Tl125 Forks

[bigmike1961]

Decided to change the oil in the front forks, what a pain to get the top spring seat out. Not a screw fitting but held in with a small internal circlip. Finally managed to extract this and the spring seat was fired across the garage with scary force - nearly took my finger off! Finally found all the missing parts, there were four small top springs whereas the Clymer Manual shows two - one each side. Is this an attempt to increase the spring rate? Was a former owner a sumo wrestler?

Anyway I rebuilt with only one small spring each side, the bike seems to ride lower at the front end, before the forks were topped out during riding between sections.

Was fitting two springs some sort of upgrade modification?

What upgrades are done to Tl 125 forks if any?

Edited April 14, 2010 by BigMike1961

[bigmike1961]

Well after a quick test run up and down the drive it's much better without the extra springs in the forks, tempted to ride this weekend's RRND beginners trial on it. First outing with the 185 engine in it.

Edited April 15, 2010 by BigMike1961

[tltel]

Hi I think you have the right set up now, they shouldnt be that hard to compress, I think with two small spings in each you would be constantly on the rebound. try it like it is ,you might have to play around with differrent oils toget the damping right.

The forks on my TL are quite light but hanlde most things I throw it at. They are the later ones with the bolt on top and are easier to undo and do up, but I think they only have one long spring in them.

Good luck with the trial!

TLTEL

[trial pat]

Hy Mike

The springs get shorter with the years, also some riders are heavier than others. Here some of my trials, maybe helps.

My TL 250 has similar forks. above the long spring is a smal 7cm spring. I added on top of that another spring 3cm (found at a yacht shop, stainless...), because the springs got a bit smaller during the years. Taking off the top caps is a tricky thing as you noticed and even dangerous the first time. I use to pull down a small tube, that leaves space for the special clip pliers, with gloves, take take off the clip and slowly release the tube. Bought also new clips to be on the save side.

My fork was very slow and hard, even with very thin oil, so I drilled out 2 holes in the inner tube at the bottom. But that might be more for advanced tecno freakes.

Now, it is better for me, but my dream would be a one piece progressive spring. Unfortunately, with 22mm diameter, all other trial springs are wider and don't fit.

I changed for summer in one fork the oil thickness. to 7.5 (mixed a 5 and a 10 oil).

Good luck

Patrick

[bigmike1961]

Thanks for the input, I ended up riding the scorpa Sunday, bit of practice for the club trial next Sunday. Used ATF in the forks. Does changing the quantity of oil slightly change the damping characteristics or blow the fork seals out?