[Deano]

Hi,

I'm new to the Forum and this is my first post. So feel free to give me any pointers if I'm not doing this right.

I recently acquired an '89 TW200 that was made for the Japanese domestic market. It's looks very original and probably never seen a day offroad. I live in a small town and there are plenty of backroads + I have a small farm nearby so I thought the TW200 looked like a good all rounder. The bike goes well but the front forks were super soft. They would bottom out on even small bumps, so I decided to check them. When I got them off they had about 200ml of oil (combined), one side dirty brown, the other red so likely different weight oils. And the springs seemed way too soft but I'm no expert.

Anyway I spoke to a local suspension guy and he said $250 for a new pair of springs and put new 15W oil in them, or I could just put 30W oil in and that will improve the dampening. I went with the 30W and the test ride shows a big improvement. I haven't taken it onto any technical terrain yet so will need to see how it goes longer term.

I'm wondering if super soft suspension is common in these older bikes? Do people change their springs when the bike gets older or just increase the Oil weight like I did? Or what else people have done?

Cheers, Dean.

 

[PlacerLode]

yes all TW's regardless of age have gushy front ends unless you weigh 100lbs or less

Pro Cycle has your drop in front springs for less than $250 and it will change your whole bike for the better

 

[Snow Fox]

Wow, cool bike! Welcome to the forum.

 

[Ken]

Depending how much you want to spend or when you want to spend it, do a search for fork mods first. I put PVC spacers in mine, thickened up the oil a bit and raised the oil level. That worked out well enough for me. Lots of fork mods and replacements have been done, just find out what is best for you.

 

[lbxr]

This!!

Depending how much you want to spend or when you want to spend it, do a search for fork mods first. I put PVC spacers in mine, thickened up the oil a bit and raised the oil level. That worked out well enough for me. Lots of fork mods and replacements have been done, just find out what is best for you.

Take out the metal spacer , measure and add .5 to .75 inch to that length. Replace the spacers with pvc pipes that are .5 to .75" longer.

 

[Deano]

yes all TW's regardless of age have gushy front ends unless you weigh 100lbs or less

Pro Cycle has your drop in front springs for less than $250 and it will change your whole bike for the better

Thanks PL. I'll look into that.

 

[salabim]

Use the search box at the top of the page to look for past posts on front suspension. Lots of good info there.
I went with Progressive brand fork springs. I dont remember the part number or where I got them. Amazon or ebay probably for around 100 bucks.
www.procycle.us has suspension parts you can check out.
Getting rid of the stock ball point pen springs and plastic lawn sprinkler pipe spacers make a huge improvement in the front end of the TW.

 

[Donzo]

I went with the Procycle .7, heavier springs - I weight about 210lbs and don't bottom out anymore. Used to bottom out constantly. Bike handles better now as well