Ok, the engine is under way, the frame is sorted, so why am I starting to sweat bullets? Those Showa forks are worrying me big time....like, a $-sign followed by several 0's big time. That article I'd found saying the Showa's were available in '89 for the 1990 model year was looking like a complete outlier, everything else I was reading pointed towards the Showa's coming out on the '91 bikes which made them suspension-non-grata per the rules. Awwww man, this is not looking good: in the shed, at the track, telling my missus I've blown a fair wedge of cash on ineligible equipment, I'm pretty well screwed on every front and back to square one with the front end. You know my suggestion regarding the therapeutic aspects of screaming into a rubbish bin? Yup, this is where I learned it.
I consoled myself with the nice condition alloy rear subframe and Corsa oil cooler I'd found. Hey, I'm in too deep, it's too late to stop digging now. The cooler has me a lil' flummoxed actually, in that it was advertised as a Corsa unit complete with hoses and Ergal fittings (the hoses weigh....nothing) and I picked it up from an Italian enthusiast along with the subframe for a very reasonable price, but I've seen them going for crazy money.
"Corsa" cooler recently on Ebay for $495USD:
Versus my 900SS cooler for 1/4 the price:
I'm struggling to see any difference but glad I didn't pay through the nose for it.
Or so I thought......
After literally years of ferreting around the 'net, exploring Ebay and pestering anybody in an Ohlins shirt, a complete SP front end (Ohlins FG9050 forks, triples, axle, clip-ons) popped up on a forum. They had one issue that would put off the cashed-up collectors with deep pockets: at some stage the fork tubes had been polished, losing that iconic gold lustre. Not ideal, but I'm actually thankful as otherwise I would never have had a hope of affording them. All the same, this was easily the most expensive purchase of the build, only proceeding after a looong talk with my better half. Not just a sweetheart, she's as practical as the day is long and she eventually "encouraged" me with the words: "So they'll only get more collectable? Go for it...just don't crash!" Righto, no pressure then.....
I'd actually been warned by an Ohlins tech/mate in NZ that the FG9050's are as crude as a 10lb hammer. Sure enough, even with the sag set for my weight the "damping" is on the concrete side of firm. So it was always going to be a case of getting them overhauled/updated, confirmed when a fork leg started leaking just sitting in the shed. No biggie, how hard can it be to change a set of seals? Very bloody hard when they don't exist! I handed them over to Russell at Dynotime (local tuning/suspension guru) to work his magic, and we were both scouring the world trying to find seals and dust scrapers, eventually finding some seals but the dust scrapers are officially extinct. Luckily the old scrapers are still in serviceable condition.
We discussed a couple of ways forward with the damping. He was happy to start down the road signposted as "Trial and Error Street" and modify the original shims/internals to achieve a more modern result, but really it was taking the hard road when a set of Racetech Gold Valves would instantly put it somewhere in the ballpark. So out came the credit card and in went the Gold Valves.
We also talked about various anodising options for the fork tubes, perfect time to do it, but neither of us could find a good solution with lots of horror stories of milky finishes etc emanating from others' attempts. In the end I drew a line under form to concentrate on function, leaving them as they were.
This was the current state of play (before the fork seal started leaking):
