I have heard lots of bad things about the rear shocks, but has anyone had experience with the progressive fork springs? I am getting a minor front end wobble and my spring sag is now about 55mm. These ones are $143 which seems quite reasonable

https://www.ikonsuspension.com.au/shop/500-003/

might be better money spent sorting out the damping marc ...no spring will fix that
but sag can be preloaded a bit ….most of the after market spring sets come with precut tubes of plastic for preload
including some progresives I got a few years back , locally , brand new for 99  ...not fitted yet , but going into the old k100 forks soon enough

as soon as I can do an order to the bins for those piston sleaves ,,,and  a few other bits , timing chain etc

time to time I get enough to continue , but sporadic all the same

I have the springs in my R75/6 and rears on both it and the R90s. No complaints at all.

German Wirth progressive from Ebay tranformed my bike totally. After few years on Wirth full reccomendations.
You dont need spacers with its long enough. Price was cca 100 Euro

Ditto for fitting Hyperpro progressives into LFB. I also fitted at set of Motorworks' own progressives to Brick 2 at less than half the price of the Hyperpros and couldn't tell the difference between the two. Add a RamShock to the rear and I thought someone had given me a new bike with all the old scratches carefully carved into it.

My progressive springs arrived from Motobins yesterday. They are 530mm long which seems awfully short to me (free length). I guess there will be a fair length of spacer in the forks with the original springs. How much static sag do you guys recommend for my K100. I have read a few articles and they are all very generalized, covering many bikes. I changed the fork oil a few weeks ago and got a huge improvement but I am still using most of my travel under hard braking and have about 50mm of sag with the old springs.

The Progressive front springs I've used in the past for Airheads and early Ks were meant to use a 75mm/3" PVC pipe you cut to your preload requirements. 10 years or more back it was supplied with them. No more?

Nope, just plastic wrapping and a key ring in the package.

MarcS wrote:Nope, just plastic wrapping and a key ring in the package.

On Airheads, at least, the 75mm length always felt too harsh, so I cut them down to 50mm or so, using Airhead wheel shim spacers to fine tune. It bothered me that they supplied them so short for the application. I didn't stick with them in other models in the future, tho' they did the job as intended.

MarcS wrote:Nope, just plastic wrapping and a key ring in the package.

There's a spacer in with the original springs. Use that. Oddly enough, I just fitted a pair of Wirth progressives to my Bandit and those did away with the OEM spacer.

MarcS wrote:Nope, just plastic wrapping and a key ring in the package.

If you had purchased Progressive progressive springs directly from Progressive Suspension, two spacers and washers would have accompanied the springs. As it is, you seemed to have purchased progressive springs not made by Progressive, or maybe somebody at Motobins has a compulsion to horde pvc pipe whenever encountered.

Finding pipe for substitution shouldn't be a problem and the pipe should help take up slack. Here is an image of what is in a Progressive progressive box, model 11-1126 for your 1990 K100RT.

Laitch wrote:maybe somebody at Motobins has a compulsion to horde pvc pipe whenever encountered.

Ha! That's a good one! Although seriously, both the Hyperpro and the Motorworks-own that I bought required the re-use of the OEM spacer.

The ones on the right

A private brand of fork spring, not the actual brand Progressive, even though it's noted as 'Progressive' on their website. That 'splains a bit. I'd try 'em. I've bought Motoworks & Motobins for yonks and trust their overall quality of product.

Fitted the new springs this arvo and the first impression is a vast improvement. I am still not sure what the static sag should be (any ideas guys?) but I ended up using a 25mm spacer on each spring.



These are the old and new springs. The old short ones came with an inch of washers packed in with the original spacer

MarcS wrote:Fitted the new springs this arvo and the first impression is a vast improvement. I am still not sure what the static sag should be (any ideas guys?) but I ended up using a 25mm spacer on each spring.

Sag adjustment is rider-and-load weight dependent, and apparently a social event. My Progressive rear shock came with an enclosure that recommended the method of adjustment explained in this article. I followed it then tweaked it slightly after a year. I don't really bull-and-jam my moto over the road and through the corners living on a thread of traction. My body has developed indifference to discomfort. Maybe that's just increasing elderly numbness. All I want is control over the rough stuff when solo or two-up and I've got that with how I've adjusted things.

Thanks for that Laitch. I have found a few generic descriptions on sag but I am looking for a more k100 specific article. I currently have about 25mm of front sag , that seems well in the ball park. I was looking for some of the experiences of the more adventurous K100 suspension tuners.

25- 35 mm sounds about right mate

although my k75 forks drop a good 35-45 ..

Im being told that you need some special tools when changing your forksprings on my k100.. mine is a bit soft, and im thinking about getting the ones from bsk

http://www.bskspeedworks.co.uk/ram-progressive-fork-springs.html

Can you Guys tell me if its true, and if so, where i can buy it?

TheGreatMorten wrote:Im being told that you need some special tools when changing your forksprings on my k100
Can you Guys tell me if its true, and if so, where i can buy it?

How is special defined? Tools given as gifts by lovers? Tools purloined from disrespectful supervisors? Gold-plated tools?

A vice with soft jaws can be helpful; a gear puller of the right dimension might help, too but patience, determination, and mechanical aptitude will get the job done without those items. You might want to use eye protection sometimes but it doesn't need to be from Ralph Lauren. Who is telling you these things? Are cautionary audio transmissions coming through your dentalwork? It would be helpful for you to put your bike's model and year in the box labeled bike* in your profile so it will show up in every post and we'll know what you've got. You probably should start your own thread about this rumor, too, rather than interfere in Marc's ongoing research into the black art of K100 fork tuning.

Laitch wrote:

TheGreatMorten wrote:Im being told that you need some special tools when changing your forksprings on my k100
Can you Guys tell me if its true, and if so, where i can buy it?

How is special defined? Tools given as gifts by lovers? Tools purloined from disrespectful supervisors? Gold-plated tools?

A vice with soft jaws can be helpful; a gear puller of the right dimension might help, too but patience, determination, and mechanical aptitude will get the job done without those items. You might want to use eye protection sometimes but it doesn't need to be from Ralph Lauren. Who is telling you these things? Are cautionary audio transmissions coming through your dentalwork? It would be helpful for you to put your bike's model and year in the box labeled bike* in your profile so it will show up in every post and we'll know what you've got. You probably should start your own thread about this rumor, too, rather than interfere in Marc's ongoing research into the black art of K100 fork tuning.

Well im interested in his choice of springs aswell
Im running a k100 RS16v from 1991.

I got a friend who told me to get the tools, since he could not change his own forksprings

I changed the springs with the forks on the bike. The only "special tools" I used was a pulley remover to press the spring down so that I could remove the snap ring inside the fork tube and one wife ( I only have the one, can you imagine the stress and noise with more than that?) to poke the snap ring back in when I had the new springs in place. The bolts in the caps don't actually hold anything and don't need to be undone.