Stock varg suspension revalve?! Enduro & Trail riding

[Theo]

The fork oil makes a very small change in the last part of the stroke, which makes sense since it's essentially controlling the amount of air to compress. I'm quite happy with it as is.

If you are happy then I'm not saying that you should change anything; however, talking about your firt statement about the oil level, I used to believe that, too, until I found out about the JBI spring perch, whose function is pretty well explained here; they also explain how it differs from the stock one:

The stock perch of the Varg has large slots like that one in the video.
I've never tried a different spring perch, thoug, but the theory sounds solid to me.

And by the way congratulations for having successfully ravalved your forks by yourself.

The soft seat foam also really helps absorb some shock when sitting.

Again, if you are satisfied that's great, but I also wanted to share a very good tip I heard in some AJ Catanzaro's videos: when you are sitting, push on the footpegs with your feet in order to send some weight to your legs and have less shaking in the upper part of your body. It also keeps your feet still on the footpegs since their teeth will bite the boots soles better. It can be done effectively even if you keep the inside foot off the peg and only push using the outside one. Personally, I find it a very good tip which works especially well on my Varg with a left hand rear brake and no need to use feet operated levers.

 

[Aleksandar13]

Revalve has been completed and for anyone who is actually doing trails, enduro riding and not mx I highly recommend it... The shop done an outstanding job and the suspension feels very plush and absolutely amazing... One stiffer spring up and a new sag setting of 110mm with great compliance ... Haven't tested a lot but from a few miles off road just feels so much better and not harsh as originally ... From memory the oil in the forks is around 240ml and the springs standard ( medium) the rear one higher than stock and I weigh in at 104kg with no gear.
Happy as Larry at the moment, night and day

 

[Upinsmoke57]

I thought 300ml was the bottom limit? Are you sure you don't mean 340? I guess it will still work being lower than the manufacturers limits. I don't know if there are any lubrication risks with a lower level. Either way glad you got it sorted. Now it's my turn to experience an error code. I thought I was being so careful with everything on this bike. What looked like a firmware update was actually a green flashing red light. Arg.

 

[Aleksandar13]

I thought 300ml was the bottom limit? Are you sure you don't mean 340? I guess it will still work being lower than the manufacturers limits. I don't know if there are any lubrication risks with a lower level. Either way glad you got it sorted. Now it's my turn to experience an error code. I thought I was being so careful with everything on this bike. What looked like a firmware update was actually a green flashing red light. Arg.

I will check the documents he gave me on the settings of the suspension and come back to you but also remember that the number of shims he used is probably totally different then stock... I'm no expert and I trust him highly because he is doing enduro suspension for the top teams in Europe, spoke to him and he does over 700 sets a year. He said if we need to go slightly stiffer to let him know and he will top up with oil. Also what his advice was to test the bike in various conditions and of you need more than 6 clicks each way it would need to be revalved... Currently is set at 14 from memory...
Also from my initial riding the bike feels so plush, feels better and has loads more grip the front comes up easier if you need it to because the shock is more compliant... Well excited

 

[Aleksandar13]

If you are not an mx rider and you do enduro this is a must... My bike has been transformed and it's the best thing that I've spent money on. The shop did an amazing job and it just feels insane to ride... Very plush and soft in the upper part of the stroke and firms up when you hit big jumps and bumps... Love it.

 

[Upinsmoke57]

I re-valved my shock and tried it yesterday. Wow! What a difference. This might be better than my KTM XCW. I agree it turns the bike into one of the most enjoyable enduro machines I've ever ridden.

If anyone would like to know what I did to try doing this themselves I can share the shim stacks for the forks and shock. You can do this with what's there already, no extra shims needed. If planning to do this yourself I would research a lot on the procedure and tools required. It doesn't take much. Just patience and cleanliness. If you don't like tinkering I would not do this yourself. Suspension is a deep rabbit hole. But this 2nd attempt got me almost exactly where I wanted the bike to be. I weigh 200 with gear and ride mostly slow gnarly terrain. It still handles the higher speeds but doesn't do quite as well on the whoops. I don't really care about that kind of riding though. Let me know if I can help.

 

[Aleksandar13]

I re-valved my shock and tried it yesterday. Wow! What a difference. This might be better than my KTM XCW. I agree it turns the bike into one of the most enjoyable enduro machines I've ever ridden.

If anyone would like to know what I did to try doing this themselves I can share the shim stacks for the forks and shock. You can do this with what's there already, no extra shims needed. If planning to do this yourself I would research a lot on the procedure and tools required. It doesn't take much. Just patience and cleanliness. If you don't like tinkering I would not do this yourself. Suspension is a deep rabbit hole. But this 2nd attempt got me almost exactly where I wanted the bike to be. I weigh 200 with gear and ride mostly slow gnarly terrain. It still handles the higher speeds but doesn't do quite as well on the whoops. I don't really care about that kind of riding though. Let me know if I can help.

Sounds great man. The more information we get in the forum the better it becomes for all of us. I agree suspension is not for everyone and I would never touch it but it's good to have this posted so people can use it if they want to.
What tyre pressures you running? I don't know what mine was but at 0.8 bar now with the new suspension... The grip is unreal.

 

[Upinsmoke57]

It's funny on all my KTM's I never really messed with the clickers at all. I just rode it and didn't feel like the range made much of a change. On the KYB I feel a few clicks here and there. Same with my Mountain bike, I could tell 2 clicks just walking it around and pressing down on the suspension. I think these KYB have much greater usable range than the WP. Maybe not, I can't say with certainty. I do know the closer you are to the needle being seated, the more noticeable a click will be compared to if your settings are backed out all the way. Which totally makes sense. So if you're screwed in all the way try 1 click. If you are backed out all the way try 3-5 clicks. As for tire pressure I have tubliss in the rear and run 6-7psi. I got rid of the tusk talon as these electric bikes just eat those tires up in a few rides. I got 5 rides out of that tire! The IRC ve33s is my go to tire and has been for years. The jx8 did better on the roots/rocks but not enough to steer away from the best do it all tire we've ever had. Everyone in our group uses it. The jx8 did feel like it needed an extra 1 psi or so to keep it from bottoming out on roots though. Either way I am in that range for the rear. Front I use the ve35 and run 13-14 depending on where I ride.

 

[RobA321]

I re-valved my shock and tried it yesterday. Wow! What a difference. This might be better than my KTM XCW. I agree it turns the bike into one of the most enjoyable enduro machines I've ever ridden.

If anyone would like to know what I did to try doing this themselves I can share the shim stacks for the forks and shock. You can do this with what's there already, no extra shims needed. If planning to do this yourself I would research a lot on the procedure and tools required. It doesn't take much. Just patience and cleanliness. If you don't like tinkering I would not do this yourself. Suspension is a deep rabbit hole. But this 2nd attempt got me almost exactly where I wanted the bike to be. I weigh 200 with gear and ride mostly slow gnarly terrain. It still handles the higher speeds but doesn't do quite as well on the whoops. I don't really care about that kind of riding though. Let me know if I can help.

Can you shoot me your settings. Im putting in 4.2N springs in and want to revalve while it's apart. I was going to use some YZ250 settings from technical touch but tested stacks on the actual frame is super helpful. Thanks

 

[Upinsmoke57]

Can you shoot me your settings. Im putting in 4.2N springs in and want to revalve while it's apart. I was going to use some YZ250 settings from technical touch but tested stacks on the actual frame is super helpful. Thanks

What settings are you looking for?

 

[RobA321]

Fork

 

[Upinsmoke57]

I suppose I should post everything I did. Give me a moment to collect all that data and I'll post. I'm reluctant to give advice as I am not trying to pretend to be a suspension professional. But I will try to show clearly what shims I moved around. The rest is on you to make sure you grind the peen, clean, assemble, torque, bleed etc....correctly.

 

[RobA321]

Thanks I’m familiar with suspension components coming off many WP bikes, but this is my first KYB kit and just looking for a starting point.

 

[Upinsmoke57]

This is basically what I did. There are 20 face shims. From my understanding all the bikes have the same shim stack, it is just the springs and clicker settings that change between the soft/medium/hard options. I brought it down to 8 followed by a crossover made from the last small washer before the LSV starts. There are 3 of the same shims and I used one of those. Followed by 2 face shims and then just add the stock order. You're just making sure there is enough thread to torque the nut without hitting the shoulder of the shaft. That 6mm aluminum piece is very fragile. Red loctite and be careful. I think its 25 INCH pounds. I went from the stock 4.8 to 4.4 springs. Check eBay for your springs as they are way cheaper with free shipping than from Racetech. This is all on the base valve, nothing done to the mid valve.

When filing the peen down you want to retain the center peen, only file outside! The picture shows a toothpick (foam ear plug works even better) in the center and glove/tape wrapped around the rest of it to keep shavings from getting anywhere.

Loosen all the caps while they're in your triple clamps(loosen top clamp first obviously). The cheaper tusk tool will work but the nicer aluminum motion pro will not as its too thick to clear the bars. In which case you'll need to rely on a vice. I didnt have a hard time breaking the caps at all, some do.

There are a thousand videos on how to change seals on KYB SSS. Watch these for the general procedure for assembly/disassembly.

When it's all ready to reassemble I think it was 215ml in the cartridge and the rest bleeds out. For outer chamber I went with 310ml from the stock 350-355. Make sure cartridge is bled properly. Lots of videos on this as well.

For the rear shock I kept my spring and did something very similar where I used the last shim in the stack as a crossover and removed 3 face shims from the compression side and added 2 after the cross over. I left the rebound as is.

 

[RobA321]

Thanks for all that. FYI the shims are metric sizes for easier identifying. No changes to float on mid valve?

 

[Upinsmoke57]

Yes but my calipers are SAE. I did this for myself not anyone else so I didn't care. It's really to compare to each other more than anything. Nothing done to mid valve.