NC35 race fork spring question

[RVFHooligan]

When rebuilding the forks last week I installed a set of Racetech front springs (.90kg). The "vague" instructions that came with the springs stated "Most of these springs are designed to fit "as is". Preload should be in the proper range with your adjusters." Two e-mails to RaceTech were not answered which left me second guessing. Now that the forks are on the bike it appears that there is very little sag, if not at all, and they are very stiff with limited travel. The RaceTech springs were longer than stock by about 3/4" or so and I should have measured the actual difference, but I didn't. Needless to say compressing the springs and spacers down to screw on the top bolt to the damper rod was a little difficult. I actually used an exhaust spring hook to pull down on the spacer via the hole in the spacer. I am thinking I should have cut down the spacers, and measured free length vs. set length, spring preload length, spring spacer length, etc. But dummy me figured the instructions said use "as is". So the questions I have are as follows..........

1)Has anyone else who has installed race springs had to cut down the stock spacer? What spings and how much did you cut down?
2)Did you modify (lower) the actual amount of fork oil added to account for the heavier (thicker) spring? (stock is 445ml)(I actually only used about 435ml to get to the proper level.)
3)Did you use a different (lower) fork oil level? (stock is 74mm, this is what I used)

I'll be removing the forks and tearing them down this afternoon so any help would be appreciated.

And that stock rear shock has me feeling it will not be up to the task of trackday riding?! Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[Drunkn Munky]

I used rick oliver springs and had no problems although i know what you mean as someone had tampered with my forks before me and put a 10 spacer under the standard spring. When i put the new springs in it was near on imposible to compress the spring and spacer enough to get the top nut on so out came the 10mm spacer and everything went fine from then on. With your springs being longer id guess your having the same trouble, im no expert on this matter but id say the springs need to be the same length or near enough.

[randallbass]

havin recently mucked round with this myself id contact rick oliver,
measure your springs n spacers and he will reccommend the length (he does a kit for these)
oil level will be the same as stock, i use 5w oil :) if its a track bike go 5-10mm higher on the oil level to give you more stiffer suspension and less chance on hitting your engine :)
hope that helped bud cheers Tim

[RVFHooligan]

Thanks guys. What I did yesterday was remove and break down the forks and measure the new springs, spacers, and old springs. Did some free preload/set preload calculations, pushed up and down the new and old springs, made a few noises, went vroom, vroom,.....ah, sorry, said hmmmm, a few times. Then calculated how much I wanted to cut the spacers down and went to work. I took off 20mm from the spacers which is slightly on the excessive side of my calculations, but I figured I could always go back in and add shims/washers/spacers to add more preload if needed. Re-assembled and mounted the forks and took basic measurements. The bike is without tank and bodywork and I had no gear on, but I ended up with static sag numbers of 30mm up front and 20mm in the rear, which is within the ballpark and this was all without fiddling with the adjusters, so I would say I am good to go. Afterwards I was actually able to compress the forks and the rebound was slower and controlled. They were way too tight/stiff the other way. Still no response from RaceTech. Just had to figure it out myself. I'll still have to do the final suspension settings and road/track test the bike, but I feel more confident that it is done right now. Cheers!