Short Fork

I have been tallying expected costs and become a little concerned that my dreams may exceed my pennies; or at least eat into my "buffer" line item too significantly.  As a precaution, I decided to experiment with the stock Showa 43mm conventional forks.  If I use the stock forks instead of USD forks off another moto, I should save around $400 on my budget, so it's worth considering.  These forks do have the added benefit of already using a 15mm axle; the same bearing ID in the front wheel I would like to use.

I made these 2.5" spacers for the damping rod fork during a couple lunch breaks at my company's machine shop.  The hole and channel are for the rebound circuit.  I used two set screws to fixture the spacer in place and prevent it from covering an orifice.

 

The right leg (closest) has the spacers and shortened spring installed, and is moved up in the triple clamps as much as possible.  This results in 7.75" of exposed tube versus the stock 11.5".  I would like to go lower, but the spring rate increases for each coil that is removed from the fork springs.  I'll try this first and go from here.

The perks of working for a bike component manufacturing company are pretty huge.  Add to it the fact that I work in the R&D building for mountain bike suspension.  Even better, the machine shop policy is pretty liberal; as long as you aren't preventing work from being done, the machines are yours to use.  I love my job.  :D