ThunderCat Forks on TRX - updated question

[wurlyvalve]

I fitted Thundercat forks last month. Doddle to do. Just have to fashion up a couple of spacers. Mine needed to be a tad chunkier than the dimensions listed.

Std Thundercat fork oil is 5wt and 127/134mm air gap, I 'upgraded' to 7.5wt and 122mm air gap. The compression adjusters are very seized (and I bet most others will be). The preload adjusters needs winding to about 1 or so rings exposed to compensate for the extra mass/mass distribution of the TRX.

I flexed the cheque book and simply bought a carbon fibre mudguard rather than fashion the old one on. It's a few hours work including cobbling up some spacers. And a few hours work to remove and rebuild with heavier oil and less air gap. With mine the stanchion bushes were completely shot!

Cheers,
Glen.

[Overlord Neil]

Thanks Glen, any piccies? I'm toying with the idea of sending the forks away for a full rebuild with cartridge internals, its probably more expensive but as you say by the time you've got secondhand forks back upto scratch its a good deal of frigging around, at the moment I'd rather sign a check for someone else to do the work, I don't mind the couple of hours to fit them again, bu thats about it.

[wurlyvalve]

I rang around and asked for them to be rebuilt (K-tech I think), I had no interest so I gave up and did them myself . I fear that they are too old for people to be interested. They are cartridge internals, aren't they?

I wanted to slip in some heavier linear springs too (std are 0.82) but I couldn't justify the money to improvement ratio.

With my comp adjusters the steel balls were seized into the ally body of the lower leg. I drilled out the steel detent pressed cap with the intention of running an end mill down it to annihilate the detent balls. Then replace the comp valve with a k-tech valve (which from what I could tell was common to the R6). Alas, I have a 6month daughter and time is in way too short supply for that, hence the thicker oil.

I'll walk outside and take a photo now, if you like, but my bike is an every day commuter so she ain't shiny!!!!!! "Board attachment quota limit has been reached"

Major improvement on the road. Far easier to hold on to the bike. The thicker oil/lower air gap made braking a lot more confident (I can now use front brake) and rolling off mid corner no longer tip in scary. The larger, more curvaceous, ThunderCat mudguard seems to be a little bit more aero friendly too. I hit 131mph on the straight that I would only use to hit about 125. The joys of commuting on the same road every day......

Cheers,
Glen.

[Overlord Neil]

ACF-50 is your friend, I use mine all year around too, 100 miles a day and she still looks reasonably shiney... as long as you squint.

Pics would be appreciated, but not if your going to get rain in your tea!