KDXRIDER.NET

Oh, I understand that rate will not change, but you will be up against the bottoming cone in 8 or 9" of travel, instead of having to compress the spring 12". This will translate into an "extremely soft" feeling! (Imagine having your current fork set up hitting a hard stop at 8"!)
Another concept to consider is that cutting the spring will leave you with a stiffer ride. A short spring is stiffer than a long spring - all other things being equal. This is because you end up with fewer coils upon which to spread out the required travel. So, each coil must deflect more.
Conceptually, try to imagine if you had a fork spring that was 100 feet long, and you tried to compress it 4", it would be very easy to do. If you had that same spring, but it was only 2 feet long, and you tried to compress it that same 4", it would be very difficult to do.
Straight rate springs are "proportional" - That is to say if you cut 10% off, it will be 10% stiffer. The spring rate (lbs/inch) does indeed change with length, or number of coils.
There is, of course, a limit to how much you can cut before you encounter "coil-bind" (the coils bottom out against each other) with the required travel.

terminator, what is the shop doing or not doing?

gregp, I get you on the springs. Just that it is not proportional, in the sense that cutting a spring in half doubles the stiffness, not increases it 50%.

terminator, you already have springs that are too soft for your weight. You will need to buy different springs either way. Cutting the stock springs "won't cut it".

Well. I've been riding my KDX at the stock suspension height. I'm starting to feel more confident about it. So, I decided to keep it that way. I really need the ground clearance for the trails around here.



Anyway, so I got a pair of Kuobo link for sale if anyone is interested. It's been barely used. PM me.

Jason wrote: gregp, I get you on the springs. Just that it is not proportional, in the sense that cutting a spring in half doubles the stiffness, not increases it 50%.

Mmmm...Are you *sure* about that? I would not say that without actually trying it. I do not know, as I have not tried it. Besides, nobody is going to cut their spring in half (I hope). I have found 10% to work well, though. I have not encountered coil bind following the 10% recommendation. I would agree that 10% is not enough for the stock KDX springs (for most of us). So after market, or XR400 springs are the way to go.
I would also add that I have used those "Seal Scrapers" and made a couple of my own, but I also recently damaged my upper bushing by scraping the teflon right out of the bushing using one. So, be careful, and do not insert it too deep. The upper bushing is directly under the seal, so the margin for error is slim.