Marzocchi Fork Mods Gasgas Husky and BMW’s
I blew a fork seal when I was at KTM Bulls place a few weeks ago. So while I had it down I wanted to do a few mods as I knew I would be keeping the Gasser for a few years. Gasit had told me of a mod that Terry Hay of shock treatment does to the Marzocchi forks and that it made a world of difference. I spoke to Terry and organized a day and time to get the job done, he said it would take about hour to sought it out properly. I drove out to his property at Wallacia and was met by Terry and his staff one of whom is no other than Glen Allerton the current superbike champion http://www.glennallerton.com.au They were in the middle of their lunch break so Terry gets his wife and Secretary Jan to knock up a brew for me and share a few stories around the outside table, very relaxed atmosphere. Once that was all over we head back into the shed and Terry starts disassembly of the compression and rebound stacks. I had already disassembled and cleaned the forks at work. I jumped onto the scales and got my weight recorded and was asked a few questions about my riding style and the type of riding I did. Terry then puts my inner stanchions on the lathe and machines a couple of 1 degree tapers on the bushing land, this mod is meant to help with the plushness of the fork. He gives the whole lot another good cleaning over then puts together a combination of shims that would work for me. His boys then assemble the compression and dampening stacks and put it all in the crate for me. Terry recommended for me to use 5 wt oil, air gap 100 mm with .45 kg/m fork springs, clickers were 14 compression and 12 on the rebound. I handed him $200 for his troubles and thanked him for his time and info and I was off home to put it all back together. All went together easily and I did the front wheel alignment that I reported in an earlier thread.
Ride Day:
Gili and I headed for Maculata trail, this trail is pretty rough with lots of rocks and erosion mounds thrown in for good measure a perfect testing ground for my refurbished forks. We rode for about half an hour to get things warmed up and settled. I then started to deliberately hit the gnarly sh#t and try to take note of what the fork action was doing. I could see straight away that the fork was really plush and the action was great, The steering seemed a bit slow and was still skating out on me in some fast sections, I put another few pounds of pressure in the front that brought it up to 15 PSI and this certainly helped but still not quite right. Next step was to raise the forks through the clamps by 5mm. We used an Allen key and the mark 1 eyeball as the measuring device. The effect was instant, it transformed the front end into a rut hugging missile perfect. I was now very confident in the front end and was hitting crap at speed with a new found confidence. Gili even commented on this, The funny thing was I didn’t even have to adjust the clickers Terry was spot on.
Conclusion:
Getting the suspension sorted and working correctly is the best money you can spend on your bike, do this before you spend coin on your engine mods as you have to be able to put the power down and turn corners hit ruts and jumps etc.
Terry’s work ethic and knowledge of suspension components is unparalleled even to the extent of other suspension experts sending him their work. You can find out more about Terry and his professional setup here http://www.shocktreatment.com.au/aboutus.html you wont regret it.
OllieB)
