Triumphrat

MickMaguire · 07-24-2003

Here is an email I fired off to Race Tech earlier, I thought I'd post it here in case somebody here has some helpful insight. Any suggestions gratefully received:

Quote:

Hi,
For my Triumph Thunderbird (2000 model year) I recently purchased a valve emulator kit and fork springs (FRSP S353410) as recommended on your web site. After fitting these and setting the oil to your recommended 140mm, I find that the forks creak quite loudly under compression. There is no evidence of binding or sticking just this loud noise during about 30% of the fork travel. This creaking can be felt if you touch the fork legs and is coming evenly from both sides.

1. I removed the forks, disassembled and rechecked my work, refitted them - they still creak. I noticed that they creak when off the bike when compressed by hand, but it's quieter than when on the bike.

2. I emptied out the oil, removed the springs and valve emulators and pumped the fork - no usual noises.

3. Put in the stock spring/preload spacer only, pumped the fork - no unusual noises.

4. Dismantled and reassembled with the emulator and stock spring/preload spacer, pumped the fork - no unusual noises.

5. Dismantled and reassembled with race tech spring and valve emulator but no oil - the fork creaks.

I measured the diameter of the race tech springs and compared them to the stock springs - it seems that the stock springs are larger in diameter (around 36mm) than the race tech items. Could this be causing the creaking? Is the spring bending and applying lateral forces to the stanchion tube thereby creaking?

Your web-site lists the forks for my Thunderbird as being Kayaba, but Triumph changed the manufacturer to Showa in 1999. I asked Brad Bailey several times if this would make a difference (noting that Showa forks seem to use slightly larger springs) but did not manage to secure a reply.

Please advise as I am stuck in the position of currently having an unusable bike!

Regards,
Mick Maguire