I was beginning to wonder just what I'd let myself in for. First the matter of the stopper lever (bought a new one for under $50, just gotta fit it up), then came across a thread on the DirtRider forums about how bad the 05 YZ125 forks are.
According to this, the forks are 'negatively preloaded' by 5mm (the springs are 5mm too short...), the overall package is too soft, which causes all manner of terrible things to happen, and there was much debate about how to correct all that and also some damping problem. After reading a whole lot of stuff about changing the piston seal for a band and drilling a hole in the piston and removing the mid-valve and adding a spacer under the ICS spring and special ways to bleed TC forks and blokes debating the merits of 3mm preload vs 4mm preload, I felt I should just stick to 1975 RM125s... Still, just to pretend I knew what I was doing, I went and checked all the sag settings (does this really work? Every article I have ever read reckons that the sag at the rear should be about 100mm on every bike out there, and that's pretty much what they come with). Turns out everything was right on the money with what the DR forum guys reckoned. So how bad could it be?
I decided to ignore it all and finally go for that first ride.
Well, what a revelation. That thing flies, handles and soaks up the bumps like I couldn't believe. Peaky??? No way, it feels about on a par with a stock Evo 250, perhaps a shade less bottom end and not as smooth on the transition into the powerband. Brakes that work. No vibration... it just goes on. Yep, it really was THAT nice.
As for the suspension, well... it went up and down and seemed perfectly fine. I guess with some more time on it I might be able to pick the need for that 3mm preload, or maybe go up .1 in spring rate, or adjust that mid-valve... but probably not.
I'm a happy camper.
