Hey guys have been doing a search on the forum and found nothing for the topic of my interest.

I was speaking to a suspension guy today and he suggested I put Ohlins 30mm cartridge inserts in the rvf400 forks.

My question is, has anyone done this and if so which model cartridge fits?

My main reason for considering this is that the standard fork tops can be retained keeping the bike eligible for stock class racing and there is comp adj on one fork and rebound on the other.

Any ideas

Ta

Pete

I would be surprised if the Ohlins 30mm cartridges would fit, as they are manufactured for a limited range of late model large capacity sports bikes. Special build would be even more expensive, assuming that the necessary parts to fit an RVF400 could be made. What makes you thing that std RVF400 top caps can be retained with the 30mm kit?

an you be more specific in what you want to achieve, there may be an easier nad less expensive solution.

SW Racing is the suspension guy and he is very experienced, all up he thinks $1500 for the total work including parts. Main benifit would be having current day internals and both comp and rebound adjustment. Would be just finding out internal length and bottom bolt size to see what matches closely. He can modify caps to fit and tells me that it would be close to $1000 anyway to replace/revalve comp and rebound including parts.

What do others do with RVF400 forks when racing? It would be nice to have comp adjustment.

Pete

Depends on the racers ability, and the budget.

Stock forks are ok for the begging rider so no need to do anything but overhaul, as you push the bike to the limits, upgrading the suspension will improve your lap times.

Starting from cheapest here is some ideas.

1. Standard overhaul
2. New springs and overhaul
3. ZXR400 SP forks (have compression damping too but only the SP model)
4. Custom internal work to suit the rider.
5. New forks / Ohlins / WP etc.

nicedat wrote:SW Racing is the suspension guy and he is very experienced, all up he thinks $1500 for the total work including parts. Main benifit would be having current day internals and both comp and rebound adjustment. Would be just finding out internal length and bottom bolt size to see what matches closely. He can modify caps to fit and tells me that it would be close to $1000 anyway to replace/revalve comp and rebound including parts.

What do others do with RVF400 forks when racing? It would be nice to have comp adjustment.

Pete

I installed RaceTech springs and 20 mm fork pistons in the stock cartridges. There's no external compression adjustment but the valve stacks can be customized to tune the damping curve. The rebound valving is simpler but then it's only dealing with the spring forces. All up I think I spent about $500+ on the forks doing the work myself, including new fluid and seals. Do some searches here. Ohlins make 20 mm fork piston kits also. Another option might be converting one fork leg to be compression and the other rebound. Either way the stock forks can be made to work pretty well, I say save your coin for a decent rear shock and a set of Tyga triples 'cos the OEM jobs are pieces of sh*t.

I want to keep the externals standard tostick with the stock class rules so any other forks are not an option. was thinking of the piston kits but by installing the ohlins cartridge I get comp adjustment on one fork and rebound on the other, just comes down to what I want to spend.

How fast are you?
Are you running in the top 5 regularly?
Are you winning races?
What are you racing against zxr's, cbr's SV650's?

The cost of going mad on modding these forks may not get you what you want. you could easily spend £500 on fork mods and go no faster. Or you could spend £1000 on a "standard" 78bhp ZXR400 and be 2+ seconds a lap faster straight away.