A tip for Shortening forks

[KXcam22]

Lately I have been lowering a few bikes for my family members.  The easiest way to lower forks is to add an additinal rebound spring, then shorten the main spring.  This is easy to reverse as kids grow.  A great source for extra rebound springs is the selection of used valve springs found at most automotive engine rebuilders. The shop near my house must have had 50 different sizes to choose from.  I needed some springs 2" long of a particular dimension and ended up with a used pair of chev 396 valve springs (free).  Hope this helps someone. Cam.

[KX500freak]

kxcam i need more info in this matter,
i had an old usd from kayaba that i wanted to learn to shorten...
cut a piece of the main spring and then when i putted it back together,
it had loose play when the innertube was down like with a jump or wheelie for ex.
now what did i do wrong or else ?
youre main spring is not connected to the additional valvespring,correct?
and you don,t have the loose play ,how come ,where do i go wrong
please enlighten me 

[KXcam22]

K5Freak,
  What you are doing is correct except you are missing one part.  That is to take the part of the main spring that you cut off and add it to the rebound spring.  This requires fork dissasembly.   On the forks that I just shortened, the main fork spring had a 4" preload spacer so I didn't actually have to shorten the main spring.  I simply cut 2" off the spacer and added 2" to the rebound spring (that is where I used the valve spring).  I could have used the 2" spacer part that I cut off except that there are usually some oil orifices on the damping rod that would have been shrouded (covered) by the "solid" spacer.  The valve spring avoids any shrouding issues.  Hope this helps.  Sorry I didn't take pics. Cam.

Ps just got back from a weeks camping. Met a couple of very nice families from Holland.

[KX500freak]

hey kxcam,
cheers for your clear explanation.
ill dig the fork up and will start again with it .
and ill do some pics from my fork so you can guide me a bit if nescessery if you want
around end of month it will be .

nice to hear you got along with the dutchfamily,s
i have an uncle and a niche (his daughter)living in the states.
always loved your country very much ,but hey ,im stuck here and its safe ,dull and, quiet on dutch soil