brand new 2008 crf 450 initial service

[sdwelder]

I just bought a 2008 crf 450 r and I love it, the shock works awesome but the fork does seem a little harsh, as stated in many reviews. I'm 5'10" 185 lbs w/o gear and I race mx with my son here in socal, I would consider myself to be approaching the intermediate level, considering I passed a guy who called himself a intermediate:ride: I own a welding business and have done all my own service work to all my bikes, my last bike was a 03 crf 450r and I had the forks/shock serviced by precision concepts ( i'm in san diego) I was afraid to mess with them, but now I want to invest in tools, whatever it takes to do it myself, can anybody steer me in the right direction?

I can measure accurately, but how do you determine kg/mm spring rates mxa says to drop the fork level by 10 cc's

I was going to get silkolene synthetic, is that good?

I have a nitrogen bottle so I was thinking of maintaining my shock aswell.

I imediately removed the stock steering damper and mounted a new GPR V4 with the low mount tripple clamp and put on CR high pro taper bars, I really like it. what do you guys think?

[mog]

the cfr 2008 is all about the midvalve, you need to convert it back to a 2007 type to get it to work well easily.

[sdwelder]

care to explain that one a little, mid valve on shock or fork?

[mog]

fork midvalve, its a bad design in 08.

[sdwelder]

would you like to help with this or just give unhelpful comments on the bad mid valve? What do I do about the valve??

[mog]

sorry, i was hoping you would take the inititive and do a search, it has been dicsussed many times here.

[sdwelder]

ok , i took the initiative and couldn't find anything on mid valve anytihng. I'm new to this site so throw me a bone would ya.

[mog]

hmm seems weird, i did not find much either, feels like we discussed it loads,

here is the thing, most midvalve lift the shim stack off the piston to create a bleed effect, most about 0.15 to 0.25mm , with the crf 08 it has a really strong spring that holds the midvalve against the piston, this means no free bleed and a very agressive setup, the easy fix is to order a spring from fc or mx tech etc, or you can order up some 07 parts to make it like a 07.With just a spring change you get about 0.25mm lift(float or bleed) and this alone will make it much nicer, with a little work on the base valve it becomes a nice fork.

hope that helps.

[sdwelder]

Thanks MOG! that was very helpful, can you tell me what to buy from FC, I assume that's factory connection, so I can get this stuff going, what's the base valve work your referring too, thanks again.

[sdwelder]

Just called FC , I have oil on the way and a check valve spring, 70 bucks, I'll try it out and if I'm still not happy i'll work on the base valve. I think i'll be happy.

[mog]

the base valve is the one at the top(confusingly) often a lot of people revalve it for a plusher ride, its easier to get at, and can give good results.

[sdwelder]

OK, so I found the mid valve and pulled the shim stack assy off, then changed out the spring and reassembled, I used locktite on the threads, while I have this thing apart, do any of you guys have any shim stack recommendations? base valve adjustments?

[sdwelder]

HA!!!! Just got back from http://www.horizonmxpark.com/

My forks are 1000% easier on me, I felt like I could ride forever, those FC check valve springs did the trick, that was the first time working on my own forks, honestly, it was harder than I thought, I have a shop so was able to manage, but if you don't have all the right tools, especially a good vise, then forget it, leave it to the pros. my forks are working awesome though. thanks for the check valve spring advise MOG!