ST1300 - Race Tech Fork Gold Valve and Springs

I jumped the "bike", purchased the ST1300 racetech kit, Fork Cap and Gold Valve Kit with RT springs also G3-S Custom rear Shock.

About myself; i am not a mechanic but usually get by not too bad if not to complicated, i enjoy doing my own maintenance, it takes time but thats ok.

Rear shock was installed with no problems, went pretty easy.

Front fork were pulled and disassemble, no problem again, pretty straight forward.
Got the Gold valve installed, again took the time to understand what i was doing and it went pretty good. Now after seeing the video mentionned in anothe post i'm thinking of removing the valve to see if they were assembled correctly ! Should i dought Race Tech work ? They came pre-assembled.

Now complication, in my case, installing the fork springs, do imake it more complicated then it is, ie, remove the old spring and spacer and install the new spings with spacer.
What about the WASHERS, that is my main headake, don't know what to do !

I've included pictures, i need an exact sequence of things to do for installing the springs ans spacers if required. Please tell me if something is not right.

Also, what is the alum block for ? (pic beside the washers)

Normand

I got the alum block part figured out too late, it's for holding the rod ! (feeling stupid happens sometimes)

So for now my main concern is the washers, can someone explain to me how to managed them. i weight 170lb

OHHHhhhh BOY !!! Yer in WAY over your head ! Go directly to jail, do NOT pass go, do NOT collect 200 dollars !

Um, yea. Anyone who responds to this thread will be humiliated, proven wrong and talked about without mercy. Then the thread will be hi-jacked, and next an esoteric discussion will ensue concerning static v. dynamic measurements, none of which will really help you.

As for me, I couldn't find satisfaction with RT and ultimately swapped the RT Springs for Sonic Springs, which have much better directions and seem to be a much better spring. BTW, what weight oil did you go with? (For my GV install, I went with RT 5wt, which was way to thin, I moved up to 7.5 for a much improved response.) (BTW, I weigh in at 215.)

Bought the same kit, haven't gotten around to installing it yet and opted to not pull the rear shock/spring to swap it when I had the tire off for a PRII change out. I looked over the valves (labeled R and C respectively) and the preassemble looks to be correct with the instructions on this site and elsewhere so I'm not inclined to disassemble them. Did you have to drill any new holes in the tube provided (only has 2 when the instructions say there should be 4 although the 2 do look a bit oversized than 1/4"). I don't remember there being an alum block per your question above. Had to pkg up the kit after it sat on the bedroom floor (being admired, I might add) too long. I'll check and see if I have one. Will hopefully hit the front end (tire and forks) soon so curious to follow your experience...keep posting (please!)!

Racetech sent me 5w fork oil, i weight 170, i guess it's fine. The holes in the spacers are made like that, did'nt do anything to them. As per racetech instruction, i did drill 4 1/4" hole in the cartridge tube (not shown in the pictures above) on compression leg (left fork).
Everything if fine and ready to reassemble the forks, like i said, i'm looking for answers about the amount of spacers i should installed before reassembly. Thats the only thing holding me back.

Some of you guy's went this route already and have the experience and know how, waiting patiently for clarification from the guru's.

I called Racetech, talked to Louis, the spacer is already cut to the proper lenght, as for the shims (washers) he said to put one on bottom and one on top
Thats all. 5W fork oil is also what is recommended for my weight.
So i have 16 washers extra, they sent 18 !!! just to confused me, lol.

I'm following your progress with great interest, as I'm upgrading to Race Tech gear at both ends this month.
Please keep posting on your progress and results.
Thanks!

I would like to know a few things too. I just purchased a black 2010 (new:aka 0 miles) ST1300 and looking to upgrade the suspension. My riding style leans heavily on the sportier side of things and would like to know if this is an upgrade to consider? Do you have enough miles yet to recommend the upgrade? Bottom line... Is it worth the price for your riding style?
Thx,
Dom

Dom,

Since you seem to be on the fence about the Race Tech upgrade to the front forks, I would recommend you go up to the CreSTOC get-together in June. With all those STeeds, there's got to be someone with the Race Tech gold valves and springs that would let you take their bike out for a spin or a trade to test out the upgrade. I've had the Gold valves and springs in my '05 for over two years, and while I'm not really a "sportier" rider, I really like them. Going around a twisty corner, you might be surprised by some irregularity in the pavement. The upgraded forks just soak up whatever it is no problem. I also went with their recommendations as to spring strength and oil weight. I had them do the work at their shop out in Corona. It was done in just a few hours. Since you live in Santa Monica, you might consider leaving your Steed with them so as not to have to pay an extra fee for waiting. The shop is just a few minutes from a Metro station which puts you into the greater LA train system. They'll give you a ride over and pick you up no sweat.

Gus, the R and C stand for rebound and compression. I'm pretty sure C should be on the left fork and R right because C comes before R as you read the alphabet left to right and R and right go together. I was given their adjustable fork cap option because I let them use my bike as a test mule during that development...but frankly, they both are adjusted at 4 clicks out of ten, and I've just left them that way. It's not an option I would recommend for the average rider. Linear vs. progressive springs is a topic handled on many other threads.

John

This was the first time i did any work on forks, was quite a challenge and got it together fine.
My impression are that the bike swallows bumps much much nicer then stock, that really impressed me, second; bike is way more stable in curve, no more twitching, bike is rock solid.

Yesterday i had to de-assemble the forks as one of the fork caps was leaking oil. I was getting splatter with what i tought was water but sky was blue and no cloud over my head and no vehicule in front of me.
Took me 2 days to figure out what was going on, i saw a puddle, oil leaking from the adjuster, bubles coming out.
I took apart the fork cap completely, took the adjuster out (the gold part where you insert a scewdriver to adjust) and found that there was missing an o-ring.
I went locally to get fitted an o-ring on the adjuster, repack everything and reinstalled the fork cap on tube and fork on bike. I also check the other fork cap and it was ok.
The tech at racetech missed that step, not a big deal, just took me 5 hours to get the job done (i did deassemble both forks completely and started again from scratch.


The good thing about it is i am better now at working on forks

So i am very happy with this upgrade and recommend it highly

So glad I read this I was going to buy a new cap as I have the same issue and figured it was going to take a while. Now that I read this I thing that is what happened on my end. BTW I too love the Racetech except for this issue.