Next on the Project 37 list is the front suspension and steering bearing replacement. I begin with fork disassembly and inspection. These forks were found to be in excellent internal condition, which would be expected at only 16K miles, needing only oil seal replacement. Here we see the assemblies freshly disassembled and before cleaning.
(Right) Beginning with the third-generation VF/VFRs our forks advanced to "cartridge-type" fluid damping. What changed is the addition of the flow restricting cartridge (circled). The advantage of a cartridge is that it can be tuned to restrict fluid (fork oil) flow to a lesser or greater degree, allowing fine tuning of damping rates. This is accomplished mainly by the number of wafers stacked internally in the cartridge (a simplified explanation). Instead of being limited to altering the size and number of restrictive holes (arrow) in the damping tube as done with the earlier forks, the addition of the cartridge gave the VFR a step up in suspension sophistication.
Specialists like Race Tech also offer upgraded cartridge kits for the early VFRs, usually referred to as "emulator" valves, along with springs, fork parts…even in-house rebuilding services. So, if you feel that your suspension could use some modernizing, there are options. In our case a careful reassembly with 10-weight fork oil is as far as we'll go with this project.
Specialists like Race Tech also offer upgraded cartridge kits for the early VFRs, usually referred to as "emulator" valves, along with springs, fork parts…even in-house rebuilding services. So, if you feel that your suspension could use some modernizing, there are options. In our case a careful reassembly with 10-weight fork oil is as far as we'll go with this project.
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