Thanks to "Firefly," I finally got my RICOR's as opposed to the Gold Valve Emulators.
Without searching through many threads:
- what is the static sag I should be using, which I think is the distance above the open downtube the spacer should be portruding, (the spacer in the factory exploded diagram is #9, collar) and
- what oil level should the measurement be, measured from the top of the open downtube, to the oil level, with the damper rod in, but the RICOR and fork spring out, and the slider pushed-up as far as it will go on the downtube?
Thanks to anyone who replies.
I have the 1993+ front forks on my 1992; the 1992 oil measurement is volume, 15.3 fluid ounces, USA, and 10 wt. oil. I see where RICOR recommends 5 wt.
FYI, I found adjustable preload fork downtube caps on a Japanese site, sized for 43 mm tubes. I forget what the price was, probably in yen anyways. People were asking about them recently.
Addendum:
I read the sticky & saw 21 oz (20.9) is recommended, 4.8 " down from the top of the downtube, 15 wt oil.
Should I just cut a length of PVC to the stock length
minus the height of the RICOR's?
The fork seals & damping rod have to be intalled before putting any oil.
1- A stock 43 mm fork actually has 128 mm total travel the rest is taken by the top off spring that is located on the damper rod (a one inch spring)
2- Oil level is measured with fork fully compressed with no spring or ricor in.
in ricor wrong instructions they say fill with oil till the top of the damping rod then push the ricore in, this will make oil level measuring way off and its very hard to pull ricor out of the fork tube again so ignore their stupid instructions on this.
3- oil level with fully compressed fork should be 130 to 140 mm as per race tech, you should extend & compress the fork several times to get all the air out & remeasure the oil level.
Wet ricore with fork oil and push it down with either the spring or the spacer until it bottoms at the top of the damper rod, it will take some pushing & will descend slowly so take your time.
4- With oil level set correctly & ricore sitting on the top of the damping rod now put the spring & extend the fork completely, drop in the washer then put a one inch (ID) schedule 40 PVC pipe, mark it level with the top of the fork tube, remove the PVC pipe and cut it with a tube cutter 1/4th of an inch below the mark you made, the higher the spacer is the much stiffer the fork gets, I remember Sean's vid clip says above the top of the tube, not with ricor it will be very very stiff.
5- Oil Ricor recommends is 5wt stick with that any thicker will make the forks tooooo stiff to compress.
Recore is very different than Racetech:
Ricor is a piston that creates stiction going up or down together with the shim to restricts the up & down movement, on the other hand racetech is not a piston & drops in the fork tube loosely, it is held by the spring as ricor, racetech shims do all the work to control compression, in the case of ricor its the piston + the shims.
6- on my 03 43 mm forks it didn't need an impact gun to loosen the bottom Allan bolt & I found that even without the top cap and spring pressure I could tighten the Allan bolt sufficiently so it does not leak before I put the top cap on. The final tightening of the top cap is done after you install the forks in the triple & tighten them, also put the fork brace on and tighten it then tighten the bottom Allan bolds to specs.
7- The static sag should be 1/3rd the total fork travel, this is important to have it correct so the forks can READ road irregularities
In general I found that ricor tends to be stiffer then racetech GV due to it being a piston.
I hope that helps
