Fork cartridges

[jmoth79]

So I recently took the forks off of my '05 S2R 800 and disassembled them.
I noticed that after completely draining the oil from the cartridges one of the push rods
had a dampened feel to it and the other one slid in and out of the housing with no dampened feel whatsoever.
Should I be concerned about the lack of dampening in the one side?
Would this warrant replacement of the cartridge?

[ducpainter]

So I recently took the forks off of my '05 S2R 800 and disassembled them.
I noticed that after completely draining the oil from the cartridges one of the push rods
had a dampened feel to it and the other one slid in and out of the housing with no dampened feel whatsoever.
Should I be concerned about the lack of dampening in the one side?
Would this warrant replacement of the cartridge?

They are built that way.

If you want both sides to have damping order the other side cartridge.

It may be too much for the bike.

[671M900]

They are built that way.

If you want both sides to have damping order the other side cartridge.

It may be too much for the bike.

I believe one side adjusts damping and the other rebound like in motogp? IIRC...

[ducpainter]

I believe one side adjusts damping and the other rebound like in motogp? IIRC...

You are probably right, but it's not what I remember my buddy ducvet tech telling me.

I forget lots of stuff.

[Jarvicious]

Yep.  Per Jason at the department of suspension.  No idea, however, why that would be the case with your S2R.  I have the same bike and a lack of adjustability is the name of the game

[Speeddog]

According to the parts catalogue, both cartridges are the same.
However, I do recall noting a lack of damping on one fork on a Monster of that time frame.

I have found that some of the nonadjustable cartridges are *very* difficult to completely drain.
Possibly that's what's going on for you.

[suzyj]

My stock 695 Marzocchis (same as S2R forks?) had this sort of weird behaviour as well.  One fork leg had damping, but the other fork had no damping until ~1/2 of the travel was used up.

I assumed it was some crude attempt at progressive damping, to match the progressive springs.  It certainly explained why the bike felt like it was bottoming out under brakes - just the slightest brake dive would suddenly turn this second compression circuit on.

I fixed the problem with a set of 998 Showas.

[booger]

GP Suspension sells a fully adjustable retrofit for the nonadjustable Marsuckies, with compression in one leg and rebound in the other.

[xcaptainxbloodx]

GP Suspension sells a fully adjustable retrofit for the nonadjustable Marsuckies, with compression in one leg and rebound in the other.

speaking from FHE they are AWESOME!!  the only difference between this and and a set of ohlins is the length of the sliding fork inner. for us mortals the difference is negligible. 

[He Man]

I saw that GP kit its $170 installed (you need to machine an thread the lowers) $1300 for the kit.
Figure the forks are worth $200 ish and brakes are $200 ish.

Its a pretty good deal for radial setup with GP cartridge.

[booger]

I saw that GP kit its $170 installed (you need to machine an thread the lowers) $1300 for the kit.
Figure the forks are worth $200 ish and brakes are $200 ish.

Its a pretty good deal for radial setup with GP cartridge.

Wha?? The GP kit doesn't provide for radial brakes. That price is for suspension retrofit only AFAIK.

[He Man]

My bad, that doenst make any sense the way i wrote it.

the kit is $1300
Install is $170
Forks themselves you can find for about $200
Brakes you can also find from time to time about $200,usually closer to $300.

The total cost would be roughtly $1800 for a full set. You start getting very close to a fully loaded Ohlins kit. Or you can stick with Axial brakes if you have because GP makes a kit for S2R1k S2R800 forks as well. I just like the look of radials.