Hi all
after an unexpected period of overtime i decided to bite the bullet and do the fork transplant on the xchallenge.
I decided to go down the WP4357 route rather than the Shiver upgrade as it meant i didnt need to mutilate the original forks and thus could carry on riding whilst the new ones were sorted and at the end of the day i would have a set of forks that i could sell on if i wanted, either the originals or the 4357s.
I bought a set of forks from a KTM640LC4E from a breakers for a reasonable price and sent them to Chris Hockey (Dr Shox) for servicing and revalving. I had already spoken to Chris in advance and he was confident that i wouldnt need to replace the springs as they were too stiff for the 640 and the XC was 30Kg heavier (plus me of course
). I bought the caliper bracket, spacers and bolts from Erik RS on advrider and got a local metal fabricators to make me up the new 24mm diameter axle. ( i also had them put flats on the non-threaded end as i hate using screwdrivers to hold the axle in place whilst tightening it up. Fitting took about 45 minutes including finding and cutting some bolts to mount the caliper bracket to the new forks.
Even i could tell the difference straight away. The forks absorbed rather than kicked back at me and little or no dive. I've only done 1 day on them so far but that was training with Craig Bounds up in Wales and they were given a good run out. The bike holds a line a lot better and doesnt throw me about when i catch something wrong. Craig rode the bike as well and was impressed by the improvement (better than his race bike) and that Chris had got the set up spot on, we didnt need to change any clickers at all. Craig is thinking about doing the same mod on his own xc and maybe something similar on his husky te race bike so it must be good!
in all it cost me about 250ukp plus the forks which isnt too bad and i'm a happy bunny
after an unexpected period of overtime i decided to bite the bullet and do the fork transplant on the xchallenge.
I decided to go down the WP4357 route rather than the Shiver upgrade as it meant i didnt need to mutilate the original forks and thus could carry on riding whilst the new ones were sorted and at the end of the day i would have a set of forks that i could sell on if i wanted, either the originals or the 4357s.
I bought a set of forks from a KTM640LC4E from a breakers for a reasonable price and sent them to Chris Hockey (Dr Shox) for servicing and revalving. I had already spoken to Chris in advance and he was confident that i wouldnt need to replace the springs as they were too stiff for the 640 and the XC was 30Kg heavier (plus me of course
). I bought the caliper bracket, spacers and bolts from Erik RS on advrider and got a local metal fabricators to make me up the new 24mm diameter axle. ( i also had them put flats on the non-threaded end as i hate using screwdrivers to hold the axle in place whilst tightening it up. Fitting took about 45 minutes including finding and cutting some bolts to mount the caliper bracket to the new forks.Even i could tell the difference straight away. The forks absorbed rather than kicked back at me and little or no dive. I've only done 1 day on them so far but that was training with Craig Bounds up in Wales and they were given a good run out. The bike holds a line a lot better and doesnt throw me about when i catch something wrong. Craig rode the bike as well and was impressed by the improvement (better than his race bike) and that Chris had got the set up spot on, we didnt need to change any clickers at all. Craig is thinking about doing the same mod on his own xc and maybe something similar on his husky te race bike so it must be good!
in all it cost me about 250ukp plus the forks which isnt too bad and i'm a happy bunny
