Purchased a set of Hyperpro progressive fork springs

[Mikey]

Had some money burning a hole in my pocket so I ordered a set of progressive springs from hyperpro on ebay. Will be the next project after I tighten up the steering stem.

[luxroller]

Interesting i would like some better springs on the front too
Be so kind and share your experience after you have mounted them
Thanks,
Toni

[Mikey]

Well, I'm am finally getting around to replacing the springs in the front forks. I removed the front forks but could not push down on the spring seat and remove the stopper ring. A friend is coming by tomorrow to give me an extra hand.

The Hyperpro comes from Italy. It consists of two progressive springs, their hyperpro fork fluid and directions in Italian! I have the Honda service manual so I should be able to figure it out.

More to come.

[TommyXP]

Looking forward to hear your outcome.....I may be hot-on-your-heels if you succeed in improvement. It would be nice to relax for a change and not have to be constantly choosing the best 2" path/line down every highway.

[Mikey]

Well I replaced the fork fluid and springs today. I did not take apart the hole fork but just removed the end caps and there you have access to the springs right away. It is hard to believe the only thing that holds the springs in the forks is a little wire clip! You have to remove the top triple tree bolt all the way out on both forks since there is a little groove on the top of the fork. The lower bolt you can just loosen on the triple tree.

The fluid after 5 or so years was horribly black. Each fork takes 100 mm so a 1 liter container will last you 5 changes. The progressive springs were slightly shorter which had me worried they might be for a different bike. I put them in with the tightly coiled section to the top. While I had the front wheel off I cleaned the caliper pistons and sliding pins that where heavily corroded from commuting in all types of weather for 5 or so years. Should have did that a long time ago. Added lithium grease afterwords.

So I took a ride since it was about 60 in Vegas today and it does seem stiffer. The suspension it very limited on this bike so we don't have much to work with. The fluid definitely needed changing. It would be worth while doing just for the fluid change.

I remember on my motorcycle that you could adjust the preload on your spring by cutting a piece of pvc the same diameter as the fork tube and put it on top of the spring to start compressing it. I dont know if that would work in this situation and of course you would have to experiment with different lengths to get the desired effect.

The only casualty of tooling is one of the reflectors on the fork tubes. The bolt that sits in the plastic was just spinning so I had to cut the reflector holder off. Replacement is 4.49 at Service Honda if I want to put it back on.

[Mikey]

I took a picture of the two springs with my phone but the file is too large and I don't know how to reduce the size to 2 Mb.

[TommyXP]

Going to do this as soon as the weather turns...Thanks for sharing.
There is a FREE small lil' program used to reduce the file-size on pictures. In the 'custom' mode you can reduce the pic all the way down to the size of an icon. I use it all the time as it is quick and simple.

1985 (Custom).png

You can find it here:

http://www.bricelam.net/ImageResizer/

60°!!! I have forgotten what it is like to go for a ride without having to spend 20 minutes suiting-up like I'm going on a space-mission...At this late-stage of Winter, I no longer even 'think' about it and use the bike 'normally', as long as the roads and parking lots are free of snow....This miraculous organism of ours has such a far-range of adaptation, that it amazes me.

[Mikey]

Ok thanks! The one on the left is the progressive spring. As you can see the coils look more robust. Considering the stock coils are like $11.00 each I don't believe they are the highest quality. you might get the same effect by adding a piece of pvc pipe on the top of the stock spring as a preload. That would take some experimentation.

[Mikey]

This video kind of explains the preload space I was talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICK_2tX9_Qg

[TommyXP]

Good video. Thanks.
The quality of steel is probably better with your new ones. If you have a lot of excess Time on your hands you could put them both to a grinding wheel and learn how to Read-the-Sparks and probably see the difference!
http://www.capeforge.com/Spark%20testing.html