Re: Fork Brace>>>>Best 30 minute suspension mod ever.
I was noticing the front end of the ST was riding hard , jolting , not nearly as compliant over the bumps as before the fork brace was put on. In the garage I jacked up & down on the front end with the front brakes applied and could barely do it , the stiction was considerable , even though me weighing ~240 , so I took off the fork brace and jacked up & down again & it was smooth as silk like it had been before the brace - stiction wasn't noticeable at all ! Re mounted it and the stiction had came back , took it off and it was gone again ! very annoying for the money I spent ! I was about to sell it , as MCL won't do returns / refunds on something that was installed . What good is that , it was brand new and affected the suspension ! The large part of the brace around the tubes , center to center looked perfect , It wasn't going on angle-cockeyed , but as soon as the 4 screws got tightened the stiction was there again.
So I decided to experiment on how it was mounting up. I ended up sanding off the paint on my tubes in the fork brace clamp area , to lessen the thickness amount compressed by the clamping , and to bare the metal. Sanded the 3 piece brace clamp areas smoother - same reason. I then decided to turn the brace around , screws forward , so I could make sure it was straight , compared to the fork tube slot lower edge. Now, If I tightened it per instructions the stiction would come back about half of what it was . I decided to loosen it back up again and put thin , red Locktight Threadlocker on the clamping surfaces and the 4 threads and tightened finger-tight for me ( which I have always had strong hands / fingers ) and let it dry after test - jacking on the suspension and it was smooth & compliant again with the brace on ! For good measure , I then used my grease gun with my needle injector to fill the area between the fork seal and the rubber bug & dirt scraper with synthetic moly grease. That should eliminate any residual stiction for a long time. I've used heavy rear-end oil in that area of front forks on many bikes for the last 35 years for stiction , with no fork seal failures despite the age of the bikes. I'll go on a ride tomorrow.