since i'm too damn fat i gotta put bigger springs in the front forks
of this aprilia rsv4 rf-1100 factory and here's how
there's a number stamped in the casting right inside this piece i need to find out what that
number is so i can make sure i'm getting the right springs the right parts and all that
with the camera on flash i'm gonna now try to get up under that fender enough
to get an angle in there where i can see that casting and get the number off of it
i got a picture now i gotta zoom in and it's like looking for a weight loss clinic in a starving
nation but here we kind of got it if we look there we go that's the number we're looking for and it
looks like it's a i think a fl 9602 and then that number underneath looks like the date 71 of 19.
got all the stuff i need from mike at kyle racing there's my fat boy springs
not from a fat boy harley but for someone who weighs too much to be riding a sport bike
i also have the adapter here that's just going to take a normal wrench on this side and over here we
have the pins that'll go in the holes on the top of the fork this is the cap i was talking about
and that adapter that you saw those pins will fit in these holes so i can take that off and then i
do have two liters of the olens fork fluid i'm not going to use them for changing the springs
but as soon as i get the springs figured out i'm happy with the suspension what i'll do is go back
later and do a flush with that fluid first thing i need to do is get the rear on the rear stand
now the front stand and it's got to be one of these that allows you to
lift it by the triple trees because you got to be able to extend the bottom out
there's a link in the description below that shows a video on how
to put one of these together and use it if you haven't done that as well
the first thing i'm going to do is back the preload out all the
way it should be about 18 turns out from bottomed out where it is now
if you've been watching the videos you know that i've been working on the suspension
for this aprilia for quite a while and the real problem is nothing to do with a bike
the problem is that i weigh too much for the stock front fork springs and when i bought the bike
it had a bigger spring on the back but the front ones were stock and it's just been a problem i've
been fighting and adjusting and you can see it in the previous video below in the description
and kind of see how i got to where i am but ultimately this is the right thing to do is get
the right springs in there now before you start messing with any dials or turned into anything
first thing you do is go back to your excel sheet that i've shown you and make sure
that you have all the settings written down you've documented where your compression your
rebound uh sag preload all that stuff is after the spring swap we'll adjust all this again
just make sure you have it documented before you go into it so that you always know where you were
as a starting point now i've got the preload out all the way on both forks and i did you know a
few at a time here a few at a time here they went about 15 to 18 turns completely out from bottomed
out the next step is we want to loosen this top triple tree clamp bolt just a little bit the
reason for that is when we pull this up we don't want any additional stress on this or force on
it that's going to make pulling that up any harder you do however want to keep the bottom clamp bolts
all tight this fork is not your favorite stripper you don't want to see it spinning you just want
to see it sit still and hold it perfectly tight you don't want to be rotating the cap and have
the fork turn with it so top one loose bottom one tight if you look close you can see that there's
yellow ink marking where the bolt is in the tree right now so i'm going to back it off one complete
turn that way it's easy to know right back where to put it the top clamp bolt is loose on both
sides as you'll see in the other video i have left these forks in the stock position within that tree
i have not moved them up or down so those are the same we're going to leave them the same
it's not going to move during this process we're not actually taking it out of the trees
i've got the adapter that i need for the top cap and i'm going to break that loose now
you want to rotate the trees all the way to the other side to stop
first and just make sure to not be too rough with it because you're up on stands
it actually came up real easy you want to keep that tool down right up against it if you come
up a little bit you might mess up those pin holes okay did you hear it click that means
it's ready to pull out i think i'll take my ram mount get that radar detector off of there
i've unscrewed both caps and i'm going to try to pull this one out you can't pull one up because
it's trying to pull both up because the two are connected by an axle at the bottom yet
so i need to take the wheel and fender and all that stuff off so i can separate the two and that
way each one can come up individually now what you definitely don't want to do is set the bike down
on the ground now for any reason because there's nothing holding the spring on the top so if you
try to set it on the ground my guess is that spring and everything is going to push these up
and you'll bottom out the bottom and you definitely don't want to do any damage to anything
so the next thing i need to do is pull that wheel off with the brake calipers the fender
and get all that loose so that each of the forks are just hanging still right so when
you're pulling the top out you're only pulling that one fork tube up now by the
magic of youtube i'm going to remove all that stuff and you probably won't be able to do it
as fast as me because you're not trying to edit out your life to make it look better than it is
but if you want a little help figuring out how to get your front wheel off go to the description
below and there's a link to the bst wheel change out on this bike and it'll tell you everything
you need to know about pulling the wheels off and putting them back on now that the forks are
no longer connected by the axle below you can see if i grab onto this piece i'm pulling up the whole
tube right so it's pulling that whole assembly up so i can access to get everything apart up here
all right work smarter not harder i've got my spreader and i'm basically using that to push
up the bottom of the fork that way it'll pop out the top and i want to fight with it
now that's one less thing to fight with the next step is to get that nut in there loose
so i can pull that top cap off so to do that we want to push this down and get our
17 millimeter wrench on that nut which apparently is going to be easier said than done
come on there that wrench will hold that tight and now i just take another wrench up here
and pull that whole assembly off
finally okay that's off that was not a treat it's off
need a real deep 17 mil sock that's what i need the problem is such that that nut isn't just
happily rotating up it's stuck a little bit for whatever reason so and no it's not just because
this is putting spring tension again because i've pushed that down and it still won't rotate up if
i had a couple nuts like this i would put them on together and double nut it and use that to wrench
this part hold that still while i rotate the nut on it but this is some weird thread 12 millimeter
but a weird pitch that i can't just go buy enough for it so i don't really like doing it but i'm
going to break out the impact and see if that'll get this damn thing off finally the impact let me
get that damn thing up now i should be able to do it by hand and get it off the rest of the way and
there's the nut and that plate finally off there and i can see the old spring i need to replace
i pulled the spring up and i'm just letting it sit there kind of so that if there's a little
bit of fluid at the bottom it can run back into there so i don't lose much i was told by
kyle racing i didn't need to add any fluid just minimize what pulls off though just to be safe
all right now i'm going to pull this spring out and lay it down over by the cap same orientation
it makes the difference they look about the same here but i don't see any markings on
one or the other a couple scores there i think there's a tool owl and sells that goes on the
end of this and allows you to pull it up i don't have that at the moment but i kind of wish i did
all right now i'm going to do the other side and get it to the same position that one's in
i'm going to stick a rag down there just so i don't be stupid and drop something down there
but the second one is out went a lot smoother than the first one and time to open the springs and get
these ready i didn't see any print on the old ones but there's definitely marking up here on the top
of these springs so per the olin's manual i will put them in with that facing up so i'm going to
do is pull that rod up drop the spring down and then put the spring capture or whatever spring
plate on there and then nut see if i can get all that done in one fail swoop now i sewed the bottom
propped up so it's up closer to the top as far as it'll go let's see if i'm this quick or not
come on go
that's interesting oh
no comments about tool being too short for the job i'm going to try this once more
fuck yeah there we go i finally got that damn thing on there
um basically just kept holding up the rod inside dropping the spring and then
grabbing the very top with these tape needle nose to try to minimize scratches
and then i was able to kind of hold the threaded rod up against the spring to hold it still
and get that thing started now i got to get that thing down there far enough so i can put the
the top cap on now that nut is close to the bottom i'm going to put the cap back on until it's
basically you know bottomed out first i'm going to back this center part out with an allen wrench
to get the minimum compression that puts the least tension between the bottom of this and that rod
sticking out the top now you can put this thing on it should bottom out at some point yep wait
now that the cap is all the way on i can take the jam nut back it up and do similar to what we
did in the beginning where i use gotta push that down put the open end wrench on it and then use
that up here to tighten it in place okay i spun the jam nut back up against this guy now to get
the wrench in there and tighten it all together i finally got that fucking wrench back in there
so i'm going to torque this down to the 15 newton meters according to the manual
there we go pull this damn thing out done with that okay now the next step is to put a little
bit of grease around the threads and that o-ring so that that all seals nice when it goes back in
obviously put it in one place a little heavier and it'll spread itself out as i put it down in
there i'm going to release the bottom so that this can all go down inside and tighten it up remember
damping is backed out all the way preload's backed out of the way everything's tight let this down
as i do that you can see that went back down to its bottom level and now i can screw that in
remember to keep it fully engaged the whole time all right now i want to torque those
owens book says 10 newton meters which isn't much wow okay so it says all right that side
is installed i haven't reset everything yet but at least it's installed now i'll go finish the other
side i'm not gonna lie that was a bitch of a job i cussed more doing that than i have in a job and i
don't know how many years that was kind of painful now it may be made easier with those uh whatever
that pull-out tool was i'm sure but it's done the new springs are in they're both put back together
hold springs made for 150-pound italian over there now i'll put my radar detector back on tighten the
triple tree clamp and put the front wheel in place just use the torque wrench and that's
both top triple clamp bolts torqued properly again remember we didn't mess with the clip-on
bolt we didn't mess with the lower clamp bolts radar detector mounted if you moved any cables
or wires or anything make sure to reattach those properly time to put the front wheel on and again
through the magic of youtube the wheel is back in place if you need help with that the link is
in the description below in the bst upgrade video to show you how to take off and install the wheel
subscribe to my youtube channel below and let's celebrate turning fuel and air into adrenaline