cybmx Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Got my Forks by Matt done last week, so I guess it’s about time for me to write a review about this fork upgrade. A little background about myself: Before the FZ-07, I went through an 08 R6,an 06 CBR600RR, an 08 Ninja zx6r, and a Ninja 250. The 08 R6 and08 Ninja zx6r were totaled on the track, while the 06 CBR600RR was totaled on the street. Later I traded my ninja 250 for my current 07 R6 track bike. The supersports were so uncomfortable for normal street riding, and it was also so boring without breaking the speed limit. So, I bought the FZ07 to ride on the street and ride two-up with my girlfriend occasionally. After owning theFZ07 for a few months, it became my favorite bike – It’s light, it’s comfortable, and it’s got plenty of torque to get fast but lack of the top end to get me into trouble. I have never thought that street riding could be this much fun! However, it was obvious for me that the bike needed work – the suspension sucks! The bike gave me no confidence while taking fast turns, and even worse if I hit a bump during the turn. I’ve got bad wobbles a few times, and since then I’ve installed a GPR damper. The damper saved me from the wobbles, but the bike was still far away from stable in high speed turns. I don’t consider myself a talented rider as I crash a lot, but I think I have gain enough experience to tell the difference and write a review for my suspension upgrade compares to my other bikes. Now for the review: I have to say that both @pattonme ‘s product and customer service have well exceeded my expectation. Thanks to his mod, my FZ07 feels so good now that it feels even better than my R6 during the turn. I can now brake as hard as I want and deep into the corner as the terrible brake dive is eliminated. Hitting bumps during high speed turns no longer gives me the scary feeling, and the bike feels very planted. The preload and rebound adjustments are right on top of the forks making adjustments easy to make. I’ve settled on 2 ½ turns on rebound so the bike will go through the bumps smoothly without bouncing up and down. Now my Sag is within range, I have to lower my front forks by 5mm to retain the sharp turning feel. Overall, the fork mod combine with my Penske double adjustable rear shock and GPR steering stabilizer made the FZ07 the best handling bike I’ve owned so far. Among these handling mods, Forks by Matt probably contributed the most. The Penske rear shock was a significant upgrade from stock, but I am still having a hard time finding the balanced adjustment to go through bumps smoothly without getting too soft and bouncy. The GPR damper was a great addition and saved my @ss many times already, but it didn’t solve the fundamental problem of the bike. If I start allover again, I will definitely get the Fork by Matt mod first! As for @pattonme ‘s customer service, let’s just say I was Wowed! To minimize my downtime, I decided to ride my bike from PA to VA to have him perform the mod and ride it back. However, things did not go planned time wise, as he needed to custom made a few additional parts on the spot. And working late at night, we made a few mistakes here and there while putting everything together. By the time that the bike was ready to go, it was almost 4amin the morning. My bike gave him quite some headaches and he spent 8 hours working on my bike, but he didn’t complaint once and continued working nonstop so I could get home. For the amount of $ I paid vs the work and efforts he put down, I felt like I was abusing a cheap labor in a sweat shop lol. Being able to see him taken apart the forks, modify them, and put them back together made appreciate his service even more. The modify cartridge kits that went into the forks are piece of art, very well made. I don’t think I can find any better alternatives without doubling the cost. Just when I thought that the customer service couldn’t get any better, @pattonme drove all the way from VA to PA to inspect and fix a small leak on my forks to ensure I have minimum down time. It turned out was just a loose screw that we probably forgot to tighten during the late night assembly. Suffice to say, I was Wowed again! To the fellow forum members, you all should just take off your stock forks right now and send them to @pattonme for modification and thank me later for my great recommendation Tl;dr, Forks by Matt is good, best bang for the bucks, buy with confidence! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobMoore Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 The 08 ZX6r was 599cc. They stopped the 636 in '06. (05 owner here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauljr Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Thanks for the write up, I think the forks will be my first mod to the FZ, I just need to figure out how to get them off, some sort of way to support the bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cybmx Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 The 08 ZX6r was 599cc. They stopped the 636 in '06. (05 owner here) Thanks for the correction. My buddies all called it that so I followed it. I only had it for 3months before it's totaled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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