contemplating changing the fork oil. Is this something other KLXers do on a regular basis, ex: once a year?

 

Can I pull the valves out the bottom to change the oil? I see they have a big Internal hex.

I would change the oil first to something lighter. I ride black top only. I am told the SF model has stiffer springs which is fine, but I NEVER use all the suspension travel front or rear.

Still going with gold valves and will install them my self.

David

 

I rode my buddies 125 that had suspension reworked to the tune of $1000. He loved it. I hated it. It felt like I was riding one of those plastic horse toys suspended with 4 springs.
I much preferred my 125 with correct weight springs, and properly chosen oil.

Not to suggest that suspension work is a waste of money, but I prefer to explore other tuning options before I spend the money.

Change your oil. You may pick up some tuning experience from doing it.

 

That hex fitting on the bottom attaches directly to the bottom of the damper assembly. You need an impact wrench to turn the 14mm hex and have a tool to hold the top of the damper rod to keep it from spinning. Usually an impact will spin off the hex on most setups like this, but not this one. It will spin all day. Besides, you'll need the tool to hold the damper rod when you put it back together.

Did I buy the special tool?...heck no. I got an aluminum bicycle seatpost that was a little over an inch in diameter and used a file and grinder to make a 4-prong holder to retain the top of the damper rod. Being aluminum, the seatpost was fairly easy to modify, and the setup worked excellently.

 

zomby, while I would agree that most OEM suspension components can be tweaked within a level of acceptable performance by oil weight, oil level, and spring rate, the KLX compression piston valves just don't flow enough oil. I talked to 3 different suspension companies who mod suspensions...Moto Pro, Cogent, and Race Tech. The first words out of their mouths on the KLX250/300 series was that the compression pistons are the problem...a big problem. I had already come to that conclusion but thought that perhaps going to a lower weight oil in the fork would overcome this. The guy at Cogent owns a KLX250S, and he had tried this. He said the rebound became way too fast. Since there's no adjustment or access to the rebound stack within the closed damper rod as it's designed, swapping the compression piston is the only reasonable fix. Later the Cogent guy actually opened up the damper rod to modify the rebound stack...not something you can do at home, generally speaking...but he reported he still had to replace those compression pistons to achieve good performance.

That said, a stock KLX fork benefits greatly from the right spring rate, quality oil, and the right oil level, but it will never achieve nirvana until the restrictive pistons are replaced. With the right springs in the fork, I'd suggest lowering the 5wt oil level to well below the suggested level. With the right springs and those restrictive pistons, you'll almost never be able to bottom this fork. And don't be fooled...what is often described as bottoming is actually the compression spike when the fork basically hydraulic locks because of those restrictive pistons. Watch the "dust line" on your fork legs to see where your travel is actually stopping.

On your buddy's 125 suspension work, you might not like the revalved/resprung setup on my KLX. That's the difference and the beauty of a major suspension tweak. It should fit the preferences and needs of the owner.

 

I think with the proper spring rate, and some creative tinkering, you can make most modern suspensions work well.
Every single suspension shop I spoke to, told me the same thing about my RM, but I have a problem buying a brand new, state of the art MX bike, then dropping a small bundle to 'fix' the suspension.
A rider in our club runs a side business doing race tech suspension stuff. His philosophy is, when you want a revalve, we'll make sure your springs are right, then do an oil change first. Tell me what it's doing, and we go from there. We did that, and seeing what a difference the oil made, I made my own changes, and was able to make it work beautifully.
I also agree that it's definitely an individual thing, as I'm very happy with my KLX.

I think my buddy spent $1000 on his suspension, and has no idea how to set it up.

 

Suspensions are all relative, in some ways.

There are guys on old-school twin shock bikes with 4 inches of front fork travel that can outride me all day long. ZW can outride me on his oil changed KLX bike, but, I just HATED it, and went for a revalve.

The compression pistons on the front forks of the KLX are cheap-o and inadequate compared to what they CAN be, with very, very little additional cost compared to OEM. When you have to go back in and replace them, the costs are much higher. Kawasaki may have saved 50.00 when they built the bike, but, it's going to cost around 200.00 to go back in and make it what it should have been.

Heck, if it does what an individual thinks is "good enough", then it's good enough...unless a situation arises where a "really-good" suspension keeps that individual from wrecking. Washouts come to mind when flying across the desert....