So to answer my own question, the front end uses old damper rod technology and this is easily the worst area of the DR650 (apart from the seat!) the best (but expensive) way to improve it is to do a fork swop to one of the many popular USD forks like the RMZ 450, DRZ 400SM or KTM 640 WP forks, but there are a few cheaper drop in valve options available to improve the front end. The other issue with changing the forks is all of these other USD conversions have much wider triple trees which do not work with the Safari tank.





Ive been able to try Cogent DDC's , Race Tech Gold Valve Cartridge Emulators and Ricor Intiminators on the DR650

The Intiminators work great for sealed pavement, they make the DR great to ride on asphalt and really reduce fork dive, if you are doing some light trails too but mostly pavement these work the best.

The Emulators, much better in the rough and can be tuned easily, but not very good on pavement, way too much fork dive and a 'wallowing' front end when the DR is pushed into fast corners, if you are riding purely on rough trails these will do the job, but on asphalt they are not as good as the DDC's, you also need to remove the damper rods from the forks and drill extra holes to allow the oil to flow faster.

The DDC's best of the 3 for me, less fork dive on pavement and handle the rough stuff much better than intiminators without the 'wallowing' feeling of the emulators.

All used with .50 front springs and 130mm fork oil to compare, I have adjusted the oil level slightly with all 3 valves to see if I can find that sweet spot with them, out of the box the DDC's are the best.


I could do with going up to a .525 rate with the DDC's and Emulators as with a full Safari tank there is just a bit too much static sag, .55 springs are too stiff. Im 205lbs in riding gear and prefer the front end to ride a bit harder, my DR is pretty well loaded for backcountry trips for most of my riding. Back end of the DR has a Cogent rebuild, Comp/Rebound damping, hard anodized with an 8.1 spring which has been faultless.

Note that the intiminators ride a lot stiffer than the other 2 valve types with the same rate spring, the .50's are a touch on the stiff side with them for dirt, if I was going to keep using them id switch to a .48, but I need a stiffer rate with the other 2 valves.

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca