Fork too soft
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I know little about suspension.
How do I make my front a bit stiffer? I am like 100 kg fully clad and the suspension is a bit too much enduro, too little motocross for my taste.
Is it like I heard about some other bike that there is only one spring in one leg, so you stuff a second in the other for twice the stiffness?
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@Hark_Ptooie Both fork legs should have a spring and a spacer.
You can make major improvements to the DTR suspension by running XT600 3AJ fork springs (same size but 20% stiffer) and 500ml per leg 15W oil (stock is 500ml 10W), this made my '98 DTRe jump and resist bottoming a lot better than the 2020 KTM 250EXC I also owned at the time. I was also running a YSS shock and to get it to match the upgraded forks I had to increase the preload by 16mm and run the rebound on position 29 out of 30. I weigh 150lbs and this setup gave 25% static sag at both ends, normally a good starting point for setting up suspension.
There are also aftermarket DTR fork springs available which some of the guys on here have had good results with @SpookDog
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Okies, very good - thanks a lot!
3AJ = 88-90 Ténéré? Could it be that they had the same Showa 41 mm as the rest of the 84-89 XT600's? Because it may be easier to find.
I actually had a 1990 XT600E. It was a pig. Not recommended.
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@Hark_Ptooie Yes all the XT600 forks look pretty similar (except the XT600E has a twin piston front caliper), I wouldn't think the fork springs differ that much between models and I have heard of people running XT600E fork springs in the DTR. The 3AJ is the Ténéré yes, I recommended them because I found someone selling a set on eBay for £20 (he'd fitted aftermarket springs as Yamaha managed to make the forks too soft an that bike as well).
I never liked the XT600E to be honest, I owned a Honda NX650 Dominator at one time and that was something of a disappointment as well, I think a well sorted DTR or KMX125/TS125R would give all those big singles a run for their money on tarmac as well as being a lot more fun off-road.
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Great, thanks!
The Dominator looked terriffic though.
