Ok, it's been a busy past 4 or 5 days and I'm freaking Beat. Did some major updates to the bike and while I dont have any pictures to post I wanted to pass along my experience.

I changed out both front and rear springs with springs purchased from John at Moto Pro Suspension. For my 6 foot 220lb weight he recommended .46 for the fronts and 6.4 for the rear. Since I had the bike torn so far down I decided to also repack the stearing head bearings and swing arm / Rocker arm bearings. I also went ahead and threw on my 13 tooth sprocket. This is my story.

The front springs went easier then I thought they would and I was dreading doing them, Mostly because I wasnt sure IF I could do them Or what I would run into. Three quarters of the battle was stripping the front end to the point of where just the forks were hanging from the triple trees. Since I was doing the stearing bearings too I stripped the front All the way down.

The Kawi service manual recommends 2 needed tools for the fork spring changeout and while you can make your own you do Need those tools to successfully change out front springs. The first is a flat metal handle with a notch cut in it. you pull the spring down and slide it under the nut on the fork rod. This holds the spring compressed while you take off the top plug. If you dont do this the spring/tension will be released and you will have a mess. Once the top plug/nut is off you pull the handle out and remove the spring.

Now once the spring tension is released there is nothing to hold the fork rod up and it wants to drop into the fork tube ( this is Bad ). Here is where the second tool comes into play. Before releasing the compressed spring you need to attach Something to the rod to either hold it up Or something you can use to Pull it up out of the fork tube. I Simply tied a piece of wire to a tie strap and then tightened that on the top of the rod. I released the spring tension and let the rod fall. Slide the old spring out and off the wire and silde the new one over the wire and down into the tube. Pull the rod up via the attached wire, use the first tool to re-compress the spring and re-assemble. Again it's pretty easy once you Finally get the forks off the bike. I also used a small hobby vice to hold the fork up while working on it.

The Front springs themselves are custom made for Moto pro because the 300klx fork springs are different and I dont think anybody else is doing front springs for a klx250 yet. The springs were the Same height as the stock ones but a little thicker so no shiming is needed and it's a straight swapout. The front stearing head bearings were like nobrakes with maybe just a little more greese on mine But not a Lot. I repacked them anyway and used Mobile 1 Full Synthetic bearing grease. Now to the back Suspension.

The rear suspension took only half the time the front did and overall was much easier then the front. No Special tools are really needed to change the rear shock spring except maybe a vice to hold it while working on it. Once you have the shock out you simple unscrew the adjusting ring untill you can lift the spring up to pull the bottom holder plate out. This pulls right out and then the spring drops off the shock.

My understanding is the Rear shock spring from a standard klx300 will work for the Klx250 so I assume thats what I got. Once I had the stock spring out and compared them there were lots of difference. the first was the New spring was about an inch 1/2 higher then the stock one, I was like Hmmm. The second thing was the new spring was Noticiably thicker then stock but I expected that. The third and final thing I noticed was the stock spring is smaller on one end so it can fit perfect into the bottom holder. The New spring is one diameter all the way thru and doesnt fit perfect on the bottom holder. It overhangs this Big washer all the way around. I was/am concerned about this But everything did go back together ok. I was only able to get it to Just within specs for preload on the workbench. I will do Final sag adjustments on the bike but I can tell you that spring Dont like to be compressed. Again my rear bearings were like nobrakes were and I went ahead and repacked all of them with the Mobile 1 too. I Assembled everything and torqued to specs.

Finally, Since I wanted to Feel something after all my hard work I installed the 13 tooth sprocket. Besides the pain of actually getting the old one off everything went pretty smooth. I did have to remove the chain to take mine off the motor though. after installing the new sprocket and the chain I set my final drive chain adjusters to 1 like it was originally at and torqued the axle nut down. This was a mistake because the first thing I noticed was the chain was Way too loose. I finally set the chain adjusters at 3 1/2 to get what looked about the right amount of chain slack but I Havent measured yet. You guy's who have the 13 tooth sprocket, What did you wind up setting you chain cam tensionsers after installing the 13 tooth sprocket.


The Test Ride

After finally buttoning everything back together I took it for a Short test ride to test my handy work. The bike is definetley stiffer and the forks dont dive so much on stops. It's going to be hard to notice a lot of difference in the suspension on the Street where I mostly ride, The dirt is probably another story. I'm sure I got what I payed for and I feel better knowing I have a suspension now that can handle my 220lbs if I want to do some jumping or other suspension punishments.

The 13 tooth sprocket I'm a little disappointed in. It was a short ride and I havent done any engine mods yet But I really didnt notice a lot. Not like I heard about or expected anyway. I didnt really feel any more low end torque. What I noticed was the bike reved just a little quicker and I was turning more rpm's at a givin speed then before. Maybe I just havent ridden it enough yet or maybe the motor mods will help but thats My experience with the 13 tooth sprocket.


Final Thoughts

It was a Hell Of A Lot of Work and I'm Soooooo Glad it's Over. I was dreading doing all that work and it was everything I expected. The one good thing besides the upgrades themselves is since I also greased All the bearings I wont ever have to rip into my suspension again, at least I hope not. Would I do it again. Probably, but I think I would have ordered .48 front springs instead just for that little bit of Extra umph. The one down side to my experience is I know doing the free/motor mods will be just as Much Work, If not More as doing the suspension was and that just Sucks. At least when I do Those Mods I should feel something. Now I just need to enjoy my ride for a couple of hundread more miles and work my way up to it. One major set of Mods down, One to go........



LV

 

Nice detailed report. Do you happen to have a photo of the tool you made for the fork work?