Hey mate.
I have held off replying immediately as I am no "expert" so jut wanted to wait and see what other said. With that, and a fair amount of thought, here are my observations and recommendations...
If you look at my thread
here (
http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/got-my-suspension-revalved-and-tuned-this-weekend.19623/) you will see what I had done to my bikes suspension on my 2010 TE450. When I first got the bike I found the front end very harsh and it deflected a lot. Even with compression and rebound damping dialed all the way out there was what felt like a compression spike mid way through the stroke.
Anyway, I took the bike to a professional tuner who not only did the valve/shim changes but also did a rider-to-bike setup session. That session is where the true value of the professional tuner comes into play in my opinion! Summary of what I had done:
With the forks, all I can remember about the shim changes is that he removed 3 of the largest shims from each forks rebound stacks (think they were mid-valves, but may have been base) and he swapped some shims with those that came with the gold valve kit.
Apart from those changes I got the right springs for my weight. Now, with your "stick-tion" issue where you feel the forks stick a little before they start moving, this is a common issue with most forks, but obviously it is worse on some bikes than others. There is actually something called a "stiction zone" of 2-5mm on the rear shock, and 10-25mm on the forks (well, that's the ideal size of it according to Racetech). You determine this zone by measuring the difference in height when you push down on the seat and let it return and it's a different height than if you pull up on the seat and let it return. When they initially put new springs in my forks they went with springs that were 8mm longer than the stock ones to effectively give about 12mm of preload. Man, I am sure that made the sticktion worse as the initial bit of the stroke felt horribly harsh. The tuner took the bike back and put shorter springs in and on his return even he said he could feel a difference. So if the initial stick on the travel is that big an issue to you then look into your fork spring pre-load would be my first recommendation.
With your idea of changing oil weights, from what I can remember with the conversations I had with the tuner, the suspension is pretty much designed around working with 5wt oil. Changing the weight affects the ENTIRE travel of the suspension because the shim stack is static and the viscosity of the oil changes the behaviour of the fork fluid flow over/around the shim stack. I am pretty sure you'll not find many true suspension tuners that use different weight oils - I believe changing the shim stacks is the preferred method for altering the behaviour.
On the rest of the bike setup, fork oil height should be 130mm from top of tube with spring out and fork collapsed. Top of forks sit flush with the top of the triple clamp (has an effect on the bikes rake I think, but meant to make the front end more stable). Once the fork heights are set then set your static (suspension just sagging under bikes weight) and race sag appropriately.
Good on you if you're going to try set the bike up properly yourself - you are braver than I am - but if you really are limited on time/knowledge/inclination to learn then I would recommend taking your bike to a tuner and get them to help you setting your bike up. Sending your suspension off to a tuner will get you half way there, but the true value is in the tuner helping you set yourself up to your bike.
