I have a friend who isn't terribly technically minded and wants to know what the stock spring rate is on the rear shock of an 08 TE450. I told her that she could look in the owners manual usually, but my 07 manual had the wrong spring rate printed in it. I verified this with the dealer before ordering my aftermarket spring for my model. So does anybody know the rate on an 08? Mine was a 5.4 but it has a different lever ratio. Thanks.
Wow, I'm surprised that with all the knowledgeable people on this board, that nobody knows the specs on this shock.
I am not a suspension person. That said, I'm not sure the actual spring rates are an exact science i.e. there may be variations. My 2006 TE250 (not a 450, sorry!): That info may hurt this thread more than it helps, I can delete it if you want.
Not a problem. My owners manual on my 07 listed the spring on the 450 as a 5.2 and also listed it as the stock spring on the 250. That's what made me suspicious that there was a misprint, so I checked with my dealer and he assured me that the 450 was a 5.4 and when I saw the spring removed form my machine, I could clearly see that it was marked as a 5.4. I replaced it with a 5.0 because I don't weigh all that much. The 08 has a different lever ratio than the 07, so I wasn't familiar with what might be on there. Lever ratios can change what kind of a spring weight that you need on a particular machine. For instance; my TE450 came with a 5.4 spring stock and weighs about 250 dry and for a rider weighing 180 to 200 pounds, my KLX300 weighs around 234 dry and had a 5.8 spring for the same 180/200 pound rider, and my CR85 weighs 145 pounds dry but has a 5.2 spring on it and is designed for an optimum rider weight of 128 pounds, so you can see how the lever ratio can affect what spring is running for what overall weight it will be supporting. At least I think you can see.... I'm so light that I had to do a lot of research on suspension to figure out and calculate exactly what kind of spring rates that I need to run in both ends of each bike I will be riding, as I can assure you that none of them (except the CR85)come stock with what's right for me.
The larger kid can ride the 'teeter totter' with the littler kid if he sits closer to in... As the leverage changes (linkage dimensions) the spring rates change for the desired effect.
Not to hijack your thread Dame, but I'm in somewhat of a similar situation with my 510. I'm 155 w/o gear and I'm quite sure the 510's stock spring rates weren't meant for someone as light as me. Not a lot of solid, factual info out there for us on these although I've read that LTR suspension can dial you in if you talk to Les (the "L" in LTR). I've got to do that sometime in the next few months to get this beast balanced for what I do.......
If I were you, I'd drop one size spring rate and set the preload to 8 mm to start with before re-installing the shock on your bike and doing the final sag check and set. I dropped two sizes (5.4 to 5.0) on my stock 07 spring to get it right for my 120 lb weight, but you only need to drop one size. I also dropped to a .42 Marzochi spring set for the forks and increased oil volume about 20 cc per fork to compensate for the volume of the spring spacer that I had to remove to put in the longer light springs. I still need to get some valving done, but the set up is not too bad right now.
Hi, If i`m not too late, the UK TE 450/510/08/09 have 5.6k rear springs, the TE 250/310 have 5.4 and the CR/WR 125 have 5.0k. Maybe a heavy 125 rider would like to swap! Drew at WER has some really good settings if you need a re-valve. Oh, and the forks will need altering to match.
I must admit, I've not even measured my sag yet to see where I'm at. I did back the preload off by about 1/4" on the shock threads just on a swag, but the front hasn't been touched and is probably running too stiff of a rate for me. Did notice on the last ride that I'm using nearly all the fork travel by looking at the dust rings, but that was in a lot of whoops with me being not-so-coordinated on the timing. Boing, boing boing! Damping and rebound are at middle settings approximately. Thanks for your suggestions Dame
Set the sag if you can still sit on it with it at that height, try screwing in the clickers on the forks all the way in. Les is in your area. I'm sure he can 'un-boing' you. I'm not that big and heavier springs went in my bike in the forks on a 2006 TE250.
They say ("they" being various suspension gurus) that if your bike sags around an inch with you off of it and around 4 inches with you on it (full weight, feet not touching the ground) you have the right weight spring. European bikes seem to be set with slightly more sag than Japanese bikes.
