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8/16/2006
Location
SouthWest, FL
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Fantasy
989th
FLmxer
11/26/2014 5:08pm
11/26/2014 5:08pm
Edited Date/Time
1/8/2015 9:12pm
I have been off the bike for a few years after an injury, longest ever and coming off a 05 crf 450. I had so much fun back riding. Dam I love this sport. The 2015 is my first fuel injected bike and air forks. I did get to ride an 08 quite a few times that was not to much different than the 05. The 15 bike seems shorter, slimmer and taller. The shock was a little soft but really good and the fork worked great in most areas but was harsh on small slap down flat landings and then deflected a bit at 35 psi. I thought slow rebound but the mag tests suggest speeding it up. I was on a sandy motocross track. I didn't set the sag before riding and it was 124. I got it to the suggested 105 now but had to tighten spring a bunch but static was at 37 and spring was well inside the minimum length so I think I'm ok. Does that sound right? I want to see how good I can get it before I revalve. I have a few base settings I'm wanting to try Saturday and mess with it from there. It handled great and railed the turns with out the push I am used to. I only used standard power and it pulled a lot harder than I expected.
I am so grateful to be able to ride again and have the support of my family who love the sport too. I am so out of shape but was grinning ear to ear the whole time. I need to get in better shape before the new track opens close by. Hopefully back to riding twice a week again starting now.
I am so grateful to be able to ride again and have the support of my family who love the sport too. I am so out of shape but was grinning ear to ear the whole time. I need to get in better shape before the new track opens close by. Hopefully back to riding twice a week again starting now.
Did You ever ride Seminole Indian res track, loved that place
The Shop
I went up a spring rate on the rear . I could get the correct sag settings with stock spring but went up a rate and it is a massive improvement. however I get the same front end "slap" harshness and struggle to get the front end to sit down and stick in flat turns. It tracks well through rutted turns and berms but any uneven or flat turns and it can be a real handful & flat landings feel very harsh through my shoulders.
I've played around with rebound / comp clickers & pressure and to get it to feel nice in turns, I have to run below 33psi but then bottoming badly on big impacts.
I'm about 210 lbs...
I'm hanging on to that one.
Pit Row
The fork - I'm working on it as well. It feels good on big hits and does well in rutted corners, but slap type hits as you said are a little bone jarring right now. I'm running 34 lbs. Backing off the compression clickers definitely makes it feel smoother but at the expense of bottoming.
The power is just fine for a Vet. Interestingly, while it has more grunt off the bottom, it doesn't translate into being wickedly faster than my 350F. I'm still hitting step ups and such with about the same level of speed and the throttle pinned to land in the same places I did with the 350F.
Keep us posted on your work with the forks - I need some more time to figure them out as well.
FTR, the only 450 I've ever ridden that was slower than the '08 crf stock was that '14 crf yesterday and any other post '08 crf. Mine has porting, 3mm long rod and 14:1 compression, but like Delta mentioned, it had the chassis to handle the power first.
I had three sets of starting points on clicker to try and ended up with these setting. Test rider Brandon Lutes settings were closest for me plus a little slower rebound on the fork as track got rollers but I know it can get better for my conditions.
Fork
35 psi
Low speed comp. 10
Hi speed comp. 11
Low speed rebound 7/8
High speed rebound 7/8
Shock
Sag 105
Low speed comp. 15
High speed comp. 16
Rebound. 4
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