Racetech gold valves... Who has done them?

I've got a set of gold valves and springs waiting to be fitted, but the instructions are pretty vague. How easy is it to do the valving? Do I need any special tools.

Any help woudl be much appreciated. Once I get back from the Malaysian MotoGP I'll either have a go myself or book it in to get it sorted at the bike shop.

I can`t help with fit,as I put mine in to get done,

not that I think its a hard job,just wanted someone who had done it a million times before,and had a good idea on the correct shimming for my riding style.

As it is,I had done 1 1/2 yr ago,and it made a massive improvement,but now i`ve gone to a wilbers rear,the front once again,doesn`t feel right,and i`m searching again to tune the front to suit the rear.

Personally,I think its a trial and error thing,to get it right to ones own feel.

I know you do a bit of track aswell, so you may have to play with it to be happy.

I hate not being able to fully adjust the front,but thats the Bandit budget.

Can`t wait to get around to putting on the GIX front folks on,so I can adjust,but will take time before that happens

It's not that difficult you just need to be methodical and follow the instructions.I suggest you work on a clean tabletop when you build the stack.
Having a soft-jawed vice to hold the valve assembly without damaging it is necessary and a vernier caliper is useful to identify the shims.A torque-wrench that can do 30 inch/pounds is useful or just do the stack screw up medium tight using a screwdriver not a allen key.Also use a 1.1mm drill for the bleed hole instead of a 1.3.
I have rebuilt the stack several times to arrive at an optimum set-up.
The NZ Racetech / Ohlins agent recommend these settings for a Bandit 1250 on the road:This is better than the Racetech recommended set-up which is aimed at American road conditions and rider weights.
Compression stack: C33 or C34 Restrictor stack: cR00.09
No more than 1.1 mm bleed hole.
You'll understand what this means when you read the instructions.
Buy some O rings in the following size id 14mm od 17.5mm thickness 1.5mm (the 1.5 mm thickness is the only critical dimension.Imperial equivalents will be fine) These tend to get damaged when the valve is extracted from the cartridge.You need two.


Here's a pictorial how-to: http://www.vstrom.info/Smf/index.php?topic=2494.0

Also use Maxima 5wt fork oil.Fork oil viscosity varies a lot across weights and brands.The Maxima is closest to the viscosity of Racetech's own brand oil.
See this table: http://www.peterverdone.com/wiki/index.php?title=Suspension_Fluid#Comercial_Brands_and_their_properties

I had mine fitted a little while ago Reddog, and couldn't be happier. I you have all the tools for the job I suppose you could do it yourself but I took mine to a pro and it was a very well spent couple of hundred. $240-250 from memory. My "guy" knew exactly what he was doing and even revamped the dampening valves to make them work much better. He also used 5wt oil.

Thanks for the info guys especially PaulG will give it a go when I get home. Getting hyped up to take the family out to Sepang tomorrow to watch MotoGP practice. My son Joshua has been telling everyone about it

Strange place Malaysia, you can buy beer at the supermarket but you aren't allowed to have any pork products. You get either turkey or beef brisket as a bacon substitute. Not my cup of tea.

The scooters here are crazy too. They ride every where. Up footpaths, ride against the flow of 1 way roads and generally ride anywhere they will fit. Makes it quite difficult to cross the road with a child. Anyhow talk to you lot later.

Cheers Ryan.

The Maxima 5 wt fork oil to use is 85-150 Racing formula and is closest to the recommended Ohlins oil, standard Maxima 5 wt has a different centistoke rating

Bit of an old thread but I've just had 1.1kg/mm Racetech springs and gold valves installed on my '08.

Ive only had a short 10km ride to/from work after collecting the bike from Richard (the guy that fitted them), but it is a very different front end from the one I'm used to. Bugger all dive when braking. 

Apparently the shim stack was a tedious job.

I went for Racetech springs rather than Cogent because the Holeshot website was down when I went to put in the order. Racetech USA got Jan from the Australian distributor www.shocktreatment.com.au to call me. I chose to buy from Jan because their price was not that much more than buying from USA, they offered product support, and Jan was very efficient and helpful.

Day off tomorrow :-). Will report further....

Ive done them on 2 bikes. I consider it easy. I used the suggest stack and its very good on my VTR. I did a re-shim on the rebound also.

C34 is a pretty common stack.

I still haven't done mine. I'll have to book it in to a suspension guru shortly.

reddog wrote:I still haven't done mine. I'll have to book it in to a suspension guru shortly.

Pop round with the bike, the valves and a 12 pack and I will do it for you.

Well I've had my 'new' front end for a couple of days now and I like it.
First time I grabbed the brake lever I thought "oh sh!t!" because it stopped a lot harder - with far less dive.
It tips in to corners a little too easy at the moment but that may be because I've not done anything to the rear.
It also drew my attention to the front wheel alignment. I thought it was a bit off so I slackened off the pinch bolts at the lower triple clamp and axle to line her up properly.
Turns out the handlebar is bent! Must have been from when that @sshole kicked it over while parked in the city.
I'm about to load up and go on a big tour so I might up the preload at the back and see how that goes.
But it is a better ride from the front end. Worth the $$.

NZspokes wrote:

reddog wrote:I still haven't done mine. I'll have to book it in to a suspension guru shortly.

Pop round with the bike, the valves and a 12 pack and I will do it for you.

Where do you live again mate?

reddog wrote:

NZspokes wrote:

reddog wrote:I still haven't done mine. I'll have to book it in to a suspension guru shortly.

Pop round with the bike, the valves and a 12 pack and I will do it for you.

Where do you live again mate?

West Auckland, New Zealand. 

NZspokes wrote:

reddog wrote:

NZspokes wrote:

reddog wrote:I still haven't done mine. I'll have to book it in to a suspension guru shortly.

Pop round with the bike, the valves and a 12 pack and I will do it for you.

Where do you live again mate?

West Auckland, New Zealand. 

That's not far from me, I'm in far west Tauranga

Bugger that's a 7 hour flight for me. Last time I was in nz was 21 years ago on a boys hockey tour

Got round to giving the new forks a decent (300km) run on the Cox Peninsula Road.
Much, much better than stock.
A little bit of 'tram lining' turned out to be steering head bearings just a little too tight.
Richard at AliCross backed the head bearings a 1/4 turn. Result = very, very good front end. 
It is now showing up the rear suspension.
Agree with previous posters, money well spent, why did I wait so long!

I will have a look at my fork, maybe over the weekend. I wont gold valve it, Have GVs in my other bike. But I may see if its worth milling out the stock pistons and run stronger stacks on them. 

At least put better springs in.