SFC1000 M1R Forks - Refurbishment

ngiles

ngiles

Senior member
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hi - I have had my SFC1000 for a couple of years. When I got it there was a bit of a knock when it went over bumps; I replaced the head bearings, but it persisted. It is not that intrusive and the bike seems to roll along just fine, but it is irritating. I also think the shocks could do with stiffening....so....

1. Any suggestions as to the source of the knock - I did wonder about worn bushes or some such
2. I am considering a refurb including getting harder springs; would Racetech emulators be worth considering (I used them on the Jota and it has made a difference)
3. Any other pearls of wisdom on these shocks - the small adjuster on the bottom of the RH fork seems to have little effect?

Cheers, Nick

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Have a look at the front discs. When the bobbins wear they bounce up and down causing what you describe. Bloody irritating but an easy fix.
 
BobSol said:
Have a look at the front discs. When the bobbins wear they bounce up and down causing what you describe. Bloody irritating but an easy fix.
Click to expand...
Ah yes - should've mentioned i had the bobbins replaced by Redax as they were rattley, and they are now tight - so there is still something else somewhere - ta
 
The M1 R forks have compression damping in one leg and rebound in the other, to fit Emulators you need to make new damper rods for each leg.
I fitted emulators to my SFC years ago and they do make a huge difference to the forks, must admit that I'm not a fan of the standard M1 R's.
Have you checked the fairing mount on the steering head? this too can make a loud Knock as the rubber sleeve wears. Changed mine to a solid aluminium mount, got a spare if you want to try, give me a bell.
Chris
 
Nick, try holding the fairing screen to stop it moving as you go over bumps and see if the noise disappears, if it does you need to change the mount.
 
OK - 1000 SFC modifications.... one of my favorites... :)

Fork: I have sent the forks to HH-Racing in Germany. Took a while, but they are really, really transformed now! There is an Andreani cartridge conversion existing at least for other M1R types (Guzzi Daytona, BMW), which make a lot of sense. However, you would need to check if the stanchions have the same thread at the top as the BMW f.e. and if the cartridge is long enough. If so - they provide more than you can ever squeeze out of them...

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Rear suspension: I used YSS in 370mm (+/- 5mm adjustable). they are a bit longer than the Konis, which is actually a good thing as they are closer to the original gold Marzocchis, which were 375mm (or 378?), the Konis are just 362 or 365mm I think.

Best modification was though to exchange the Oscam wheels against similar looking GSX-R-wheels... Together with the BT012SS the bike is realy a flicker to ride. Very agile in curves with a lot of reliability when it comes to weird corners...
 
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Harder springs? Really?

The originals are already far too hard... Might be OK for a billiard table-like racetrack, but hardly public roads.

Yes, the adjuster has little to no effect at all.

piet
 
When I took the M1R appart the first time, I was surprised how different the internals are left to right. Normal if you think through that one is for compression, one for rebound-damping... However, there was mud all over and there are a lot of internals that you would not think of can be removed - but they can... there is a cylindrical part at the bottom of the right side that has a lot of holes in it and actually feeds the compression-damping adjuster on the right leg. If the holes are blocked, there is absolutely no effect when turning the adjuster. Mine was so blocked, I could not even turn the adjuster...

but even after dismounting, I had to wash out the legs several times to remove the mud completely... Fork was much better after that (and some other adjustments), but still not what I was expecting from the best fork available end of the 80's.

For the nocking sound, you should check the following:
-headstock bearing and it's adjustment: put the bike on the center stand, get someone to push the rear down so the front wheel is off the ground and check if you can move the fork by pulling the front wheel forward. Listen to any noise and look for free-play. check also, that the front can freely turn from left to right
-check the screws that hold the stanchions in the lower legs did not come lose. You will need to take the front-axle out as you can only reach them from the hole in the bottom of the axle-clamps in the fork legs.
-Check the frame tubes for cracks: the first series tended to have the lower frame tubes crack below the headstock, roughly where the oil-cooler sits. This area is hidden by the front fairing, so maybe you need to take it off. Have seen bikes where the tubes completely were broken through and when the owner drove through a bump, the engine "flexed" a bit in the now "open frame" and the ends of the tubes clacked together...

If you take the bike appart ever, make sure you purchase the stiffening brackets from OCT and get them weld onto the bike...
 
Nick, the rebound adjuster’s can be made to work apparently by using different stre spring’s but they are no longer available from marzochi. The best thing you can do is have them converte to cartridg’s. Cartridges are available from Matris and Andreoni I believe but I have had two set’s of M1r’s converted by a local suspension guy. The first was done using Suzuki gsxr cartridges on an sfc1000 and was a revelation compared to what it was like before. The second set I had done are on my Jota and they use Honda fire blade cartridges and that bike once set up doesn’t get changed. The cartridges are all lying around at suspension shop’s not being used because owners have updated to better unit’s for there jap weapon’s . I tried gold valve’s but was not impressed on either the sfc or the Jota🙁. So you have choices, just depend’s on how comfortable you want your bike to be in term’s of ride quality and handling😀👍 and how much you want to spend , but both mine were under a grand each and worth every cent.
Tom
 
Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm thinking the cartridge option is the best possibility to upgrade the forks. Tom, I'll give you a call sometime to learn a bit more about your experience.
Re the knocking I'll go over the various ideas and try and pinpoint the issue.
 
Wow Tom. I think you just broke the record. 9 stray apostrophes in one post. 😲
Actually there are 10, but I'll let you get away with one because you missed an adjacent letter out of the word, so you could claim that the apostrophe represents a word contraction.

There was an old biker called Tom
Who used apostrophes by the ton
His spelling was lame
His punctuation a shame
But he rides his bike with aplomb

The apostrophe police.
 
Was it two taper bearings in the head? May just need another tweak since the replacement.
Regarding emulators, I put sports valves on the RGS and it made a big difference 👍
 
Andy, the RGS has a 38mm Marzocchi with both sides having compression and rebound damping. The M1R of the 1000 SFC is a total different fork with one side rebound, one side compression damping and several major internal differences to the 38mm fork.

As the emulator mostly helps on adjusting compression damping, it can only help on one of the two sides of the fork. I haven't tried them on a M1R but I think, if you go for a modification, why not going down the full path and simply modify the fork with cartridges?

I got mine also modified to take the upper guides of the BMW so friction is much reduced (the later M1R had that already, not so the earlier type ones).
 
Cheers Lothar, yes I gathered from the earlier posts that the forks were significantly different 👍 which is very interesting 😁
I was just chiming in with a plug for Sports Valves 😉
 
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