Thanks Dave J- Smart Performance!!!

[mog]

If your super stiff or super soft I find clickers do little

[grayracer513]

On 5/2/2017 at 9:41 AM, ckny said:

Started the build today, I will update with pics.

Fluid looks the same as it did 20 hours ago.

Vented the free Pistons.

Installed clover shims.

Now that you've vented the free pistons, take the upper seal off of it.  Not the bushing, just the seal.  With the vents, the upper seal does nothing but add friction.  Note that the aftermarket open sided pistons don't have a groove for an upper seal.

[grayracer513]

On 4/22/2017 at 9:57 AM, gmtech16450yz (motobark) said:

I've met Dave Johnson in person several times now. He's an extremely intelligent person. My 25 year old son said this about him after meeting him for the first time also... "I'm betting he has a degree or two under his belt. You can just tell by talking to him that he's intelligent and well educated." I have no idea if that's true, and it really doesn't matter to me anyway. He has a LOT of knowledge, he has no problem sharing it and appears to be a decent person.

Dave Johnson has an engineering degree, Masters, as I recall, and is a very individual, "outside the box" kind of thinker. I used to say that he simply doesn't understand that there is a "box" to begin with.  And yeah, it might be fair to say he's a little eccentric.  IIRC, he started with road race bikes, and moved into the dirt world later.  His ability to think around the operative paradigm is to me best illustrated by what he was able to accomplish with the frankly terrible fork on the YZ426, which he made to work as well as any Showa then on the market.  It was an impractically expensive solution, but it worked.

His kits are very well targeted to a mechanically competent DIY user, and he is very willing to educate the neophyte as to how and why the suspension does what it does.  I like the fork a lot, although I was never 100% happy with it (close, though), and the shock was entirely fantastic. Without the added bleed.

I have no idea why people's experiences with him vary as they do. Mine were always at least satisfactory. I haven't dealt with him in a long time now. I know he was working with some off-road car stuff for a while.  That may have distracted him.  I can only say that he saved me a lot of money and taught me several things I might never have known otherwise.

Quote

Glad to see old farts like greyracer are still on here helping guys out.

Careful.  If you make fewer mistakes like that you could live to be my age.  ?

[ckny]

On May 8, 2017 at 3:42 PM, grayracer513 said:

Now that you've vented the free pistons, take the upper seal off of it.  Not the bushing, just the seal.  With the vents, the upper seal does nothing but add friction.  Not that the aftermarket open sided pistons don't have a groove for an upper seal.

I will mention it to my guy.

[ckny]

Another ride today with the hope of moving some clickers. East coast rainy, Rocky, rooty and muddy ride in the leaves. Rode 2 hours. Never ended up making adjustments, I wanted again to ride the local terrain in my back yard and get a feel for how the suspension felt.

Man this set up is super stable. Just does not get out of shape much. I only rode 75% of my speed. 2nd time riding this year off a long break and conditions were ultra slick and slimy.

Rock gardens are great. No deflection. No shock kicking. Smooth and stable. Slick roof and rock infested 2nd and 3rd gear single track was great as well. Great front end traction. Very confidence inspiring, hard to not push and ride faster but I wanted to ease into the season. Can't say I noticed any real weakness.

I did change the tire from a used Starcross 5 medium 80/100 to a fresh Goldentyre GT216 90/90. Not sure how much different that made it feel. 

Looking forward to a ride possibly Thursday. This weekend I'm teaching MSF Dirtbike schools so I may get some MX track time if it's not too wet. Clay track and when it's wet its pudding. 

This set up is very firm but super plush. Great feedback from the front end. Shock just feels awesome. Planted and again stable.

 

So the words of the day for me are stable and plush. I'm 45, my body is beat. This makes it so much easier to ride. Way less energy wasted making corrections and getting punished due to errors or fatigue.

i rode with my buddy and his 17 Beta 250 Race Edition. Let him try it out. He was sad after lol...

[Piney Woods]

That dirt looks perfect. Firm but plush,,, my dream, my fantasy.

[grayracer513]

My favorite is when it looks half dry on top and all the tire cuts are dark brown ?

[CaptainKnobby]

Wouldn't more shims lessen the impact of a single click change and in turn require more to have an effect. Other than extremely fine tuning most cannot utilize, what is the benefit to the avg yahoo like me? 

Well I know on my 2011 yz450 when I had it. When I made a couple clicks either in or out on the Shocks comp and rebound you could tell a difference.
Forks were same way but seemed like you could tell better in just one click after you were 11 clicks out all ready.

[DOMINICWR450]

I'll try to buy a Smart Performance kit...again.

I can't find any info on his web site for a 250Fx

CKNY which kit did you get, the KYB phase 4 or KYB Dell Taco ?

 

 

[ckny]

46 minutes ago, DOMINICWR450 said:

I'll try to buy a Smart Performance kit...again.

I can't find any info on his web site for a 250Fx

CKNY which kit did you get, the KYB phase 4 or KYB Dell Taco ?

 

 

Website is useless. Just talk to him and tell him what you want. He will build the kits for you.

I'm running his oil with SKF seals and bushings, Del Taco, EPNP, Clover shim and the additional parts/shims  that come with the build sheet. Vented stock free piston. You can try the aluminum free piston. He sells them.

[DOMINICWR450]

4 hours ago, ckny said:

Website is useless. Just talk to him and tell him what you want. He will build the kits for you.

I'm running his oil with SKF seals and bushings, Del Taco, EPNP, Clover shim and the additional parts/shims  that come with the build sheet. Vented stock free piston. You can try the aluminum free piston. He sells them.

Thanks!

[CaptainKnobby]

Dave J sent me an email Today and said I should be getting the kit by UPS Friday. He said they are lots of small parts and that he sent in the email a soft copy of my Build Sheet and Part list.

It looks to be a Superb set up. He said it was Great set up and couldn't wait for me to try it out.

He said with the kit was the instructions for the build. I hope they are easy to follow as his shock servicing and Fork servicing instructions.

Guess I will be busy Friday evening an into the Night.

I will post pics of the kit when it comes and post pics as I put the kit in.

[CaptainKnobby]

I hope his instructions are easy to follow......because on the Forks it says to remove the stems from the rod and to drill fork mid/rebound stem bleed passage 2.5mm or use 3/32 drill.

What is he calling the Stems? And what Rod? I am thinking the Rod is the Rebound Rod.......correct?

[CaptainKnobby]

Well here it is.....The Dave J. kit.

I am going to take a bit to look at everthing and read over the instructions and start getting on it.

 

 

 

[CaptainKnobby]

As ckny stated.....everything is neatly packed an in order.

[CaptainKnobby]

Does anyone have a good idea on how to take the Piston assembly stem from the rod? In the pic I just have the rod holding in the vice with soft jaws. My soft jaws has grooves in 3 spots so you can hold something round. I don't want to put much pressure on this rod cause I am afraid it will crush inwards.

I need some way to hold this rod so that it will not spin so I can take a 14mm wrench and take the stem off.
Any ideas how? I have to get it off in order to put this O'Ring on this end.

[CaptainKnobby]

I can hold it in the vise this way also. But it still spins.....do I need to just tighten it up some?

 

 

[CaptainKnobby]

Believe I got it. What I did was just left the Piston end stem alone as is. I just took that O-ring and from the other end just slipped it over the threads and down the shaft to up against the Piston stem.

According to Dave's directions he said to postion the O'Ring just below the threads. So by putting the O'Ring on by starting at the other end of the rod (fork cap head end) this allowed me to push the O'Ring down to the piston stem.

Guess this is right.

 

Somebody can chime in at anytime like mog,maltour ect....to see if I am doing this stuff right.

 

 

 

[CaptainKnobby]

Here is some pics of the assembly together. What exactly does that O'Ring do that's between the stem an free piston? Just acts like a bumper?

[cj_wai]

all I can see the oring doing is preventing the floating piston from rising too high on the shaft and maybe getting damaged on the threads.  it doesn,t seem to serve any purpose when the cartridge is installed in the fork. 

I've done a few del tacos and my kits never came with that additional oring.

Edited May 13, 2017 by cj_wai