Yamaha TRX850 Enthusiasts Forum

My bike has been back on the road not for about 5000km since I did the restoration and I am pretty happy with it but still ironing out a few glitches.

One of which is the front suspension damping. The forks are standard and are in good nick with new seals bushes and springs. The springs are progressive and I am happy with them. On good road surfaces all is well but on poor road surfaces is pretty forks just don't have anywhere new enough damping. Potholes mid corner are a real pain.

I have played with the rebound damping adjustment but really am not getting any decent improvement.Currently there is 10w in it.

I am not ready to give up on the stock forks yet, so I am planning to go with heavier fork oil.

I see from various threads that some have tried heavier fork oil but I have not been able to find a lot of feedback on how their bikes have been after swapping for heavier oil.

So, does anyone have feedback on their experience with heavier fork oil? Have you gone with 15w, 20w etc and how is the compromise between improved damping and loss of front end feel?

Thanks in advance

for me, i have std weight oil at 10mm less airgap on std second click and springs set 5 rings showing, 15mm fork yoke drop.
seems to work but still the rough stuff needs a firm hand.
cheers
fung

mine has 30wt in it with the most heavy springs i could find and its about right now but im 23st

I am a little confused. If you say that you dont have enough Dampening (compression on bumps) why are you mucking around with rebound? If you suspension is bottoming out on bumps or feels very wooden, I would suggest a better spring.

Suspension is a confusing art, and I always simplify it. You dont need it hitting the bottom over bumps and it needs to rebound well enough to keep the tyre in contact with the road without chatter.< Then this means your rebound needs adjustment.

At the moment I still have the Standard TRX fork in, but with Hyperpro Progressive springs. They come with SEA 15 fork oil and say a 140mm air gap.
Air gap measured i , springs out /fork compressed.

Hope this helps

B-art

Stankflapper wrote:I am a little confused. If you say that you dont have enough Dampening (compression on bumps) why are you mucking around with rebound? If you suspension is bottoming out on bumps or feels very wooden, I would suggest a better spring.

Suspension is a confusing art, and I always simplify it. You dont need it hitting the bottom over bumps and it needs to rebound well enough to keep the tyre in contact with the road without chatter.< Then this means your rebound needs adjustment.

I forgot about this thread see that I never replied to Stank's comment. Apologies.

So my issue was not bottoming out, rather it was very twitchy and bouncy, I would hit a few bumps and rather than compressing and there returning to a settled position the front was kicking back,

In any case, after setting the sag correctly I changed the oil to 15w and have found the front to be a lot more compliant..........I also realised that I was trying to push the bike to do what I wanted and giving it too much steering input. It is a habit I got into on my old bike, which really needed to be wrestled a bit

I have since found the TRX is far happier if I ease up in trying to make it turn and just let it go where I am looking

I realise this all sounds a bit ridiculous but it seems to be the difference between how to ride the TRX and riding my old 250

Glad you got the feel of things as its a common mistake with so many riders. Just don't think and point where you want to go and give it it's own head, don't fight it and dance with it