NC Rick Robert, Somehow we missed your inquiry. I apologize, between Joyce and I we try to respond to every email (raceparts@motocd.com) and phone call (828) 628 9025. We only have one line so often you may get our machine but we do call back. I am always particularly interested in talking with Ducati folks so I am extra sorry to have missed your communication. It is possible for us to modify the M1R for to a 25mm cartridge system. Until we do the work, I can not tell you if we can keep the stock adjusters functioning. We did a Moto Guzzi fork recently (see our customers comments on the Guzzi Tech forum) where we were able to maintain the stock functionality of the Marzocchi adjusters. From what i know, the forks you have are a damping rod type design (still used on many bikes today such as the sv 650 Suzuki). Making the modifications to the stock damper rods can make improvements and certainly makes for a change. The typical damper rod design utilizes an orifice based damper system (sometimes modified by spring type "blow-off") and the big problem with that style of damping is that to have enough damping for good chassis control, the higher speed damping will become to high so that the fork will be harsh on sharp edged bumps. These type forks are very sensitive to oil viscosity (and even temperature). With tweaking of the stock setup, it is possible to make them perform to an adequate level for many riders. The more recent cartridge style forks use a mechanically modified orifice design (most often via spring steel shim washers) that provide much more control over the damping profile allowing us to tune your fork as needed. We are able to have much more low speed damping to control the bikes chassis while allowing the force curve to become less progressive or even regressive at the higher damper shaft speeds. Typically we modify the damping in three distinct areas that we refer to as stage 1, 2 and 3 of the damping curve. For track and race bikes, we will often have a high value for the stage 3 damping to control the extreme high speeds the damper sees during braking in the hands of an advanced track rider. I think one of our dynamometer charts for the Cogent 25mm kit that Marvin has installed in his super cool 851 is posted on this site. We test and verify all our work. One comment I have for the fork you have; the fork and bike in question is not particularly common and one of the reasons many ride these is because of the historical significance of the type. It is possible to bring the performance up to more modern standards but in doing so, we loose a little of that character that makes a (dare I say) "vintage bike" what it is. These are personal choices for which we can accommodate all the options, be it restoring and tweaking your original internals or doing the full conversion to the 25mm cartridge kit. We would look forward to working with you should you decide to give us a try.
SPONINE I spoke to Rick yesterday. I'll be sending him my M1R forks in a couple of days. I'll report back with the results after a ride, likely 6 months from now, the way this weather is going... Thanks to all!
got2dv8 I know it has not been 6 months, just wondering if you went ahead and had your forks worked on? Robert
marvin got2dv8 wroteI know it has not been 6 months, just wondering if you went ahead and had your forks worked on? RobertRobert, Check in the Tech section. Rick just his forks.
