Nice work.

 

Thanks.

So would you recommend this as a big improvment for the average street rider or is this not much better then the standard forks on the road, but a LOT better for track work?

I have a little canyon time on them now, and I have just been riding the bike with recommended settings. For the street, it is much more comfortable. Stock, I felt a lot of compression spiking, and that is gone. Very plush. Knee down pace in the canyons feel great, so I have not lost any stability yet by gaining that plushness. I have not had it out to the track yet (25th of this month), and I would imagine I'll have to stiffen it up a bit for that. We'll see.

No pics of valve removal and installation?

I was thinking about taking a bunch of pictures as I did the work, but I got lazy, and I didn't want it to seem like a how to. I would only recommend someone with suspension experience do it them self. I know that sounds a little elitist, but I am a meticulous motherfucker, and this kit is not for the beginner. Basically, you have to get the cartridges apart without ruining them. Once apart, you have to drill the detents out of the adjusting rod with a 2mm drill bit to release the stock rebound needle. This has to be removed without widening the opening of the rod. Then they have to be cleaned and deburred. Stock rebound valve assembly has to be removed from the damping rod with heat and a damping rod holding tool, and replaced with the K-tech assembly. They come with NO INSTRUCTIONS at all. Replacing the compression damping assembly is cake, as you just unscrew the old one, screw in the new one. Someone could buy the kit, turn the forks upside down, do just the compression damping assembly with almost no fluid loss, and see a big difference. However, for some reason my forks had almost no rebound damping stock even with the adjusters on full slow, so the whole kit would be required to fix that.

Pic of the stock stuff that came out.

 

Nice.

 

So would you recommend this as a big improvment for the average street rider or is this not much better then the standard forks on the road, but a LOT better for track work?

 

No pics of valve removal and installation?

 

Which ones did you get? Trying to find them on their website is futile.

 

I got the GSXR750 Showa 2008-2010 20SSK-INT-SHO-15 kit. The SSK kits are their street and track kits, where the SSRK kits are "track only." I talked to some people and the general consensus was to get the SSK kit. I guess the SSRK kits are VERY firm, and most of the racers still choose the SSK kit. I ride mainly on the street, so SSK for me. Their website is a little better now, but still tough to find our kits. If you go to their website

http://www.k-tech.uk.com/

click the Store tab and under refine your search, put in your bike and hit search, it will take you to this page with all of the stuff for our bikes

http://www.k-tech.uk.com/store.php?...97e5c2aeb4267ec01921ddc&road=&manufacturer_id=4&model_id=41&year=2009&category=

Thanks for the pix. I have the axxion valves in my forks at the moment, I was thinking about getting an ohlins kit or similar. Let us know how these k-techs perform.:cheers

For sure. I was looking at the Ohlins kit, but I like the way the K-Tech kits use their own needles and completely replace the entire assemblies. The ohlins kit just replaces the valves. I would guess the Ohlins work well, but the K-Tech pieces certainly seem like they are designed to flow more through the assembly and focus on the shim stack for damping (I should have taken some pictures :banghead). That usually makes it more tunable/easier to tune. But, I'm no expert. I just know they feel much smoother so far. How do you like the axxion valves? Did you do them yourself?

 

Thanks for the pix. I have the axxion valves in my forks at the moment, I was thinking about getting an ohlins kit or similar. Let us know how these k-techs perform.:cheers

 

how are these compared to the ohlins internals, im looking into getting the K-Tech rear shock for my bike soon. Figure i do both at the same time.

 

Thanks Mike for the part numbers, good to know about all the options out there.

 

Damn $450 is a lot more then the ohlins kit. Awaiting your speed trials on the new valves?:cheers

 

I wish Ohlins would bring the 25mm kits back.

 

Any track test updates yet?

 

Track day got rained out. It might be a while now. Was riding my dirt bike, and some idiot on a quad hit me head on. May have re-broken my wrist that has been broken and repaired twice already

 

You told me is was from carpel tunnel from whacking to much?

Be glad that is all that happened, could have been way worse.

They can rebuild the wrist and make it stronger and faster.

 

where did you get the forks from?

also are the brembos from the L1 & if so did they fit easy

 

Come on Mikenbiken, stop holding out with the updates. :cheers

 

I got the fork internals from Orient Express and installed them myself. If you are not really familiar with working on suspension components, I would have a legit suspenion place install them. They don't come with instructions etc etc, and if you don't know what you are doing, you can guarantee it will end up wrong. That said, after 2 track days, they are incredible. I didn't want to say anything until I got some track time on them. They are so compliant on the street, I was afraid they might suck at the track, but they worked flawlessly. They don't come with instructions, but they do come with recommended settings once installed. I set them to those settings, and have not touched them since. I run chassis and sag settings as recommended by goodmatt78 on the "running wide" thread.

The calipers are basically the same as the ones on the L1, and they are a direct replacement. Bolt right up without spacers. I am running them with spiegler lines (superbike style with the T fitting), performance friction 7.5 pads, and a brembo RCS master set to 18mm, and it is perfect for me. With this setup, lighter slipper clutch reaction springs, and the goodmatt78 settings, I can brake incredibly hard without the bike feeling like the back wants to pass the front. I have never been able to brake like that on any of my race bikes in the past. I wish I had go pro of my last track day. Pretty cool to know I can pass almost anyone on the track on the brakes. So, in a nutshell, I cannot praise these items enough.

Sorry for the late response. Super crazy weekend. Mountain bike trips Friday and Saturday, rode dirt bikes in the desert all day Sunday, and then did a track day on Monday. I'm ready for a nap :sleep

 

I'm hooked again!!

 

So what's your latest review of the k-tech internals?:wait

 

Nice!

Thanks for the update

Do you need to swap out the brake pads?

I was looking at dropping a set on the front of my K9 but I have a spare set of HH pads for the current set up so would wait until I went through those first

 

I was thinking about mucking about modding the standard valves, but haven't a clue about where to start with shim stacking.

Such a favorable review temps me to want to fork out for a set of valves at least.

 

Part of the problem is the valve and valve assembly itself. The holes for flow are crude and not large enough. I think you can re-shim, but at some point the lack of flow to the shim becomes the issue. The K-Tech assemblies have much larger/smoother ports. I could see a huge difference visually. One other thing I decided to do was to drill a bypass for the bottom out hydro lock. The cartridge is designed to hydro lock the last inch of travel or so to protect from hard bottom outs (learning to wheelie etc). The ohlins kit recommends drilling a bypass, and that made sense to me. I don't like the idea of getting to that point on the brakes over bumps etc and hitting a compression brick wall, so I drilled them. I really couldn't be happier with the end result.

 

Does the ktech setup still use a high speed comp adjuster?

 

Yes, that's what all the suspension tuners seem to say about the ports. The stock suspension is really noticeable for compression spiking at fast rates of change as you were saying.

Not sure if the stock ones can be resized nicely. I'll get around to looking at them soon.

 

Got another track day in on the fork internals. They work so good it is like cheating. K-Tech knows what they are doing. Here is a little gopro of a session where a control rider was helping me out. Enjoy!

 

Wow, you were going so fast your zero gravity sticker was peeling off! I'm sold!

 

:lmao That's funny

 

This is a couple of years old for a question but here goes: Have you changed the oil and seals in the k-tech forks? Is it the same procedure with the kit as with original forks? I have just purchased a set of k-tech kited forks for my 05 1000 and want to change the oil and seals before I install them. I couldn't find any videos on k-tech forks.
Thanks, Mark