[Bazooka Joe]

Clever Trail Desig-

Hey, that's some cool stuff you're working on! Thanks for posting.

I'm kind of struggling to find the "plush but firm" with the forks' stock compression piston, and I'm starting to wonder if it's possible to get there with the stock parts. I've gone even lighter on the compression valving, and it's not really going the direction it should. It's still stiff in some situations, but soft elsewhere. It's sometimes like this is the 4CS fork of the street bike world. (if you've ever ridden a KTM/Husky with a 4CS, you know I'm talking about) I realize that this fork is fairly basic construction and thus only has so much capability. For the price point of these bikes, we cannot expect to have A Kit type suspension.

Maybe the Gold Valve has more capability and I should just pony up. Or, I have a couple of fork compression pistons from an 03 YZ250F. Those pistons work very well if you valve one just slightly different than the other.

Bottoming cone elimination... Maybe you can add a rubber bumper in there to have a bumper stop fork- a little bit of rubber is better than metal on metal.

Perhaps, the newer Vee's type of fork was calibrated with the theme of stiffer dampening using lighter rate springs, as opposed to stiffer springs with lighter dampening. Dirt bikes used to be lighter springs with stiffer dampening 20 yrs ago. Look at how the dirt bike fork spring rates have increased over the years. .44 kg/mm used to be the stiff springs.

Are you planning to add a mid valve to the rebound?

Here is my current rebound stack and this seems pretty good. Nothing fancy, just stiffer throughout and seems to control my .95 springs pretty well.
Btw, my stock shims measured at .11 thk, at least by my digital slide caliper.

18x.11 w/ no slots
18x.15
16x.15
14x.15 (2)
12x.15
10.5x.3

 

[Clever_trail_design]

Bazooka, sorry for the very tardy reply, I always kept meaning to carry on this thread and time was always in short supply.
In answer to some of your questions:
4cs/Xplorer forks I've had lots of experience with. 2016FE350/2017/2019/2020/2021 TE250 so I've seen the slight progression in those forks over the last 5 years. Those are harsh because they're way to soft even for me, (160lb) they blow into the stiffer part of the stroke way to fast causing a nasty spot. Same goes for your DL, my new setup is night and day better as it remains plush everywhere. I don't want to discourage you or anyone but you'll never be able to get progressive suspension with the stock base valve, it just can't flow enough oil. I still need to do some more tweeking with the fork and I'll order some stiffer custom made springs. I used a very long spring from RT that I cut down by 6 coils to make fit. I would also suggest you try the same, those stock length springs in the rate your using will also be quite harsh. I'm only using a .65 spring and will be going to a .75 to try and adding a few more low speed shims. The rebound is pretty limited to what you can do but in the future I'll see if I can find a different piston and play around.
Remember the longer the spring the more coils means more progressive and stiffer near the bottom.
I had no plans of a bump stop yet but I'll see with the spring and valving changes if I bottom as bad as I do now. I'm also experiencing head shake if I'm over the front of the bike to much, but I also had that when it was completely stock. I ride very aggressive with this bike on the gravel over very rough roads with big g-outs at 100-120km speeds and this thing takes it very well with the changes. I also ride some single track with it that before would've scared the heck out of me .
In short Traction has increased, the bike feels like it's lost 50lb and best of all the guys I ride with on 790s/1290 BMW/Triumph are all bringing up the rear.

 

[Bazooka Joe]

Hey Clever Trail Design,

That is so cool you have found success on the bike with your own design parts. I admire that!

I know exactly what you're describing how the bike will feel much lighter once the suspension is under control. Currently, riding gravel roads on this V Strom, I usually keep a half death grip on the bars because I'm not confident that it will continue without deflecting. It's like that with the dirt bikes too.

I fully agree with your assessment of the stock parts. I improved it quite a bit, but overall, it still basically sucks compared to my goals, and it was a big waste of time. I've tuned on lots of Yamaha dirt bike forks over the years, and I could always see progress with every change.

My current setup includes the stock springs and more rebound than I have listed above. The .95s were too stiff. I have reduced the compression stack to where I'm concerned I'll be cracking the only shim or two remaining.

I believe the DL1000's stock fork's problems are several- overall cheap cartridge construction, crappy base valve, crappy cartridge refill system, and too small diameter cartridge rod which doesn't flows enough fluid per stroke.

I'm thinking about buying the Andreani kit. Have you heard anything about their products?

 

[Clever_trail_design]

Not the Andreai kit specifically but I did look at some other drop in kits. That's obviously a very nice set up but my goal was to increase ground clearance and travel. There is a lot of overlap in these tubes so an extra inch an a bit is fairly easy to achieve. If you've seen the Hessler Desert Express that's basically what I'm going for. My route will be a lot cheaper that a full cartridge drop in kit. The next step is to install 21/18 wheel combo and the extra travel is necessary for that.