Appropriate Spring Rate Choice

[Tooph]

I'm in between springs and wonder what I should go with. I'm 165lbs (lost 10 and plan to lose another 5) without anything on. I weighed myself with my gear and a small backpack at 189lbs. 

 

Here's the tricky part. I bought adventure spec crash bars, rear rack, pannier plates and acd skid plate (added weight). According to this chart. I'm an 85nm with no preload and a 80nm with a little preload with gear on and the bike in stock form. I plan to ride with a giant loop great basin and a couple other smaller bags for bdr trips. Who knows when I'll get around to shedding more weight with an exhaust upgrade. 

 

What do you guys think would be best? 

[PJS]

47 minutes ago, Tooph said:

I'm in between springs and wonder what I should go with. I'm 165lbs (lost 10 and plan to lose another 5) without anything on. I weighed myself with my gear and a small backpack at 189lbs. 

 

Here's the tricky part. I bought adventure spec crash bars, rear rack, pannier plates and acd skid plate (added weight). According to this chart. I'm an 85nm with no preload and a 80nm with a little preload with gear on and the bike in stock form. I plan to ride with a giant loop great basin and a couple other smaller bags for bdr trips. Who knows when I'll get around to shedding more weight with an exhaust upgrade. 

 

What do you guys think would be best? 

80NM spring if you most of the time travel light.

85NM spring if you always have luggage with some weight on the bike and sometimes carry a passenger.

 

I weight 85kg in gear and went for 80NM spring and 95% of the time travel light and no passenger.

Edited August 19, 2020 by PJS

[loneranger700]

I weigh 160 and with a 100 lb passenger, both our gear, water, a crash bar, skid plate, carrier rack, center stand, and camping luggage we bring an 85nm spring to its medium to medium heavy load-setting. And that’s assuming we never hit any bumps or go off of fire roads.

 

Safe to say, I sold my 85nm spring and bought a 90nm spring for that peace of mind. My 2 cents.

Edited August 19, 2020 by loneranger700

[Tooph]

7 minutes ago, PJS said:

80NM spring if you most of the time travel light.

85NM spring if you always have luggage with some weight on the bike and sometimes carry a passenger.

 

I weight 85kg in gear and went for 80NM spring and 95% of the time travel light and no passenger.

95% fits me! Thanks for the advice.

[Tooph]

Just now, loneranger700 said:

I weigh 160 and with a 100 lb passenger, crash bar, skid plate, carrier rack, center stand, and camping luggage we bring an 85nm spring to its medium to medium heavy load-setting. And that’s assuming we never hit any bumps or go off of fire roads.

 

Safe to say, I sold my 85nm spring and bought a 90nm spring for that peace of mind. My 2 cents.

I wish my wife would go for 2 up. Sounds like 80 for most of my riding would work best... Hopefully

[Ktmmitch]

We have all spring rates available for choice, based on rider weight, passenger & luggage, detailed in our part description

 

Yamaha T7 Uprated OEM Shock Spring-RRP 627

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Yamaha T7 Uprated OEM Shock Spring

 

[Tooph]

9 hours ago, Ktmmitch said:

We have all spring rates available for choice, based on rider weight, passenger & luggage, detailed in our part description

 

Yamaha T7 Uprated OEM Shock Spring-RRP 627

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Yamaha T7 Uprated OEM Shock Spring

 

I ordered an 80nm and headlight protector from rally raid off rocky mountain atv lastnight. My next question is on topic so I wont start another thread. 

 

Trying to decide if i want to add spacers (that preload adjuster is cool but spendy) or go with different springs up front to match the rear. Does it make sense for me at my weight to swap springs? Appriciate the feedback

[Ktmmitch]

11 hours ago, Tooph said:

I ordered an 80nm and headlight protector from rally raid off rocky mountain atv lastnight. My next question is on topic so I wont start another thread. 

 

Trying to decide if i want to add spacers (that preload adjuster is cool but spendy) or go with different springs up front to match the rear. Does it make sense for me at my weight to swap springs? Appriciate the feedback

It would make sense to add more preload washers to the fork springs, which are generally stiff enough for most riders, they just lack enough preload and drop through the stroke too much initially

[Matth]

Hi KTM Mitch. Just ordered the 85 nm as my weight is 76 kgs plus clothes. Rarely luggage currently but will do.

thinking about spacers for front.

[AZJW]

Apologies Tooph, Partial hijack here, but basically same question for @Ktmmitch  I'm 90kg ready to ride, occasionally with  25kg luggage or 63kg pillion. I'm trying to decide between the 85nm or 90nm spring. What say you? ( currently rear preload set at 24 clicks to achieve 60mm race sag)

[TimG]

2 hours ago, CAJW said:

Apologies Tooph, Partial hijack here, but basically same question for @Ktmmitch  I'm 90kg ready to ride, occasionally with  25kg luggage or 63kg pillion. I'm trying to decide between the 85nm or 90nm spring. What say you? ( currently rear preload set at 24 clicks to achieve 60mm race sag)

I’m pretty much identical to you, 88kg ready to ride, wife 63 ready to ride + luggage. We have the 90 kg spring from Rally-Raid As recommended by KTMMitch/John. One click of preload gives a perfect sag setting for riding solo and leaves the rest available to adjust according to load. Cheers.

[trail_spanner]

Rally Raid RRP627 Rear Spring Fitted.

 

I am 95kg in riding gear and added the usual rack/topbox/crashbars/tankbag touring gear, plus I will add Mosko Moto Reckless 80 saddlebags for touring.  Rally Raid recommended 90Nm, which I fitted today and added 2 clicks of additional damping for compression and rebound.

 

The ride quality has improved noticeably and I feel more confident riding.  This is easily the best upgrade I have bought. 

 

For reference, these are my sag measurements (static and rider sag % of the travel over the suspension range of 200mm) : 

 

(1) Standard spring with 11 clicks preload - 23% and 42%  - rides ok, this is the as supplied settings

(2) Standard spring NO preload - 27% and 47% ! - where has my suspension gone

(3) New 90Nm spring NO preload - 17% and 34%

(4) New 90Nm spring 8 clicks preload - 12% and 31% - near enough 10% and 30% rule of thumb for me as I can remove the top box and tankbag and it had a full tank of fuel.  Seat height seems about the same

 

We did my mates XR400 and Africa Twin too and it has made a big difference vs. the standard springs. It seems manufacturers spring the bikes too weak.  The T7 was by far the easiest bike to work on, all done in 40-minutes. 

 

Now to add 5-10mm preload to the forks - easily done on the AT and XR as they have preload adjustment as standard, but shims/preload caps mean fork removal on the T7. So workshop time will balance out. Please Yamaha fit them in future.

 

How many motorcycles are out there are sprung too softly I wonder.

Edited December 1, 2020 by trail_spanner

[Colddog]

I didnt remove my forks to put in shim washers, they went in from the top.

[ride2little]

5 hours ago, Colddog said:

I didnt remove my forks to put in shim washers, they went in from the top.

Colddog.   I have a shim set and will be doing the same to get the sag right.  But I'm not sure what shims to use.  Seems like a little does a lot.  How did you figure that out?  What did you use?

[Zbob]

1 hour ago, ride2little said:

Colddog.   I have a shim set and will be doing the same to get the sag right.  But I'm not sure what shims to use.  Seems like a little does a lot.  How did you figure that out?  What did you use?

I have a shim set sitting on the bench also.

Anyone interested in doing a wright up on install with pics? 

[Ktmmitch]

Yamaha T7 Fork Preload Washers-RRP 628

 

[NvNick]

Are you sure you are going to lose more weight ? I did the suspension on a 450 Honda for a guy that said he was going to lose 30 lbs. he came back in 2 months and had me redo it as he gained 10 instead of losing.