Pulled the forks apart again this past week trying to hunt down and kill the source of the deflection and think I may have finally gotten it. Softened up the valving considerably and then, in a last-ditch effort to eliminate the stiction that many people claim is the main culprit with KTM fork deflection, shot some Pledge -yes, furniture polish – up between the dust wiper and fork seal, and damn if that didn’t seem to fix it. And, the shine and lemony-fresh scent are the envy of the neighborhood!
So, headed out to NCMP this morning to see where things stood in terms of the bike and the rider. Still haven’t been able to complete three laps straight due to various factors (not the least of which was riding like complete spaz a couple of weeks ago), so maybe today would be the day.
It was beautiful out. Temps somewhere in the 70s, sunny, light breeze…just a great day to be outside. There were a bunch of people at the track already including several woods riders. I always get nervous when I see unfamiliar woods riders, because you never know when someone’s going to go the wrong way down the trails and crash you head-on you around a blind turn. We have our share of occasional wrong-way riders, but fortunately no serious accidents yet. I’ll need to stay extra sharp out there.
I got geared up (including my new, super-trick custom-made carbon fiber knee brace, which is teh awesome), spent a few minutes warming up and then hit the trails.
Almost immediately I sensed something wrong. The steering was twitchy and it felt as though the front tire was built by Fred Flinstone. I cut my loop short and headed back to the pits. Upon checking, it became apparent that the genius who put my forks back together (me) forgot to adjust the compression screw and had it turned all the way in, which is full stiff. Fixed that and headed back out.
This was more like it, small roots, stumps and doll-head rocks – the things that had me pinballing all over the place the last several weeks – now just disappeared under the front wheel with barely a twitch from the forks. Smooooth sailing…time to get on it.
Banged out 3 laps in a row, somewhere between 21-22 miles with only a sub-3 minute stop to fine-tune some suspension adjustments, at full-on race pace with zero problems and barely breaking a sweat. It’s hard to gauge your speed when there’s nobody riding with you, but if I’m any judge at all, I should easily be competitive in my class.
First race back is this Sunday 10/16/11 in Cartersville, Virginia at the VCHSS Cross Trails event. I’m about as ready as I’m ever going to be. Putting a fresh set of tires on, oiling/greasing everything that needs to be oiled/greased, and then we’re ready to rock!
-Bob