Honda XR650R Fork Rebuild: Borynack Desert Race Setup

This is just a friend of mine following Borynack's fork valving explanation for the XR650R while I do a poor job of narrating. We made the video for a friend and fellow Pig rider. It's probably full of inaccuracies and at least a few mispronunciations.
Find Borynack's stuff in the Wayback Wachine under xr650r.borynack.com to see how he came up with the shim and valve settings... it's amazing. Suspension is a true science. So far the forks set up this way have been great for sucking up embedded and rolling stone riding in hard-packed desert conditions. Have a look at my other videos for what that looks like in Kenya.
This is not a tutorial. Treating it as such could screw up your forks! You should take your forks somewhere to have them professionally done. In fact, don't watch this video at all, go ride!

[@CraigersFish]

25-30 Inch/ lbs, not Foot/lbs.... Great video very informative....

[@ShorrockPaul]

Great video. what did you change in the rebound stack from stock. In the compression you showed which you changed but in the rebound you didnt show which was changed.

[@OsadabwaMoto]

Hey Paul, that's a good point and I'll try to include some more info in the description when we do it again soon. Truthfully, we just slapped this together for a friend in South Africa and didn't think of it as a proper instructional video. We're muppets, so we may have even done things wrong and don't want others to follow in our folly. In a week or so, we'll be doing another fork breakdown and I'll try to make a better video to replace this one... if I get too lazy though, I'll put info in the description.

[@vittoxviii]

loved it!

[@xr680r]

I was looking up stuff and low and be hold, my name in a video title! Funny!

[@ShorrockPaul]

Hey Bruce i sent you a message just today on Thumpertalk and lo and behold i see you were here a couple months ago. we miss you over there

[@xr680r]

@@ShorrockPaul Thanks for the kind words. I have a studio/Editing office I have been working on. It's a small house my oldest son was using and once he vacated it, it was left with tons of stuff and a desperate need of reminding. So, I have been working on that. Bebee has been pushing to do a tech video on the XR650R suspension in an up to date fashion. I still have the XR680R, few street bikes, CR500R and a quad. I just sold the cr250r jumping bike last month. 😳 58 and jumping huge isn't as easy as it once was. The excuse I have on not making the suspension video is needing another XR650R internal shat assembly, it's not completely true, I have a couple extra bodies, I think it's laziness 😉. I do think have a video with the last steps of purging the air in a tank instead of using the top of a traffic cone would be nice. Don't get me wrong coming up with using that year's ago was one of my better ideas but, what a mess. Anyways thanks for dropping a line

[@ShorrockPaul]

@@xr680r Am 58 too and jumping whoops (especially your mad 60 foot table top jumps) is out. i ride mainly Laterite roads here in Ghana, with loose small rocks and sharp edge rain gulleys.

[@OsadabwaMoto]

Woah, this is Bruce as in Bruce Borynack, correct? The very man who put all this info on the old timey internet back in the day that we resurrected for our XRRs in Kenya? Very pleased to meet you! I for one would really love it if you would make a proper video of some of your suspension wisdom specifically for the XRR. We are a small but rabid following, and making the suspension the best it can be is 100% the most important upgrade anyone can do to their bike. I'm not begging, but please, please, pretty pleeeeaase! Don't let muppets like us misinform the world! Cheers

[@xr680r]

@@OsadabwaMoto Great to hear. I am swamped with a huge project right now building a multi room media studio 🎙. But, if I find the time I will make new videos using the shock tank and the more technical stuff and Do it yourself tools 🔧 again.

[@nvmcrider8475]

Where did you buy the new shims? Great video!

[@OsadabwaMoto]

Shims bought in Germany, but RaceTech sell them as well I think.

[@twoonatenere]

Awesome!!

[@donaldolin7219]

Nice.

[@Lefkadios2024]

Nice job, any feedback from riding results?

[@OsadabwaMoto]

So far it's 100% improvement according to the Mechanic. The guy who we did the rebuild for has not been able to properly test it yet since he's recovering from a crash in August. If you've followed the other videos you can see the type of riding we're doing... quick but not insane speeds over really varied dry, hard, stony desert conditions. That's what we set it up for. The XRR was under-sprung and over-valved from my understanding, so drilling out those ports and re-shimming (plus stiffer springs, which is probably a must) makes sense to me. I have RaceTech valves and shimstack in mine and have never looked back, but for my next XRR, I'll try this first.

[@Lefkadios2024]

@@OsadabwaMoto Yes i've seen another (nice!) videos of you and I can say my riding skills (or speed) is close to you and your friends. But on most of your videos you are with big tanks and cambing gear which is lot of weight,i use my 650 like that once or two times per year. Mostly I'm using it with stock gas tank but for several conditions, fire roads, single tracks, trails etc. I'm 86kg (without riders gear) and never felt suspension bottom out but fork is harsh to (slow speed) single trail big rocks and other obstacles. I'm leaving to an area which rides I do have variety of terrain, rough, rocks, mud etc and I'm afraid if i do this mod change the versatility of suspension.

[@OsadabwaMoto]

@@Lefkadios2024 I don't think you'll regret it, but do some research on Borynack's setup. He did it for desert racing... said insane things like... "I needed to be able to take 8' drop offs" or "now I can jump 60 feet without a problem"... stuff WAY beyond our skill level, and without any heavy tanks/camping stuff. Good luck!

[@Lefkadios2024]

@@OsadabwaMoto I've read Borynack's guide several times, he's got great info there. I'm in the middle of servicing fork that's why I'm thinking to do now valve/shim mod. Do you think I could first try valve/shim mod and buy later springs for my weight?

[@OsadabwaMoto]

@@Lefkadios2024 You're beyond my skill level at this point, mate! I'm just a guy who rides and holds things for my mechanic! That said, since you already have the bike open and are planning to shim it/valve it, I say go ahead. Swapping springs is a much easier affair if you want to go that route after... compared to the valve/shim work that is. Good thing about the bike is that nothing is permanent... apart from drilling the valves I guess... you can always play around with it if you don't like the results. I gather that's what Borynack did... trial and error.

[@albertmaina]

Nice