Road Scalpel

The springs that come in the factory forks are sprung for a much lighter person than myself. So after riding it for a season and getting tired of the brake dive and drifting in the corners I decided to do something about it. I looked at my options, get Gixxer fork assembly (too much modifying) or get new springs. I decided to go the spring route to save time and money. I checked out Sonic Springs, Traxxion and Race Tech. One of the owners of Sonic Springs, Rich Desmond is very active on the SV Rider forum and after seeing how much support he provides I decided to give him my business. The whole process of changing the springs is a little time consuming, requires a couple odd ball tools and a way to lift your front end. Luckily for me a local guy on the SV forum had just done this mod the week before, so I was able to bribe him with beer to lend a hand.

Springs

Lifting the front end

Two Step Ladders

3 pieces of 2 x 4

Set of ratcheting straps

loop the straps around the frame slider base

cross fingers and start ratcheting

Here is the first fork removed

Removed the factory spring and spacer and drained the oil.

I didn't get any pics of the reverse process since my hands got pretty oily at this point. I just installed the new .85 kg/mm springs, added the 20 weight oil and installed the fork. The whole process from start to finish took about 2 hrs. And wow, what a difference it made! I could not believe how much it improved the handling on low speed cornering. I hit some twisties last Thursday night with my neighbor and damn, the bike felt like it was on rails. No wonder everyone on the SV forums say this should be your first mod.

Next I'm going to probably get a 2005 GSX-R 1000 rear shock off E bay for $35 and my suspension will be set. After that a nice pair of Michelin Power Pilots and it will corner like a dream.