KX conversion questionsl

[johnyblaze]

My 97 kx125 forks are in the shop for new seals. What wt fork oil is recommended and how much air pocket should be left?

Background - 52 year old (200 lb naked) rider doing moderate trails with baby head sized rocks and worse ledge. Rocky, rooty and sometimes snotty in the mountains of western Maine.

I left the stock KX valving in to give it a try.

Clamps are on their way to RB (along with the carb and head) this afternoon.

Thanks in advance

[Indawoods]

I would have them remove a couple of the larger shims in each shim stack. MX shim stack is made for harsh landings.... Removing a couple in each fork makes them more responsive to small hits like baby head rocks. I actually removed 4 in each fork in my 03 KX125 forks with .43 springs. Oil height and weight you can experiment with... 5 wt will be a little more compliant than 10 wt.

[johnyblaze]

Thanks Inda. I stopped by the shop and asked them to drop 2 of the larger shims while they're in there and to go with 5 wt oil. I'm guessing a 100mm air chamber is a good starting point. I can change that fairly easily myself if needs be.

Thanks again

[johnyblaze]

As an update, I gave the KX forks their first real workout today.

They are far more competent than the stockers. Tracked really well even though they're still a bit stiffer than I like. By the dust lines I have about 3.5 - 4 inches of unused fork. I'm shooting for about 2" so I lowered the compression dampening to it's lowest (from the middle position) and hopefully that'll soften it up a bit. Even poorly sorted they're a major improvement. The same terrain had the stock front end bouncing all over the place.

The rebound clickers are set to full soft. Wish I had taken another 1 or 2 of the larger shims out when they were opened up. Next time they need new seals a couple more are coming out.

For now I'm much happier with the bikes handling. They're at least as good as my old KLX300 which was previously my best handling bike. And with some tinkering it's all better from here on. It is apparent that I need some help on the shock now, so more tinkering there as well.

Thanks for the help.

[SS109]

I really wish I had pulled at least a couple of the shims out when I had the forks down. I have my compression and rebound set all the way soft and the forks are still harsh. Next time it needs seals I'm going to pull out 4 on each side like Inda did.

[Julien D]

I third that. Gonna put seals in my yz forks soon, I'll be removing some shims when I do.