octagon pilot
Husqvarna
AA Class
So after spending some time with the stock 4CS forks that came on my FE501, I didn't think they were as bad as I had read all over the forums. They weren't perfect, but for stock suspension, not horrible. My best settings on the stockers had rebound and compression both out several clicks from stock, and I felt it was slightly undersprung, despite the table in the manual.
I basically wanted:
more compliance on the first third of travel
increase in bottoming resistance
increase in ride height/not pack down in the stroke
So, I had an idea of what improvements I wanted, and after talking at length to several suspension companies I decided I was just not going to spend the $700+ for the setup that the top tuners were recommending. I believed that, for my use, a revalve could get me to where I wanted to be. If I were racing this bike full time, I might have gone a different route, but for the riding I am doing these days, I believed a revalve would do it.
After a couple of phone conversations, I decided to go with WP Factory Services. The level of communication from them was very good, and on the phone I was able to speak with the tech that would be handling my forks and get some specific questions answered.
The turn time was 6 days, with a weekend, including shipping from/to Utah, which pleasantly surprised me how quick it was...I shipped them on a Tuesday, and they were back to me on the next Monday.
They bumped me to 4.6 springs, and I wound up putting one of the stock 4.4 springs back in, so I'm a half a spring rate up. For pure desert riding, or when I'm running the oversize tank, I may go back to both 4.6s, but for the mountain single track that I spend a lot of my time on, the mixed springs are on the money. (Both are stiffer than what the manual recommends for my weight however.)
The ride quality of the revalved forks hit exactly the targets I had in mind. Immediately I could tell the increase in spring rate had things riding higher in the stroke. The first half of the travel is noticeably more compliant, with better feel. Settles well into corners, especially on the higher speed sweepers where the stock forks tended to knife in on me a little. And the bottoming resistance is also better.
Overall a good experience dealing with WP in my book, and a definite improvement in fork performance.
I basically wanted:
more compliance on the first third of travel
increase in bottoming resistance
increase in ride height/not pack down in the stroke
So, I had an idea of what improvements I wanted, and after talking at length to several suspension companies I decided I was just not going to spend the $700+ for the setup that the top tuners were recommending. I believed that, for my use, a revalve could get me to where I wanted to be. If I were racing this bike full time, I might have gone a different route, but for the riding I am doing these days, I believed a revalve would do it.
After a couple of phone conversations, I decided to go with WP Factory Services. The level of communication from them was very good, and on the phone I was able to speak with the tech that would be handling my forks and get some specific questions answered.
The turn time was 6 days, with a weekend, including shipping from/to Utah, which pleasantly surprised me how quick it was...I shipped them on a Tuesday, and they were back to me on the next Monday.
They bumped me to 4.6 springs, and I wound up putting one of the stock 4.4 springs back in, so I'm a half a spring rate up. For pure desert riding, or when I'm running the oversize tank, I may go back to both 4.6s, but for the mountain single track that I spend a lot of my time on, the mixed springs are on the money. (Both are stiffer than what the manual recommends for my weight however.)
The ride quality of the revalved forks hit exactly the targets I had in mind. Immediately I could tell the increase in spring rate had things riding higher in the stroke. The first half of the travel is noticeably more compliant, with better feel. Settles well into corners, especially on the higher speed sweepers where the stock forks tended to knife in on me a little. And the bottoming resistance is also better.
Overall a good experience dealing with WP in my book, and a definite improvement in fork performance.
