And because the emulators are installed below the springs, you are adding 20mm of preload to the springs. The reason you can’t use normal length CB springs is because the emulators are about 20mm or so tall. The best option to get the best performance out of your front end with emulators, which is why you are doing all this in the first place right? is to get a pair of single rate springs made for Emulators. At the very least, find a set of original single rate stock springs and cut those. Don’t do this as the progressive springs render it fairly impossible for the accurate tuneability of your forks with Emulaotrs installed. In my original build I went with cutting the Progressive springs I already had. But if you are a perfection psycho like me, again, the Racetechs are the better option. This is not to say someone won’t find the MikesXS units an improvement over the archaic damper rod style front end these bikes came with. So, considering I am a guy who usually plays it safe, and got tired of taking my front end apart constantly, the Racetechs were the obvious choice. Racetech, however, DOES provide you with spring rates and 3 choices. I also couldn’t tell you what spring rate they are using in the valve spring or spring shim. What was the R&D process of MikesXS besides blatantly ripping off the design? I’m guessing not much. Let’s be honest, the MikesXS Cartridge Emulators are knockoffs of the original design Racetech developed and tested over who knows how many prototypes. Racetech gives you 3 sets of springs with different spring rates depending on your set up. An extra hole means the Racetech unit will navigate low speed compression damping far ie small bumps, road chatter, better than the MikesXS unit.Ģ. Racetech has 2 valve plate bleed holes, compared to 1 on the MikesXS version. There are at least two key differences which led me to use the Racetech brand vs. In comparison, these units are very similar, albeit identical. Well, call it my perfectionist tendencies or never ending search for piece of mind, but I finally broke down and bought a pair of Racetech Emulators. I originally tried the MikesXS emulators thinking, heck, I’ll save some bucks. spring rate, check out the Suspension Tuning Guide at and pour over the associated links first to better familiarize yourself with general suspension tuning. If you don’t know the difference between compression damping and rebound damping, or preload vs. Here is the eventual tuning solution that I’ve been working out these last months along with resources to general motorcycle front fork tuning. The basic problem of my front suspension post Emulators was an unwieldy front end rebound. Spacer length 66mm with 1 washer provided Racetech Cartridge Emulators (Blue 40lbs/inch springs) 3 turns
Hopefully, this will save you guys some of the grease time and clear up some of the suspension mystery when custom tuning your own suspensions.įor those of you with short attention spans or reading aversions, here are the cold hard numbers of my final setup: Here is the "final" addendum and tuning notes to my previous Emulator post including a side-by-side compare of Reacetech vs.
After months and months and countless tear downs, talking with Suspension Gurus, and borderline OCD front end tweaking, I am finally happy with the handling of my Cartridge Emulator equipped front forks.