I rode the first day with about 6 clicks of compression dampening. It was too stiff for the terrain. The forks worked fine for larger bumps but the small trail trash just wore me out over time. I started thinking I am probably getting too old and.... LOL Nope - I just need to get the tune right!
Day 2 I softened the forks by opening the compression clickers all the way with no clicks. I also softened the rear two clicks. That combination worked pretty well but I dont like having the adjuster topped out with no adjustment so I want to have some ability to soften it even more.
These forks came from a YZ450F 2008 or 2009 and I have never changed the ICS pressure springs. I have heard the stock 450 ICS springs could be a little heavy for enduro/trail riding. I order some 1.8 ICS springs from RaceTech.
The install is pretty easy, but I noticed the stock springs are 10mm shorter than the new ones. I read on TT that you don't need to use the plastic spacers with the aftermarket springs, so I tried the install without the spacer. I quickly found out that I could not bleed the inner chamber properly with out the spacer and the rod would not fully extend.
Having 7mm preload or a 5mm gap in the ICS spring did not seem like a good idea so I decided to machine the stock plastic spacer shorter to a total of 9.4mm. This gave me about a 0.5mm gap once it was assembled. The inner chamber bled all the air and the piston extended fully, like normal. It appears that having a bigger ICS spring gap without the spacer is a problem.
When I finished the first fork I compared it side by side (compression by hand) with the fork with the stock ICS spring and the lighter spring feels initially more compliant. Both forks on the bike I could tell it had a softer feel and I needed to add 6 clicks of compression.
We just had our first snow but I will try to sneak out and see how it feels.
Has anyone else changed ICS springs and how did you address the spacer?
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