I want more front fork travel, but need HOW TOO instructions

[slip57]

Hi, guys,

I own a SSR 125 TR mini pit bike with inverted forks, model A056, 2012-13 year.  

I am trying to improve the 5.75 inches of front fork travel to about 8 inches, maybe a bit more.

 

I want to extend the front travel on my SSR 125 TR mini pit bike with inverted forks

 

***  I thought all I needed to do was to extend the current dampening rod by the length increase of travel I wanted,in this case 3 1/2 inches.  so I bought a connector, for two threaded rods to join the  new 3.5 inch extension rod to the dampening rod to the existing rod, I tapped it out to 10 mm x 1.25 pitch, and joined the rod extension to the existing, then I added a 4 1/2 inch spring, all assembled just fine, but no extra travel, All it did was expose more fork slider tube and the travel remained the same just higher on the fork tube, it would not bottom or use bottom 5 inches of fork tube.

** I also figured I added 33% more travel of the fork stroke, I should need 33% more dampening fork oil.  MAYBE I again was WRONG, I had to set it at stock amount of oil.  It feels like something inside the fork leg is stopping the travel increase and may also need lengthening too.   HELP, what part might that be, and HELP, what is the reason for my bad thinking?  I achieved nothing so far, except make my ride higher (not desirable).  Please email me, or link me to information on how to extend the travel on front forks, by adding to the length of the dampening rod, and an extra 4 "  spring.  

Thank you, GARY 661 245 4847

 

Here is a picture of the completed change that does not work as expected, and then the recent untested change of grinding down the connector and borring out the plastic spring connectors to fit over the metal connector.

 

Please direct me to who might know how to increase front fork travel. OR point out what I need to change to get extra travel.

 

*Note: I have removed the connector to the extension to the dampening rod, and ground it down to fit through the spring separator spacers, and also enlarged those spacer holes to allow the ground down connector to pass through.  I did this because I assumed this was the problem, the connector was hitting the black plastic spring connectors and stopping the travel. 

   I hope these pictures explain what is going on better than words do.

any help will be appreciated,

 

[gscx]

Wow, well since you have ruined these forks, now you can go buy some nice aftermarket ones.

[mog]

You can't extend a fork , let me repeat it just to be sure , it's impossible to make a fork longer and function safely

[Johnny_On_The_Spot]

[slip57]

ha ha, your funny Johnny_on the _spot

 

I have succeeded in making my front forks travel 1 and 3/4 of an inch longer travel, with same geometry as stock.  Now the total travel is 7 and 5/8s inch, from 5.8 inches. So your comment is just from not knowing enough about front ends and machine work to figure it out like I did.

This will be my second fork extension of a mini bike.   

So let me get this clearer for you:   forks can be extended, providing certain conditions are present from the factory forks.  Like in this case the slider tubes were plenty long enough to allow this modification.  If I find out later I have stressed out the forks and or bent them, then YOU would be correct.  But this is not expected for a small travel change of about 22% travel increase.  Also, I would never try this on a full sized bike.  REASON is, they have plenty of travel to start with.  MINI bikes do not.

 

Also, your comment was not productive.... it should have been.

Good luck riding your poor travel suspension mini bike..   grin

Gary

PS. if your interested in learning what I did, just ask.

[mog]

Sounds dangerous and pushing the limits of the parts possibly beyond breaking point

[Keith72]

slip? If you know so much about it why did you come here asking for advice? Your work looks like a hack did it. But I think you should find a big jump or a long set of whoops to test it on.

Best of luck to you.

[turbo dan]

How much overlap do you have left between the upper and lower tubes?  Going from 3 inches, for example, to 1.25 would increase the load on that junction by over 200%.  My money is on that front end coming off in a very unpleasant fashion.

 

I really hope you're only doing this on your own bikes.

[EnglertRacing]

ha ha, your funny Johnny_on the _spot

 

I have succeeded in making my front forks travel 1 and 3/4 of an inch longer travel, with same geometry as stock.  Now the total travel is 7 and 5/8s inch, from 5.8 inches. So your comment is just from not knowing enough about front ends and machine work to figure it out like I did.

This will be my second fork extension of a mini bike.   

So let me get this clearer for you:   forks can be extended, providing certain conditions are present from the factory forks.  Like in this case the slider tubes were plenty long enough to allow this modification.  If I find out later I have stressed out the forks and or bent them, then YOU would be correct.  But this is not expected for a small travel change of about 22% travel increase.  Also, I would never try this on a full sized bike.  REASON is, they have plenty of travel to start with.  MINI bikes do not.

 

Also, your comment was not productive.... it should have been.

Good luck riding your poor travel suspension mini bike..   grin

Gary

PS. if your interested in learning what I did, just ask.

 

 

MMM.....

mmmm....

mog isnt a dummy he has done plenty of REAL suspension work

and there are alot of people here who would consider what you have done quite crude.. especially the one in the first picture...

 

and mog,

you recently put a kyb shock in place of a WP unit.  You made your own shock clevis right?  And im sure you did a proper job, but there are people who would say "ohhh you cant do that"

so to say 

ITS not possible isnt right

anythings possible when someone can competently run a mill and lathe ( but maybe you are right as there wont be anything left of the old fork to do it right lol)

[mog]

To be truthful I didn't make the clevis my machinist friend did the milling , my latest project is kyb cartridges in the wp tubes and a crf steering damper , however mine are over engineered as I don't want any weak spots

[slip57]

Thanks guys for the warnings, of course I was aware of them before I even started this project.   The way I now figure it, the additional travel I added, does not over extend the front fork tubes, its just an inch and half extra travel.

What could go wrong is the nut joining the added length of dampening rod to the stock rod, comes un threaded, and both of them do that at the same time, then I have problems of front end coming off.  This is not likely, since the two parts are not only lock tight threaded together, there is JB weld involved, to prevent one end or the other from backing out.  Yup I am staking my health on this.   The added rod in those older pictures has been shortened by an inch.  The front end configuration changes are hardly noticeable visually.  The geometry of the bike is the same, since I also installed a slightly longer travel better rear shock and new bracket for it.   I sure my thinking is sound.  I will be really careful on the first few test rides, just in case.   next post will have pictures of my cast and other injuries as soon as I can type again.   haha

[MartyrRacer368k]

To be truthful I didn't make the clevis my machinist friend did the milling , my latest project is kyb cartridges in the wp tubes and a crf steering damper , however mine are over engineered as I don't want any weak spots

What about kyb carts in the 4cs forks?

[mog]

I've heard it can be done