432, and the Sky Wasn't Very Blue

The trusty WR-250FP after today's very good ride.
Those new M22/M23 tires are practically magic.


And that, folks, is just fine and dandy with me while I'm riding my dirt bike.  ;)

I just came back from yet another Sunday Pachaug endure loop ride on the ol' WR-250FP, and conditions were very, very good, indeed.
The sky was cloudy the whole time, which was 180 degrees away from the forecast I read this morning on weather.com that said sunny, sunny, sunny.
Well, that was funny, funny, funny because it was cloudy, cloudy, cloudy.
And I liked it, too.
On top of that, I had two brandy-new Bridgestone M22/M23 tires on the bike for this ride.
Yesindeedy.

Although there are leaves now covering some of the obstacles on the ground and making them harder to see and identify, the weather was very good and I woke up feeling fairly good, too, so I hoped for a good ride out there.
That's what I got as I had a good feeling with the bike and vision was about as good as it gets for me.
I included the southern-most part of the loop, again, something that is fast becoming the usual routine for me as of late, and total mileage on the day was 55.9 on the ol' odometer.

So, I had my cloudy sky, my stiffer fork springs holding my front fork up as I like it to be, good health, and good conditions all around.
The new tires could immediately be felt doing their thing, which is providing excellent traction.
Honestly, I don't know why guys go with soft-to-intermediate-terrain tires on their bike when riding the Pachaug loop, and I can only guess they're going by how big n' burly the tread pattern looks on those tires.
I'll take hard terrain tires, thanks, as these Bridgestones always feel very good.

About the only pesky thing on today's ride was meeting up with several people out taking a little stroll on the trails, and being a respectable type that I am, I slowed way down when I saw these pedestrians.
Too bad these meetings were on good parts of the trail where I wanted to keep my pace up.
I did see one guy who heard me coming down a fast hill while on my most favorite pine-needled-whoops-through-the-woods section, and I noticed him when I was just about past him because he got his butt off the trail when he heard a motor vehicle coming toward him.
Smart man, and this is exactly what I do on the rare occurrences I see dirt bike riders while I'm out taking a walk on those very trails.
See, you'd be surprised how many peeps will not get their butts off the trail in those situations.
Maybe they like getting run over by motor vehicles at speed, huh?
If I were these folks, I'd get a plated dirt bike and start going about it the right way instead of trying to get my rocks off by walking little Fluffy or Fido who needs to stop every 20 feet to piss or shit on a tree or sniff some other mutt's butt.

Gross, huh?
You bet it is - get yourselves a plated dirt bike, folks.

-John

431 More Drops of KYB 01 on the Floor

Yessirree, I did another Pachaug enduro loop ride on the ol' trusty WR-250FP this past Sunday.
Conditions were 50% to my liking:
The sky was cloudy (excellent), but the ground was wet all day (not excellent).
That means while my vision wasn't pestered by too bright light, I was cautious over much of the ride since the obstacles on the ground are more slippery when wet.

All in all, it was a decent ride, still, as I tried yet another change in the front fork setup.
Where on the ride the weekend before I tried the latest revalve change in effort to reduce high-speed fork movement spikes (harsh feeling from high-speed hits), this past weekend I added the next stiffer fork springs (stock spring = .44kg/mm, and new springs = .46 kg/mm).

Why would I want stiffer springs if I'm looking to alleviate high-speed spikes from all of those billions of rocks and roots on the ground?
Easy, Bucky.
With the reduced damping of the softer revlave a couple weeks ago, the front fork would settle a bit lower while just getting on the bike and riding, meaning the front of the bike wasn't being held up as high as it once was.
Apparently, the hydraulic damping of the fork has much to do with controlling the mass of the bike and is not simply all left up to the fork springs, and it seems very much that the springs and damping work together.
Amazing, eh?

So, with reduced compression damping in search of a more supple fork that will be more willing to move quickly over the sharp bumps, the front of the bike now rode lower, something that I don't favor as it effects the feeling of solid stability at speed, a feeling that the front of the bike was now a bit too low and reduced my confidence in opening the throttle and going fast.
I like the feeling of stability, and a too-low front end reduces that feel.
Adding the stiffer springs instantly brought the front back up to where I like it, and the bike felt very good in all situations as far as chassis balance and front-to-rear ride height and feeling of stability went.
Very good, I say, as rolling off the throttle, braking, braking on downhills, or anything else I rode this past Sunday gave me a good feeling with the balance of the bike.
This characteristic make the decision to go with the stiffer springs a winner, and I see myself keeping them in the bike for as long as I run the current damping setup.

Along with the stiffer springs, I lowered the fork oil level to the minimum allowed in the WR-250FP Owner's Service Manual:
150mm.
I was using 145mm for the past year, and the original stock setting was 140mm.
The lower the oil level, the more air trapped inside the fork tubes, and with more air trapped in there, there is a noticeable reduction in what is called the "air spring".
When the fork is compressed, the trapped air acts like a spring, a spring that not only offers considerable resistance to being compressed, but is a progressive spring that goes up in effective spring rate the more it is compressed, unlike the steel coil fork springs that are linear in spring rate and keep the same spring rate all the time.
As when I lowered the oil level 5mm last year from 140mm to 145mm and felt the reduction of the air spring effect, something that improved the fork's ability to take square-edge hits out in the woods, lowering the oil level an additional 5mm down to 150mm seems to have been a good move as - and here's something that is quite something - even though I went to stiffer fork springs to hold the front of the softer-damped bike up to where I prefer it, the actual hydraulic damping and the fork's ability to take square-edge hits was not ruined.

Neat, huh?

So, the fork now has a firmer feel to it by being stiff enough to hold the front of the bike up high enough to give me the feeling of good stability and proper chassis attitude and balance (stiffer fork springs), but also having hydraulic damping and air spring soft enough to not make the square-edge hits worse.
It really was a good-feeling setup out on the Pachaug loop, and through the whole ride, I was enjoying the benefits of the higher-riding front end of the bike as this gave me a more confident feel.
Quite a bit more, actually, and is just the thing the doctor ordered in my book.

Now, the next thing to do on the next occasion I spend money on the fork is to try different base valve pistons with bigger oil flow ports in them as Tom from Nasin Machine recommends, AKA Race Tech Gold Valves.
If these Gold Valves are able to rid the fork of the high-speed spikes still present over the more severe high-speed hits, then I'll be Golden.
Hardy-harr-harr.  :)

Off to jerk,
-John