New Valves work wonders for the front forks and are a significant advance on the emulators and intiminators used by DR650 riders to date. The suspension geeks have been scheming on ways to transform the prehistoric suspension on the DR650 into something worthy of a modern bike. James spent a lot of time developing this valve on their dyno machine, but also with various riders testing the DR650 suspension on easy dirt roads through to the punishment of a motocross track. It is hard not to rave about how different the DR650 suspension feels, with that smooth ride on dirt roads and easy dirt tracks right through to the most challenging terrain you could imagine. Adyno and real testing suggests that most riders will find the valves will be suitable for the stock springs for riders up to 100kg.The length of the valve compresses the softer part of the springs sufficiently to achieve the right amount of sag with the DR650's suspension. A while back the guys customised the DR650 rear shock with excellent results, and tried the usual cheap mod of heavier fork oil up front with mediocre results. The second level of DR650 suspension improvements have been incredible though. The rear shock was already dramatically improved with their custom valving, but now they have added a customised piston that makes the rear suspension even more plush over small bumps. And up the front suspension these guys have invented a valve which works so well the rod forks are now the equivalent of good cartridge forks, a job started by Race Tech emulators and intiminators by Ricor. The DR650 suspension is very plush over small bumps and corrugations, and yet now handles extreme abuse like this 60 foot jump with ease. As covered in a previous video, the rod forks are a very old inadequate design, and the DR650 suspension at both ends is too soft and underdamped. Also the rebound and compression damping at both ends is badly out of sync so can't be solved with just using heavier oil, which was one of the requirements to make intiminators and emulators work. The usual suspension upgrade for the DR650 forks has been fitting Race Tech emulators or Ricor intiminators. Many riders report better performance with these in combination with heavier springs. However, while they are adjustable, emulators require disassembling your forks and modifying them, which many DR650 owners balk at. The intiminators do not require taking your forks apart, but they do require putting in a different fork oil weight as they only affect compression damping, not rebound damping, on the DR650 suspension. FFRC's chief suspension guru, James, has been designing state of the art suspension components for years, not only for motorbikes but also rally cars and V8 racing cars, and wanted to create the ideal fork fork upgrade... the Plex Valve that would be the match the performance of quality cartridge forks, and could simply dropped into the fork, be adjusted if needed, would not require changing the fork oil, and even better could work well with the stock fork springs.
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This FRC dyno chart compares the results of the DR650 budget suspension option of 15w fork oil, then with the new valves. James has included a set of Kayaba forks from a YZF450 which is a very good cartridge fork. You can see who closely the valve mimics the cartridge fork, although of course it's deliberately softer than the motocross fork. While I haven't used Ricor intiminators, I have used Race Tech emulators in the past with good results but the Valve is definitely a step further and much easier to install too. As mentioned the DR650 rear suspension was already brilliant after James created custom valving for the rear shock. He also decided to test their latest DR650 upgrades in extreme conditions. The guys reasoned that if their suspension mods worked well in these conditions, and the stock components held up okay, then it should all work well long-term for everyday adventure riders. The test riders agreed the suspension work and these new Valves were great, and even landing the DR650 from the biggest jump was smooth, an impressive achievement given the stock fork springs are far too soft for even easy dirt riding normally.
#dr650 #suzukidr650 #suzukidr650project
27 окт 2016
