Springs & Shocks

[thumpn]

Hey guys,

Im thinking about replacing the shock and spring on the back of my 93 KLX650, Just curious on finding out what brand I should go for? I need it to support around 140kg with riding gear.

Cheers,
Rob

[Wobbly]

Brand is probably not particularly important, but the spring weighting is. Eibach are usually fairly well priced. The calculator on the racetech is a way of approximating spring weight, though it does sometimes give funny results.

http://www.racetech.com/evalving/menu/searchdirt.asp

According to it anyway, you're probably looking at around a 8.7-9.0kg spring (compared to the standard 7.4). Worthwhile checking some forums to see what other people run though to sanity check that sort of number.

[Bomber640]

I'm not really familiar with the type of damper on the KLX rob (Kayaba maybe?), but have you thought about just getting the original one rebuilt? Works out a fair bit cheaper, and then you don't have to worry about re-valving to suit your bike. But then again, I'm a tightarse when it comes to things like that... As far as the spring is concerned, at 140kg you probably need a higher spring rate. I'm guessing that when you've got the sag set how you like it sitting on the bike, that it tops out pretty hard when you get off it? or vice versa, when it doesn't top out hard unloaded there's too much sag with you sitting on it? These problems arise because the spring is too soft for a real man, and the only way around them is to get a stiffer one ;)