suspension up grades

T

the real mofojo

CMRA racing for the championship
First off thank you in advance for your help and guidance!

OK, I want to upgrade the suspension on my 1969 CB 450.

What can I do to improve the performance of the front forks while keeping the appearance stock? Springs? Valves? Oil? Fork brace? All the above? Who to buy from?

Rear shocks, With out breaking the bank, who makes after markets shocks? I want something that will improve the ride and handling, not to worried about keeping a stock look here, just something that will handle a little aggressive riding and today’s new stickier tires!


Thank you

The real MOFOJO
 
progressive rear suspension is the best. Not much you can do for front suspension seeing as how you have the early 450 forks... progressive front springs will be too long for the 450. Get yourself some gold valve emulators and youll have a nice feeling front end. Fork brace attached to the very top of the fork lowers helps dramatically, but you have to make one yourself. you may want to run some heavier weight oil if you feel the front end is too light. expirement with different weights (i say start at 10 weight fork oil) and go from there. if your riding very aggresively, you will find the rear end flexes about. This is the swingarm flexing; bracing it makes a huge difference in handling.


http://www.axiomcycles.com/pages/item/itemdetail.asp?item=08-053-0150&itemsection=145
 
To expand a little on what Rocan threw out.

Contact Racetech on the springs as they offer different weighting options and will help 'tune' for your use.
They invented the cartridge emulator that he refers to as well, but ya wanna know what....go to Mikes XS and pick a pair of them up for $50!!!! I've compared them side by side and while the execution is slightly different on the Mike's piece, they are very well made and very effective.
Other things you can do if you feel you need final tweeking; consider swapping to a 36mm fork seal from a mid-80s YZ250. I know it's technically too large, but it'll still seal just fine and will cut stiction a lot. Still feel like you need a little more spring up front? Once you've added the 36mm seal, drill and tap your fork caps for shraeder valves. You can add a few psi and it'll really shore up the forks.
 
Swagger said:
To expand a little on what Rocan threw out.

Contact Racetech on the springs as they offer different weighting options and will help 'tune' for your use.
They invented the cartridge emulator that he refers to as well, but ya wanna know what....go to Mikes XS and pick a pair of them up for $50!!!! I've compared them side by side and while the execution is slightly different on the Mike's piece, they are very well made and very effective.
Other things you can do if you feel you need final tweeking; consider swapping to a 36mm fork seal from a mid-80s YZ250. I know it's technically too large, but it'll still seal just fine and will cut stiction a lot. Still feel like you need a little more spring up front? Once you've added the 36mm seal, drill and tap your fork caps for shraeder valves. You can add a few psi and it'll really shore up the forks.
Click to expand...
the air is a bit extreme, dont you think?
 
Rocan said:
the air is a bit extreme, dont you think?
Click to expand...

Nope. Forks are the first thing that take the hit....should be as dialed as you can go.....

Also, for the rears you can go a long way with just a pair of fresh basic shocks. Spend $100 on a pair of no frills shocks, if you can get them with an extra inch of length you'll be head and shoulders above what you currently have. You can certainly spend more. Omar's has several nice options for little money outlay. He may even still have some of hte cool old HammerHeads....
 
Rocan, there is always some air in forks acting as a spring, its the space above oil and is called the 'air gap' ;D
raising fork oil level decreases amount of air and makes forks stiffen up in last third or so of travel (as the air pressure rises)
adding air caps does same thing but with increased spring rate (which is very progressive increase)

PJ
 
! !

Thank you all very much for your input! I will look into to each and every suggestion! I do like the emulators or daves idea? with some cut progressive springs, never delt much with putting air in the forks and with an over sized seal, I really have my doubts about that working well!

thanx again and I will let you all know what I end up with and what works best for me.

ton up MF's

MOFOJO
 
Re: ! !

the real mofojo said:
Thank you all very much for your input! I will look into to each and every suggestion! I do like the emulators or daves idea? with some cut progressive springs, never delt much with putting air in the forks and with an over sized seal, I really have my doubts about that working well!

thanx again and I will let you all know what I end up with and what works best for me.

ton up MF's

MOFOJO
Click to expand...

I've run that seal combo on an XS650 for several years without leaking, don't see why it wouldn't work on yours. Same size tube and I believe it's a drop in to your slide too though I haven't measured but it would be worth it even if you had to pay a machinist to skim a couple thousandths off the inside of the seal land on your sliders
 
Rocan said:
progressive rear suspension is the best. Not much you can do for front suspension seeing as how you have the early 450 forks... progressive front springs will be too long for the 450. Get yourself some gold valve emulators and youll have a nice feeling front end. Fork brace attached to the very top of the fork lowers helps dramatically, but you have to make one yourself. you may want to run some heavier weight oil if you feel the front end is too light. expirement with different weights (i say start at 10 weight fork oil) and go from there. if your riding very aggresively, you will find the rear end flexes about. This is the swingarm flexing; bracing it makes a huge difference in handling.


http://www.axiomcycles.com/pages/item/itemdetail.asp?item=08-053-0150&itemsection=145
Click to expand...

Sorry to bring back that post but Rocan, you told progressive was the best? and VS Hagon? Which one?
 
not the best. old un-educated post. hagon is good... depends how much you want to spend. omars are better... all about costs.

for the money, they are very good shocks.
 
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