Racetech Valves - fork rebuild - help? - Ducati.ms

cmoore · Jan 23rd, 2012, 10:48 am

The forks on a 96 ss/sp i bought were leaking. As i hope to one day take this bike to track, instead of just a rebuild/new seals, I had an Ohlins kit installed. When they went to do the installation, turns out there already were some racetech gold valves in them. They were removed and i have them in a bag. I now need to rebuild a set of next gen 99+ 900ss forks that need to be rebuilt. According to Racetechs website, despite the different diameter fork tubes, they use the same gold valve kit. Has anyone installed this kit (in either generation) Was it a big improvement over stock? If so, would anyone also have the directions/parts list that came with the kit? I assume i have the FMGV S2043 kit, but as the original kit may have been installed 5-10yrs ago, i am not even 100% sure of that an i want to have all the info before i commit to rebuilding and installing this kit.

And for what it is worth, i didn't get my ss/sp roadworthy until it got cold and i haven't had a chance to log any significant miles with the Ohlins kit in it to offer riding impressions.

Flash Harry · Jan 24th, 2012, 5:31 pm

It's worth doing if set up right. Quite a few people have done this so I'm sure there's someone here that weighs roughly the same as you that can pass on their settings?

cmoore · Jan 24th, 2012, 6:26 pm

i emailed racetech, and they said if i could send them an image verifying i owned their stuff, they'd allow me to access the settings part of their website which helps to enable set-up. But i still would feel way more confident if i had a PDF of the instructions and parts list as well.

btw i'm roll about 160 nekkid and soaking wet

DuckMan · Jan 24th, 2012, 6:49 pm

The gold valves are a really nice product and work really well. But RaceTech customer support are a bunch of paranoid penis's over their valve setup data. They suck.

I used the 2043 kit in the forks on my S2R1000 using a C34 stack with 0.85 springs. I weigh about 175. Works real nice but the rebound is marginal with these springs. If you look in the instructions you'll see what a C34 is.

MitchB · Jan 25th, 2012, 11:27 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckMan

The gold valves are a really nice product and work really well. But RaceTech customer support are a bunch of paranoid penis's over their valve setup data. They suck.

+1, unfortunately.

Their crappy attitudes and customer service soured me years ago. Don't know if it ever got better, 'cause I never went back. I have bought one of their Gold Valves for a friend's bike - but from another vendor...

I've had very good luck with Traxxion and Cogent - why tolerate poor service?

Flash Harry · Jan 26th, 2012, 12:04 am

I thought the same about them being a little too secretive until I held the Gold Valves in my hands. Given that the raw product could easily be copied by any competent machine shop in Asia, the most valuable part of the Race Tech products would have to be the intellectual property; the data from the R&D. This is what we really pay for and frankly, after the improvement the product made to my suspension, I feel it's worth every penny.

And whilst they could loosen up a little, the assistance they're giving cmoore shows that they just might be?

I think I have my original instructions around somewhere but they're not very good without the data. I also have a .pdf of my install which has lots of photos. PM me if you're interested.