I'm still dealing with a lump of a Visa bill on the new bike and gear, but I feel I need to address the wimpy fork springs ASAP. I'm going to try 0.90kg/mm springs first, and then plan on a revalving later (unless someone here convinces me not to). I see Sonic springs are $79 and Racetech $119. Anybody have experience with Sonic? Any reason to spend $40 more? Thanks for any & all 4-1-1.

 

I have Racetech in mine. Makes a huge difference over stock. I have no experience with Sonic.

 

I've only had racetech's in the past and they work but I think you're paying for their name/reputation which they've earned. I'd go with the sonics if it were me. If you'll be adding the racetech internals later, I'd order the spring rate they call for if it's different from sonics suggestion.

Do a fluid change/cleaning while you're at it. They will need it badly.

 

Ditto

But if ur in there - U might as well re-valve it at same time + fluids

Do it right the 1st time

 

i have sonics & recommend them. they dyno test every spring just like all the other players & they're a bit cheaper....
look at my track pics & you'll see i push my 'hawk about as hard as you can.
i still have stock valves and ran 7w w/ 140mm air gap, rebound was just about max'd with .95g springs ( me :180lbs )
edit: for the fall i'm trying 10w w/ 155mm gap.

been in my forks for 2 yrs.

tim

 

I have Sonics, too. Same quality spring as Racetech I think.

 

Thanks all. I took a look at the Honda shop manual and saw you have to take the forks off to do the work I'm new to bikes with motors on them, so I think I'll have a shop do it for me. I was hoping it was a simple slide out/in from the top. Really not liking the queasy front end, did a ride over country roads today and bottomed out several times just going over asphalt humps and paving transitions.

 

Yes, the springs can be removed with the forks on the bike.

For my weight I'm supposed to have 1.0 springs. I've got CBR954 forks on my bike now, but when I was running the stock I never bottomed them out, at least not hard enough to know. It almost sounds like something is up with your damping more so than the springs. How much do you weigh? I'm wondering - if you are bottoming out that bad maybe 0.9's won't be enough.

 

I'm 195# without gear, the RaceTech calculator says I should be using 0.90. The PO was equivalent to my size and I don't think touched the forks.

I bottomed out on some very low speed transitions from pavement to gravel, nothing at high speed. Think I'll try the springs first, and if I get into the motorcycle thing hard core I'll do a fork swap later.