I hesitated bringing this topic up again but i'm on the verge of having the forks re-valved and wonder if i'm going to be wasting my money.

I've finally gotten the geometry where the bike tracks evenly front to back ( pushed tubes DOWN up front ) and sag in rear where it's balanced ..

I have a suspicion the springs in front are for a heavier rider than myself ( due for servicing and oil change so i'll find that out )

My complaint and question to guys that have done re-valving is as follows :

1. when i'm going along a very smooth section of road and bike's feeling GREAT when the tyre HITS a Raised bump the forks just don't absorb it and literally the bike jumps UP in front ( handlebars come up ) ... Even with compression clicks backed all the way to max Soft. AND the rear shock feels just as abrupt...... the front is like "BANG" when it hits ( and not running heavy tyre pressures either - 30 lbs ) ....
A. i realise if the spring is too stiff up front maybe that's contributing ... But the rear is rated 170-185 which is in my weight range ( i'm 180 lbs )..
so i'll check that out when servicing the forks.

2. The QUESTION : for those of you who have re-valved the front and have made claims it's made the front much more PLUSH does all the above make sense to you and should i get the re-valving done should i expect much of that ABRUPT BANGING up front to be reduced ???

The Go-to shop out here is Catalyst Reaction for re-valving. I went in to talk with them last week and he said the SD suspension sucks and recommends of course i just bring the forks in for the valves.

if i take the forks apart myself and hand the legs to him re-valving is 175.00$ which i think is reasonable providing it's going to soften up the front suspension to absorb road bumps better ....
if i bring the forks in - have them take apart and service with new oil and valves it's 330.00 $ i'd rather just bring the parts in to re-valve...

What say you pro's out there who've been through this already - feedback - words of advice ?
i have a friend who brought his speed triple to Catalyst Reaction for re-valving , he let me ride it and i have to say very very cushy up front.
was almost dreamy so smooth ........ he said it made a huge difference - and judging by the ride i say " hell yes it did ".

thnx

That catalyst mob has a really good reputation and I guess dollar wise that is a good deal unless you want to do the work yourself.
The main advandage of a good suspension guy is not so much the work they do (not saying they do it badly) but the knowledge you get to adjust the suspension and parts to your riding style, weight and so on. If the springs are too hard they will advise you which ones to use and so on.
I haven't done the SD but I had my aprillia RSV done front and rear by a good company and I can go on how much difference it made but it really transformed the bike in a good way.

In your case there might be a problem with the forks like the needle adjuster stuck in the seat or the valves not working or as you say the springs as normally the sd is not that bad if you hit a bump.
Does the rebound work or does it basically not compress if you hit something? The rebound stops it from bouncing out too fast so you need to determine if it is bouncing back too hard or not compressing if you hit a bump.

I have had the front and rear re valved by the top ohlins rep here.
He has a dyno which shows you what the shock is doing at different loading's and speed.
He re valves and and if he is not happy he re valves again till he is satisfied with the readings.

They really need to have the bike to do it properly in my opinion.
I removed the shocks in their workshop to save some money.

They re valved the rear by just changing the shim stacks for the rebound, compression was fine for my rear shock. SDR

The front was re valved with racetech gold valve piston kit, his comments on the OEM valving was they are shit.
They checked for correct spring rate before they do anything.They measure the springs also to verify they are what they say.

I found it was money well spent, much improved handling and plushness.
If you intend to keep your bike like I do for a few years this is the way to go in my opinion.

Its amazing the amount of new Aprilia's and Ducati's that they re valve due to incorrect valving from the factory.

Dave Moss from Catalyst setup my bike during a track day weekend. He completely changed the initial setup since it was pure crap, and after every round he made minor adjustments based on my feedback and tyre wear. I'm pretty sure stock springs are .96kg/mm, which i think is normal for 190-200lbs riders. I don't run in A group yet, so I can't really complain about WP suspension. Maybe if someone will let me borrow their BMW S1000RR HP4 for a track day, then I'll have a better idea on what a plush ride feels like.

Do you pull a lot of wheelies? And if so have you ever misjudged the landing and banged the front end down really hard? According to my local dealer this can cause one of the valves in the fork to jam - they have seen it quite a lot apparently ...... May account for your hard front end as one of the adjusters will be doing nothing? Either way it sounds like something a suspension service / tune up will fix....

I would use RJS Superbikes at Mallory Park.
They are ex-BSB race mechanics and Rob is a suspension specialist.
They are used by a lot of the top Superstock teams for complete bike preparation and have always done a faultless job for me.
They are K-Tech partners who are the internals of choice for superstock racing.

You may need to go down to a 9.0 fork spring, for road riding. This alone will solve the harsh ride that you are feeling from the front end. A revalve will help a lot as the stock WP valving has to much high speed compression damping and is too fast on the high speed rebound damping. adjusting the compression redound clickers will not help cure the harsh ride. Jim at C/R tuning will be able to help. I would sent him the complete forks as he can make sure everything else is working properly.

BTW have a set of 9.0 fork springs for sale if you need them.
HTH:; Tim