[InvisiBill]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Sonic springs are 80 a piece, ex 500 springs are 66 for a pair.

You sure about that?

Originally Posted by Zim

Sonic Springs sells the same rate springs for $30 less.

I've always heard Sonic was a cheaper alternative, and I only paid $92 for my pair of RaceTech springs. They're currently $94 (MSRP listed as $109.95) with free shipping on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GV7SD0/

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Anyhow, I'm 130. The calculator suggests 0.64 and the ex500 springs are 0.585. A little soft but not bad for a street. It's a fine option for a lightweight rider.

On the NewGen, they recommend .701 for 130lb on the street and .736 for the track. That's 20-25% stiffer than the EX500 springs. On the PreGen, it's only 5.5-11% off. I'd be ok with using those in your situation, but I'd rather pay $80-$94 for springs of the correct rate than $66 for springs that are only 80% as stiff as they should be.

Originally Posted by choneofakind

The other option for saving money is springs from other bikes. Last I checked, fork springs from an SV650 are somewhere around 0.65 it's worth checking other bikes to save some money where you can.

I'm all for using parts from another bike if it works well and is cheap. Like I said, I have a NewGen shock on my 500 because the spring rate works well for me (and the shock probably isn't any worse than the stock shock) and I previously had an SV650 shock on it. However, there's a point where it's better to spend a little more on the right thing, than to save a little money on something that's "sorta close". It comes down to how much it costs vs. how close it is.
Pretty darn close + a lot cheaper = good deal.
Somewhat close + only slightly cheaper = much less of a deal.


If Mike already has them just sitting around, he might as well throw them in. It'll at least be less bad, even if it isn't perfect. If you're smaller and can get your hands on some for cheap (which shouldn't be too hard considering how weak they are for the EX500), they may be a great bang-for-the-buck upgrade. However, I think it's bad advice to tell a 160lb NewGen rider to spend $66 on EX500 springs. There are much better options that only cost a little more.