Ktech spring rates

[Chasingpro]

I am interested in purchasing springs for my weight 245lbs no gear. About 255 with gear. I have heard that ketch spring rates are a bit firmer than rally raid. When I contacted ketch they recommended 6.3 for the forks and 80nm for the shock spring. Seems very lights. I don’t want to have to crank my preload all the way to set the sage. Riders using ktech springs please give feedback. Pic for attention. 

[DT675]

Those both sound too light for you, to me.  I'm 180 ish without gear and have an 85 (rally raid) in my shock and .65 (Stoltech) in my forks from the oem .60's.  I have not bottomed on either end.  

 

With that said and those numbers, I need several shock preload clicks (like 5 I believe) for proper daytripping sag, and full maxed out with camping gear.  I *almost* regret not getting the 90. 

 

With the forks, oem is 6.0 and I went with 6.5. I then recently got the full ktech cart kit which includes Springs. I had the guy send me the next size stiffer than 6.5 just incase I wanted to go that route to try, and not get doubles. I may be interested in selling them but would need to verify what they are 1st, if your interested. (Depending on where you live) 

Edited April 28 by DT675

[Soundfloaten]

I ordered 6.9 from ketch for mine and I clock in at 270 lbs before gear .     I had a 7.5 for my forks for my Africa twin and 110 for the rear spring and I felt like that was a little too much. 

[Tenerider]

29 minutes ago, DT675 said:

Those both sound too light for you, to me.  I'm 180 ish without gear and have an 85 (rally raid) in my shock and .65 (Stoltech) in my forks from the oem .60's.  I have not bottomed on either end.  

 

With that said and those numbers, I need several shock preload clicks (like 5 I believe) for proper daytripping sag, and full maxed out with camping gear.  I *almost* regret not getting the 90. 

 

With the forks, oem is 6.0 and I went with 6.5. I then recently got the full ktech cart kit which includes Springs. I had the guy send me the next size stiffer than 6.5 just incase I wanted to go that route to try, and not get doubles. I may be interested in selling them but would need to verify what they are 1st, if your interested. (Depending on where you live) 

Agree to 100%. Those rates seem too soft for your weight.

I'm 84 kg without gear, about 91 kg / 200 lbs with full riding gear. I'm running 6.4 N/mm in the front and 85 in the rear shock. I only need minimal preload for optimal sag, especially the rear just feels perfect. On the front, 6.0 would probably do it for me as well.

The OEM front is 5.6 or 5.8 as far as I know, indeed very light. Edit: RaceTech site says 6.0 as well, dunno where I've heard about these lighter rates...

 

RaceTech have a great spring rate calculator:

Product Search – Race Tech

Their recommendations are on the firm side definitely, I get a 6.8 or 7.0 for the front - Bret Tkacs recommends to go one step lighter in one of his videos compared to their recommended spring rate.

 

In general, the correct spring rate is more or less independent of the manufacturer - be it KTech, Öhlins, RaceTech, Tractive, ...

The springs need to support the weight of bike, luggage and rider. So you can safely follow other manufacturer's recommendations.

Edited April 28 by Tenerider

[Redneckj]

Id get 6.9's and a 85 rear spring.  You can do a 90 rear spring too.  You wont need as much preload with the 90 as the 85.  

[AZJW]

I agree with all above, go for a stiffer spring in the rear. I'm at 200lbs in riding gear and my RallyRaid 90NM gives me perfect sag with 1 click of pre-load.

 

Like the gray seat too!

[Alan M]

6 hours ago, Chasingpro said:

I am interested in purchasing springs for my weight 245lbs no gear. About 255 with gear. I have heard that ketch spring rates are a bit firmer than rally raid. When I contacted ketch they recommended 6.3 for the forks and 80nm for the shock spring. Seems very lights. I don’t want to have to crank my preload all the way to set the sage. Riders using ktech springs please give feedback. Pic for attention. 

Spring rates should be the same manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

Maybe what you heard is the spring length is slightly different between manufacturers, I think the K tech springs may be slightly longer.

 

For reference I’m around 175 (80kg) light-weight and I run a 80N K tech shock spring with virtually no preload.

[williestreet]

I am 220lbs and use 6.3N in the forks and 90Nm on  my shock and I still need to add 3mm of preload to the shock to get proper sag in the rear, front is pretty close with no extra shims.  If I was to do it again I would have went up to a 6.7 or so up front and chosen a 95 Rear. 

 

Those rates are far too low for someone your weight.  

Personally I think you should try and find a spring that needs zero preload on the hydraulic adjuster to get proper sag.

 

A 95N will be close but I suspect you will still need to add some preload with the hydraulic adjuster to get proper sag.  If  I was your weight I would be looking for a 100N rear spring and 6.9 front.  No less than 95N for sure.  

 

Ktech shock springs are 3mm longer than stock which is good in my opinion for heavier guys,  as you get 3mm more preload just installing it.

If I remember correctly Rally raid springs are 5mm shorter than stock so they use a spacer top and bottom to bring the length back to stock length.  

 

Therefore if you install the same rate Rally raid spring and then a Ktech you will get different sag numbers because of the installed preload.  Maybe this is why that rumour os floating around?