I say try it and see how it feels to you. The racer was a good bike, tatty and built on a tight budget but it did well in its day. A large number of parts came from others upgrading their bikes at the end of the season. A spare engine, cam, the Astralites and the ignition all came quite cheap from other racers, other bits came from breakers. The HRC cam and the fork springs were among the bits I bought new. Sadly its currently scattered around the South in various storage locations.
Couldn't agree more. For road riding, if it feels good and you enjoy it, then I guess that's pretty much all that counts. For racing, broadly speaking, lap time is king. If whatever you tweak brings the lap time down then it goes!
For my own part, I just enjoy thinking about these contraptions we ride and trying my best to figure out the truth (that's right kids, I enjoy it!). I really, really enjoy riding em too.
Going back to spring rates and particularly bottoming out under braking, how about adjusting fork oil level? Admittedly this is a risky tactic unless you are super methodical and have loads of spare time. Also, overfill and your ride will become harsh, as well as the increased risk of oil leaks probably.
Another tactic might be to use 2 stacked springs of different (straight) rates. Playing around with the rates and free lengths will give a wide range of different results. A tubular spacer up the inside of the softer spring would theoretically allow modification to the place in travel where the overall rate would increase by locking out the spring. Not sure if an audible clonk would occur? Anyone ever tried this?
BMW's elastogran (sounds like some kind of geriatric super hero) was an ingenious solution to providing on board, easily adjustable spring rate. So there are ways.
I wonder if/how they do it in moto gp?
