From: owner-dr350-digest@lists.xmission.com (dr350-digest) To: dr350-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: dr350-digest V1 #180 Reply-To: dr350-digest Sender: owner-dr350-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-dr350-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk dr350-digest Sunday, October 3 1999 Volume 01 : Number 180 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 12:46:06 -0700 From: Bryan Cowger Subject: Re: (dr350) Race-Tech gold valves > > Question: I have a '98 DR350SE with the Showa forks and shock. > I'm upgrading the fork springs and shock spring and installing > the Kouba link. I'm wondering if the Race-Tech gold valves > are a significant upgrade of either the forks or shock. I have the RT Gold Valves both front and rear, and love them. Long-time readers of this list have likely tired of hearing me rave about them in the past, but again: PLUSH!! That's the number one benefit of the GVs, in my opinion. A close second would be vastly improved bottoming resistance, as well as much smoother over the small bumps. The whole idea of the GVs is to increase the flow of fluid through the suspension valving. The problem it solves is that the stock piston (shock) and valves (forks) contain relatively small orifices through which all the fluid must pass during compression and rebound. For high-speed movement, the fluid volume/second can be quite high, and reaches a point where the fluid simply will not flow that fast, also known, I believe, as hydraulic lock. This creates a non-linear suspension, similar to the disadvantage of the damping rod forks in the older DR models. With the GVs, the orifices are large enough that the point of hydraulic lock is never reached. Instead, the shim stacks provide all the damping, which is exactly what is desired from the suspension. The great thing about the GV kits is that each installation is custom tuned to each rider. You get a package of about 100 shims of various thicknesses and diameters, and a worksheet to fill out. The worksheet takes into account your size, riding style, expertise, bike type, whether you like a firmer or softer suspension, etc. The outcome of this is a custom-built shim stack for you. In addition, triple stage compression and dual stage rebound stacks are employed. For compression, this means that there are shims to control the small bumps, other shims that kick in for medium sized bumps, and yet a third set of shims that come into play for jump landings, for example. As such, you end of with a suspension that is soft for the little stuff, yet stiff for the big stuff. In summary (all this IMHO), well worth the money. And they are easy to do yourself, as part of the regular suspension maintenance that should be performed. Adding stiffer springs, GVs, and Kouba links is *the* great solution to the DRs otherwise so-so suspension. For those with damping rod forks, the Race-Tech cartridge fork emulators up front and a GV in the shock is the way to go. And for those seeking the ultimate suspension solution for a DR, switch everything over to RMX suspension, as John Gill has outlined before. (You still around, John??) BTW, I have a write-up on how to service a DR shock that I've posted before - -- e-mail if interested. Bryan '96 DR441 Sacramento bryan_cowger@hp.com Support Dual Sport News with your subscription http://www.geocities.com/~klrdsn/page2.html Visit the dr350 archives at http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=dr350 Unsubscribe by sending a message to majordomo@lists.xmission.com Leave subject blank, message is unsubscribe dr350 (or dr350-digest). ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 22:56:41 -0700 From: The Strickler's Subject: RE: (dr350) Suzuki parts dealers ??? Guys: In response to aftermarket parts &OEM, try www. mxsouth.com. He is located in Florida. Jeff will work with you to no end, and he really knows his stuff. Prices spank ever other distributor I have used, and I have received orders in as soon as the second day!!!. NO matter if you are located in the east or west, he ships the product direct from the nearest wholesale outlet to you. It's terrific! Just log on to his website. Then send him an e-mail, give him a call, or just browse his catalog. Strick strickler@aies.net - -----Original Message----- From: TrailByker@aol.com [SMTP:TrailByker@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, October 02, 1999 11:38 AM To: BobR806@aol.com Cc: dr350@lists.xmission.com Subject: Re: (dr350) Suzuki parts dealers ??? Bob; If you are talking about genuine Suzuki parts then I would reccomend Sloan's. These guys are located in Murfeesboro, TN; it is a full dealership for Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha. They will give you a break on factory parts that are mail ordered from them. I may be wrong, but I don't think there is a straight percentage discount; they usually evaluate the profit margin for some of the parts before they give you an answer. When I had my Yamaha RT180, the ONLY place to get parts was from the dealer and I used these guys quite a bit; they are very service oriented and have a good parts inventory. If you are looking for a mail order house for aftermarket parts, then I would recommend Dennis Kirk. His firm is located up in Minnesota and I have ordered many items from this company. His prices are not as cheap as some of the other big mail order houses, but his prices include UPS ground shipping. The only other caveat is a $5 service charge for orders under $100. I personally like to find good dealers/mail order houses that are NOT located out on the Left Coast.......to many of these places are so big they really don't give a hoot about customer satisfaction. These are just my opinions, based upon my experiences (which have been good so far) and I'm sure there are guys out there who'll lambaste Kirk or have other large dealer/mail order outfits to recommend. You can find Sloans at: 1-800-342-1681 I know they have a website so you'll have to get that from them if you call Dennis Kirk 1-800-328-9280 www.denniskirk.com Hope this helps out..... Mike ' 93 DR350 Support Dual Sport News with your subscription http://www.geocities.com/~klrdsn/page2.html Visit the dr350 archives at http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=dr350 Unsubscribe by sending a message to majordomo@lists.xmission.com Leave subject blank, message is unsubscribe dr350 (or dr350-digest). Support Dual Sport News with your subscription http://www.geocities.com/~klrdsn/page2.html Visit the dr350 archives at http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=dr350 Unsubscribe by sending a message to majordomo@lists.xmission.com Leave subject blank, message is unsubscribe dr350 (or dr350-digest). ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 15:08:51 -0600 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Enrique_Su=E1rez_Reyes?= Subject: (dr350) Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 23:06:36 +0200 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_0014_01BF0DF3.F101BC20 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable unsubscribe - ------=_NextPart_000_0014_01BF0DF3.F101BC20 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
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- ------=_NextPart_000_0014_01BF0DF3.F101BC20-- Support Dual Sport News with your subscription http://www.geocities.com/~klrdsn/page2.html Visit the dr350 archives at http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=dr350 Unsubscribe by sending a message to majordomo@lists.xmission.com Leave subject blank, message is unsubscribe dr350 (or dr350-digest). ------------------------------ End of dr350-digest V1 #180 ***************************