TRACK TESTED
Race Tech Gold Valves for Forks and ShockK3 Chris OnwilerPage 3
continued...  When it came time to do the job, we watched Ken so we’d know exactly what was involved. First, he had us go online to fill out the questionnaire in the DVS program and get our recommended setup while he tore the suspension apart. Next, we laid out the shim stack according to Race Tech’s recommendations. Meanwhile, Ken was grinding, torching, using special tools and invoking the spells of long-forgotten deities as he pulled our GSXR’s stock valving apart. We sure hadn’t seen all that in the installation video…. Ken explained that some models of forks are harder to rebuild than others and we had a tough pair. Still, we could see plenty of room for error in what he was doing and were glad we’d arranged his help. We could easily imagine browsing EBay for a set of replacement forks after we’d butchered our first ones while climbing the learning curve of the suspension-building novice.
When the installation was complete, we decided to test the components separately so that we could make our observations about the forks and shock independently from one another. The debut of our freshly revalved forks was at Jennings GP in January. Honestly, Jennings isn’t the best track for testing suspension. The place is flat as a billiard table and just about as smooth. Our February stop at Barber Motorsports Park gave us a much better indication as to how well the new forks performed. Barber is rolling, blind and occasionally bumpy. On top of that, we were riding in the rain. If you can’t trust your suspension in the wet, you might as well go home. In the rain especially, we could feel the front suspension tracking over bumps and down the other side without allowing the tire to separate from the pavement and cause a loss of traction. We’ve since run the Gold Valve equipped forks at several other tracks in varying conditions and have to say that they’re just a ton better than stock. Our Race Tech valved forks give exceptional feedback. You can feel each bump as the front tire tracks it and have a very good sense of the rubber’s traction against the pavement. As you near the limit of adhesion, you get a clear indication that the rubber is beginning to squirm. Really, this is exactly what good suspension is all about. Having evaluated the forks, w e installed the modified shock to see how it compared. Without a doubt, performance was substantially better than stock. The clickers of the Gold Valve equipped shock gave real, meaningful adjustment where when stock they hadn’t made much of a difference no matter where we set them. Control was substantially increased and the feel was similar to what we’d experienced with our racing shock, although over the course of a long day we noticed that performance would begin to fade as heat buildup became a problem. Here lies the compromise that Race Tech faces when working with the inferior design and materials of the stock, built-to-a-price shock that the manufacturer supplies. There’s just no way that they can match the performance which Elka or another company can achieve by starting with a clean sheet of paper. Still, the results are quite impressive and seem to represent a substantial upgrade for the money spent.
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