replacment fork springs for old sport bike

The 88 ninja 600 wants a new front suspension. It's tired.
Been intending to do it myself, but it will take me far longer
than I want to give up for the joy of spring swaps... So I'll likely
pay someone to do the work. And the front is just getting HEAVY and
shorter than usual.


Question:
I was inclined towards straight springs. Guy at shop seemed
surprised I didn't want progresssives....

It's an '88. It's not a high performance bike any more. But it's
not a boatlike cruiser. I hit the Grizzly/Skyline route regularly.


Thoughts on springs?

Recall too that this isn't a modern suspension. I can't dial it in,
there's no preload. It ends at "anti-dive". This was the bike I lusted
for in the 80s and it's doing it's job just fine.

And this may be a late close to final maint. It's a primary vehicle, but
may become secondary as it's getting tired and I'm on the highway too
much. A 750-1000CC is looming in my future (the other house bike is a
sprint st and that's comfy on 580's bouncy parts).

 

well, to all that offered good advice, I'd say thank you.

But for the resounding SILENCE!

 

http://www.progressivesuspension.com/

 

Oh, if I *had* a fork cap to easily remove, I'd do a happy dance. The
'88 ninja makes you take the clipons off and move a bunch of other stuff
to get to that (no, they aren't happily easily tunable like modern
suspensions).

I stopped at KC Engineering for a minute or 3 and spoke to their guy who
felt badness in my steering bearings that I don't feel. I don't
disbelieve him, but a friend's 83 honda VT500 that you had to PUSH the
steering out of the hole in the center. (ridable if you knew about it
and the guy was delighted to try a bike without a deep center notch

So I'm looking at springs + bearings + rear shock for a 16 year old, 30k
bike (16k since I got it 5 years ago). Sigh.

Straight springs make sense. A 2004 750cc bike makes sense too. Or
maybe a '77 R100s....

 

If you were thinking about a bmw, saw this one on craigslist this
morning, which seems like a good deal considering that it's got
another 100k of good use left in it:

http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/mcy/38360269.html
1981 BMW R65
includes hard bags and cover
16,579 miles
tuned and fully serviced
$2,920 (+tax, lic and doc)

Come see it at MotoJava, Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 6pm.
We're a small, licensed used motorcycle shop owned by three local (SF)
riders.
More bikes and directions to the shop can be found at www.motojava.com

415-255-9527

Brett
01 Yamaha R1
99 Honda F4 (Track bike)
89 Katana 750